RACE REPORTS: USA CYCLING PRO CHAMPIONSHIPS ROAD RACE: HINCAPIE CLAIMS THIRD TITLE

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RACE REPORTS: USA CYCLING PRO CHAMPIONSHIPS ROAD RACE: HINCAPIE CLAIMS THIRD TITLE
Road Bike Action
August 30, 2009

(Photo: Mitchell Clinton)

On a day marked with countless attacks and multiple breakaways, it was veteran George Hincapie of the Columbia-HTC team that sprinted to victory in the USA Cycling pro road championship in his home town of Greenville, South Carolina. Hincapie out-sprinted Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Jeff Louder (BMC) to claim his third stars and stripes jersey.

The early part of the race saw David Zabriskie (Garmin-Slipstream) try to put his time trial skills to use with a long solo move off the front. The move intended more to take the pressure off his Garmin-Slipstream teammates, than an actual bid for victory dictated the early pace of the race. Zabriskie's move, while not a deciding factor in the race, resulted in several failed attempts by riders to bridge across and eventually lead to an all out chase from the peloton.

It was on the final climb up Paris Mountain that Hincapie and seven other riders went clear. Over the top a nine rider chase group closed to within 10-seconds of the Hincapie group but couldn't make contact. On the first of three 6.8-kilometer finishing circuits the eight man leading group had 30-seconds on the second group and would continue to build on that all the way to the line.

On the final lap Jeff Louder attacked hard, shattering the leading group and getting a 10-second gap. With a kilometer to go it appeared that Louder had made the race winning move. That was until Hincapie turned on the power, pulling himself and Bajadali up to Louder. In the dash for the line Bajadali led out the sprint with Hincapie easily coming around for his third national title.

USA Cycling Pro Championships Road Race, 177km
1. George Hincapie (Columbia-HTC) 4:33:36
2. Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies) @ .01
3. Jeff Louder (BMC) @ .02
4. Brent Bookwalter (BMC) @ .09
5. Matthew Busche (Kelly Benefit Strategies) @ s.t.
6. Jonathan McCarty (OUCH p/bMaxxis) @ .13
7. Chris Jones (Team Type 1) @ s.t.
8. Phil Zajicek (Fly V Australia) @ .23
9. Daniel Bowman (Kelly Benefit Strategies) @ 1:10
10. Shawn Milne (Team Type 1) @ 1:19

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