Thursday was Ben Day at the Cascade Classic as the Fly V Australia rider won the stage 2 Skyliners Time Trial in Bend, Oregon. Day clocked a time of 31:28 to top Jesse Sergent (Trek-Livestrong) and Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis). Sutherland maintained his overall lead by 16 and 57 seconds over Day and his teammate Darren Lill, respectively.

Erinne Willock (Webcor Builders) flashed the fastest women’s time Thursday in 35:56. Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co.-Twenty12) finished second, nine seconds back, and Alison Powers (Vera Bradley Foundation) clocked in in 36:40 for third. Abbott took the overall lead from Cath Cheatley (Colavita-Baci), who outkicked her in the stage one summit finish at Three Creeks Snow Park.

The 16-mile, out-and-back Skyliners course is a consistent affair – gradually uphill almost all the way to the turnaround and gradually downhill back. A series of 90-degree turns took riders onto and off of the main drag at the start and finish, and the densely forested roadside kept sightlines low for the majority of the course.

“It’s a tough little time trial course to really gauge correctly and you really need to leave everything out there about at the turnaround point and really just hold on for dear life,” said Day.

 

Taylor Gunman (Rubicon-Orbea) set the early fast time and held the lead for 20 minutes before Walker Savidge (Holowesko Partners) assumed the lead with a 32:50. The U23, more frequently seen in the early breakaway than a TT hot seat, held the top position until the Trek-Livestrong duo of Alex Dowsett and Sergent crossed the line one just after the other. Sergent, who won Tuesday’s prologue, scored a 31:43, good for the lead, while his teammate took over second, 41 seconds back.

Sergent, who won the time trial at Tour of the Gila a month after finishing second to his trade teammate Taylor Phinney in the individual pursuit at the track world championships, withstood challenges from Ben Jacques-Maynes and Jeremy Vennell (Bissell).

“I felt pretty good. It was definitely the kind of course you have to suffer on, especially with the uphill on the way out and then just trying to turn over the gear on the way back really makes it pretty hard,” said Sergent. “It was pretty hard out there as well, so it was definitely a tough day.”

The Kiwi held the lead with 15 riders remaining on course, but 14th from last was Day, who in June used the TT to take control at Tour de Beauce. Day pushed a 55×11 on the long, gradual descent to the finish at Summit High School and threw his bike to stop the clock in 31:28.

“I’ve done this TT on two other occasions and it’s a difficult one to choose the right gearing, but I think I got it right today,” said Day. “You think you could put a massive, big gear on and ride it back into the finish, but when you’re going 60, 70, 80k an hour, it doesn’t matter how big your gears are, you just have to keep the speed up.”

Only three real threats followed Day on the startlist: national U23 time trial champ Andrew Talansky (California Giant Berry Farms), Day’s teammate Darren Lill and Sutherland. Talanksy, fresh of a week at the beach following a long spring campaign failed to crack the top 10 and Lill clocked a time just outside of Dowsett’s, good for 8th. When Sutherland came through 27 seconds back, the stage belonged to Fly V Australia, who came up just short the day before when Sutherland and Marc de Maar caught David Tanner a few hundred meters from the finish of stage one.

Afterward, Day dedicated his win to former teammate Ben Brooks, who crashed horribly at Cascade in 2008 and is currently receiving chemotherapy for testicular cancer.