At the start of Thursday's 76-mile McKenzie Pass Road Race-- stage 2 of the Cascade Cycling Classic in Oregon -- Saturn's Trent Klasna made the first big move of the day and was joined on the attack by a handful of other riders, including Mercury's Gord Fraser and Mike Sayers, and representatives from Prime Alliance, Navigators and Sierra Nevada. Their gap grew to 1:30, forcing Prime Alliance into chase mode for Chris Horner back in the pack.

When they were caught on McKenzie Pass, the hard tempo left only 40 riders left. About a dozen riders soon went clear from that group, including Mercury's Adham Sbeih, Scott Moninger, Sayers, and Chris Wherry, Navigators Burke Swindlehurst and Glen Mitchell, Prime Alliance's Danny Pate and Mike Creed, Saturn's Damon Kluck and Tim Johnson, and 7UP's John Lieswyn. The group was still clear by 2 minutes at the base of the final climb and it was clear the winner of the stage would come from this group.

The final stretch came down to a battle between Wherry and the Swindlehurst for the stage win and overall lead. It was Swindlehurst at the line but, Wherry was credited with the same time.

The two riders are tied on GC, but with Friday morning's one-mile uphill time trial, the standings are sure to shake down.

In the first stage for the women, Saturn’s Kimberly Bruckner rode away from the rest of the pack on the McKenzie Pass climb and rode to a solo victory with a huge lead in the 72-mile race. Bruckner finished 6:33 ahead of Goldy’s Heather Albert, who led in a field that was shattered into ones and twos on the final climb.