Secrist sails through orchards to Cherry Blossom lead

Apr 24, 2010 by editor

Check out the complete Stage 2 photo gallery.

THE DALLES — Last year’s Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic winner Robin Secrist (Riverstone Racing) took control of this year’s race Saturday with a successful solo breakaway over the last half of the 48-mile Pro/1/2 women’s race, gaining more than a minute lead over her nearest GC rivals.

Secrist took last year’s GC on the strength of her winning time trial, and with just a time trial and criterium remaining, she appears to have a firm grip on the overall race reins.

“Tomorrow’s another day,” she said. “It was a long day out there today by myself. But I’ll think about that later and just enjoy this for now.”

Secrist made her move on the tailwind climb before the feedzone on the back side of the course by accelerating and quietly rolling off the front.

“I had teammates on the front, and I was feeling pretty good,” she said. “So I just thought I’d give it a shot. It worked.

It was move that caught then-race leader Melissa Sanborn completely by surprise.

“I honestly didn’t even see her get away,” Sanborn said. “I must have been sleeping on the back or something. So when they said there was a 38-second lead when we went through the feedzone, I said, “who’s off the front?”

With Secrist riding away with the race lead, Sanborn turned to others in the pack for help chasing.

“Being out there by myself at that point, I was hoping we could all get together and bring her back,” Sanborn said. “We worked for a full lap to bring her back, and she only gained time on us. So, good for her. She’s a strong time trialer. She was the right person to have off the front. That’s for sure.”

Although Sanborn was unable to get away on her own after several attempts, mountain biker Sue Butler managed to slip the group’s shackels after she saw that the bunch wasn’t making progress.

“People were helping,” Butler said. “But we couldn’t get a fast enough pace going to chase (Secrist) down. We were supposedly working together to try and bring her back, but it seemed like I was doing the lion’s share of the work. So I figured if I’m going to pull everyone around, I’ll just pull myself around instead.”

Butler got away from the lead chase group on the same hill that Secrist had several laps earlier. Once free, she started adding time to her advantage over the chase group she just left, but she wasn’t able to reel back any time from Secrist.

By the end of the race, Secrist had built a one-minute, six-second gap over Butler, who finished second, and 2:07 over Sanborn, who won the dash up the hill from a chasing group 11. Those gaps are also the time splits on GC because all the riders finished with the same time on stage 1.

Now Butler, who is sitting second overall just 1:06 behind Secrist, may have to change her weekend plans. She was planning to head for McCubbins Gulch on Mt. Hood Sunday for the Bear Springs Trap MTB XC race, but now she’s thinking about staying around The Dalles.

“I’m here for training, and my third race could be Bear Springs,” she said. “But I’ve never ridden a time trial bike in a race before, so tomorrow would be a good day for it. It could be fun.”

Stage 1 winner Sanborn sits third overall at 2:07 down, but she’s not too confident about her chances for an overall victory.

“I’m not a time trial specialist,” she said. “So I’ll go for one more stage win in the crit, and that’s good.”

RESULTS
Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic
Stage 2 Orchard Run Circuit Race
April 24

Pro/1/2 Women
1. Robin Secrist (Riverstone) 2:16:09
2. Sue Butler (River City Bicycles) +1:06
3. Melissa Sanborn (Cyclepath) +2:07
4. Jessica Cutler (Cucina Fresca) +2:09
5. Lisa Tunrbull (Riverstone) +2:09

GC AFTER TWO STAGES
1. SECRIST, Robin (Riverstone) 4:52:09 @ 00:00
2. BUTLER, Sue (River City Bicycles) 4:53:15 @ 01:06
3. SANBORN, Melissa (CyclePath) 4:54:16 @ 02:07
4. TURNBULL, Lisa (Riverstone) 4:54:18 @ 02:09
5. CUTLER, Jessica (Cucina Fresca) @ 02:09