Francisco Mancebo wins stage 1 of the Cascade Cycling Classic Elite Men category
Francisco Mancebo of Team CompetitiveCyclist Racing Team won the opening stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic 2012. The Spaniard is having an outstanding season with several victories to his credit in the first half of the season.
He occupied the first overall position during the Tucson Bicycle Classic, Joe Martin Stage Race, Tour of the Battenkill, third overall at the Redlands Bicycle Classic and secured the fourth overall position at the Tour of the Gila 2012.
Mancebo also bagged as many as nine stages in the first half of the season and continued his tremendous form at the Cascade Cycling Classic 2012.
He completed the 119.4 kilometre stage 1 of the race and restricted the race favourites after his storming performance during the opening stage of the race.
Francisco crossed the finish-line in the fastest time of 2 hours 58 minutes and 11 seconds and occupied the top podium position.
Ian Boswell of Team Bontrager Livestrong achieved the second position with Phil Gaimon of Team Kenda, Chris Baldwin of Team Bissell and Matthew Cooke of Team Exergy holding the next four positions.
"I figured we'd have a day off from controlling, and then the yellow jersey crashes in the first big crash," said Competitive Cyclist team director Gord Fraser.
"I feel really bad for Chad. He's a young guy and this was his first yellow jersey in a race like this. So we had to assume control, and we gave that break too much time because we were waiting for Optum to get going".
"He was really struggling on that flat, bumpy stuff coming out of Sisters," said Johnson, who is one of the biggest riders in the peloton".
Gavin Mannion of Team Bontrager Livestrong won the opening sprint of the race while Sam Johnson and Francisco Mancebo occupied the first and the second mountains of the race.
Ian Boswell, Joseph L Dombrowski, Carson Miller, Carter Jones and Joshua B Atkins were the top five young riders on the day.
Francisco is now leading the stage 1 Elite Men classifications with a margin of 13 seconds on Phil Gaimon.
Ian Boswell of Team Bontrager Livestrong, Chris Baldwin of Team Bissell Pro Cycling and Joseph L Dombrowski of Team Bontrager Livestrong grabbed the third, fourth and fifth positions respectively.
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