John Browning leads the Senior Men's field through Tabor's start-finish with one lap to go. The race ended in a torrential downpour after 30 laps under frequently changing conditions whittled the field by more than half. Read the full post for MORE PHOTOS.
PORTLAND — May’s current March-like weather claimed a few victims at a slippery Mt. Tabor Circuit Race Saturday during the sixth stop of the Oregon Cup series. Taylor Knueven (Adageo Energy) put on a 27-lap solo show in the 30-lap Senior Men’s race before succumbing to the chase and then watching perennial Tabor podium placer John Browning (Echeclon Gran Fondo/ZteaM) win a field sprint ahead of Andrew Boone (Cyclesoles/Sagebrush Cycles) and Paul Boucier (Hutch’s/Co-Motion).
Melissa Sanborn (Cyclepath) got her second consecutive win at the Mt. Tabor Circuit Race. She also won the last time the race took place in 2008 when she rode for the Vanderkitten team.
In the Senior Women’s race, Melissa Sanborn (Cyclepath) repeated her 2008 win by taking a field sprint in front of Jade Wilcoxson (Flywheel Bicycle Solutions) and Jen Akeroyd (Sorella Forte).
Sanborn, Wilcoxson and Capa Cycling’s Leia Tyrrell, who recently finished third in the National Collegiate Criterium Championships, tried repeatedly to attack the group and shed Oregon Cup leader Akeroyd, but nothing seemed to stick as the field would come back together on the downhill section. That left things for Sanborn and her famous finishing kick. But she still had to overcome her own bike problems.
“I guess my wheel was rubbing the whole time,” she said after the race. “I was glad it came to a field sprint. I felt pretty confident it my sprint.”
Sanborn has had plenty of experience finishing well on the dormant volcano, and with two stage wins at April’s Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic, her sprint has been getting the job done lately, but she still had to work harder than expected for today’s win.
“That was harder than I thought it was going to be on me,” she said. “Maybe it was because my wheel was rubbing. I had two loose spokes and dropped a chain. It was a pretty eventful day.”
It was also an eventful day for Tyrrell, who crashed hard in the sprint. But there would be plenty more of that to come once the Senior Men hit the course.
CRASHES, PELTING RAIN AND HAIL BATTER SENIOR MEN’S FIELD
Adageo Energy rider Taylor Knueven's 27-lap breakaway came oh-so close to paying off. He finished the race in 14th.
Nearly 60 riders started the Senior Men’s race at the end of the afternoon, but crashes and torrential downpours whittled the field to just 24 finishers by the time the 30-lap fun fest had finished.
Oregon Cup leader Steven Beardsley suffered the worst fate, crashing on the downhill section and then going into the ditch trying to avoid a pedestrian while trying to chase back on with the help of two Gentle Lovers teammates. Beadsley’s sadly mangled Speedvagen bicycle left him out of the race and ultimately out of the series lead.
Taylor Kneuven, a product of the Beaverton Bicycle Club junior program who now lives in Colorado and rides for Adageo Energy, initiated the carnage early when he got a workable gap on the second lap. When Rubicon-Orbea’s Quinn Keogh dropped off his wheel, the young rider set out on his own for a 27-lap odyssey through a smorgasboard of Oregon spring weather.
“I was going to actually try and sit in most of the day because I didn’t think it would be a very aggressive race,” Kneuven said. “But people kind of sat up in the first few laps so I thought I’d give it a go and see if I could create a little break. Nobody went with me so I just figured I’d see what happened.”
Kneuven, who said he’ll be back at Tabor for the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic stage, quickly built a gap of more than a minute and moved out of sight of the chase group behind, which was getting smaller and smaller as multiple crashes all over the course caused riders to fall off the pace or completely abandon the race. …
Cyclpath’s John Browning, who won both the Masters and Pro/1/2 categories at the Mt. Tabor Wednesday night series in 2009 and finished second at the last Mt. Tabor Circuit Race among other results, said he was just waiting in the pack trying to stay upright as Knueven pressed his advantage upfront.
“I was just biding my time hoping Taylor was going to run out of gas,” Browning said. “But he looked good the whole race. There was some attrition going on, but also just people not staying upright, because it was treacherous out there. With about 10 laps to go I thought we were racing for second place.”
Blue skies and sunshine made appearances Saturday, along with most of the other spring weather variations.
Kneuven was all business in the lead, methodically building his advantage by riding steady up the climb and pressing the issue on the downhills.
“On the first couple of laps I could see that people weren’t riding very aggressively down the hill,” Knueven said. “So I could set a steady pace and just kind of ride tempo the whole day. And I was able to do that. But I just kind of ran out of steam on the last few laps.”
When Kneuven ran out of steam with about four laps to go, his gap dropped dramatically, even more so once the field had him in their sights as he topped the climb and crossed over to the downhill. Browning and the rest were ready to pounce.
“He did run out of gas a little bit,” Browning said. “And there were few enough guys left that people kind of started going for it, and that really brought it back in a hurry.”
That’s when Browning put his knowledge of the course to work as the clouds moved back in and tossed quarter-sized drops of rain that bounced back up off the ground to create a foot-high haze over the road. It was messy, but Browning stuck to his plan.
“I race out here on Wednesday nights and have raced on weekends maybe 15 times,” Browning said. “So I know that you need to hit that first left-hand corner hard, and if you take the right line you’re 20 feet shorter to the line than anybody else. So it’s worth it to go early and get the shortest distance to the line, and that’s what happened. It’s good.”
OREGON CUP
Beardsley wore the Oregon Cup leader’s jersey into the race, but his misfortune and more steady riding by Paul Bourcier, who finished third at Tabor, moved the Hutch’s rider into the lead with 220 points. Beardsley holds onto second with 200. Graham Howard (HPC/Scott’s Cycles) is third with 195.
Sanborn’s win marked her first points of the women’s Oregon Cup, and her victory didn’t have any effect on the top of that contest. Series leader Jen Akeroyd held onto her jersey by finishing third behind Wilcoxson for a 370 point total. Wilcoxson is second in the series at 295. Veloforma’s Teri Sheasby, who wasn’t at Tabor, sits third at 250.
The seventh-and-final race of the Oregon Cup will be the High Desert Omnium Road Race in Bend on July 11.
UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
Senior Men
1. John Browning (Echelon Gran Fondo/ZteaM)
2. Andrew Boone (Cyclesoles/Sagebrush Cycles)
3. Paul Bourcier (Hutch’s/Co-Motion)
4. Chris Swan (Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing)
5. Will Neimann-Ross (Life Cycle Bike Shop)
Senior Women
1. Melissa Sanborn (Cyclepath)
2. Jade Wilcoxson (Flywheel Bicycle Solutions)
3. Jen Akeroyd (Sorella Forte)
4. Lisa Reeve (Veloforma)
5. Mindy Simmons (Hammer Velo)
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- Adageo Energy rider Taylor Knueven’s 27-lap breakaway came oh-so close to paying off. He finished the race in 14th.
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- Blue skies and sunshine made appearances Saturday, along with most of the other spring weather variations.
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- Melissa Sanborn (Cyclepath) got her second consecutive win at the Mt. Tabor Circuit Race. She also won the last time the race took place in 2008 when she rode for the Vanderkitten team.
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- The Senior Men’s race finished in a torrential downpour after 30 laps under frequently changing conditions whittled the field by more than half.
