Health Net-Maxxis reeled in a dangerous breakaway on Saturday to preserve Rory Sutherland's overall lead in the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.

The break went away at mile 35 of the 101-mile stage and contained Bissell's Edward King, who was just 1:41 behind Sutherland on GC. The break also contained dangerous climbers Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefits), Michael Grabinger (Successful Living) and James Mattis (California Giant Berry), each of whom brought along a teammate. Bissell's King had two teammates.

Back in the field, Bissell's second-placed Ben Jacques-Maynes was in the cat bird's seat while the crew built up a maximum lead of about four minutes, making King the leader on the road. But Health Net, helped by BMC and Symmetrics, closed on the break in the final ten miles, bringing the gap down to about a minute and half with 10k to go.

The break kept working together until it hit the long series of final climbs to the Mt. Hood Meadows ski area.

"They were just all playing games looking for someone to do something and I just hit it and I looked back and they were still looking at each other and I thought, 'great,' " Mattis said.

Manion quickly bridged and the two worked together for the final three kilometers, with Mattis doing most of the work. Manion jumped with about 300 meters to go to take a 4-second win ahead of Mattis

Meanwhile, the GC leaders, Sutherland and BMC's third-placed Darren Lill, had closed to within sight of the two leaders and Sutherland jumped around in the final meters to take the third spot on the day.

Sutherland, who said he had been able to sit in for the entire day, outsprinted a group of six to take third. "I was in the wind for all of 50 meters all day," he said.

Jacques-Maynes, however, could not follow the leaders in the final kilometers and finished about 16 seconds behind Lille and Sutherland, allowing Lill to move into second.

"Like any stage race situation, you just limit your losses," Jacques-Maynes said, noting that Bissell's King stayed with the Sutherland/Lill group and, after a long day in the break, finished sixth and move up to fifth overall. "Teddy was the rock star for the day. We were hoping to do more, but we'll take it," he said.

Women's race

In the women's race, Abbott, a Team High Road rider racing for the Discover Bicycles composite team, jumped past Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli in the final kilometer to take the win.

"Jeannie was attacking and moving all over the road trying to shake people and she went way over to the left and I saw a big opening to the right and I jumped," Abbott said.

Abbott, who said she is sometimes an impatient racer, said she forced herself to stay out of the wind and wait for the final kilometer on Saturday.

"It was a good exercise in waiting," she said.

Longo was second on the stage and 19-year-old race leader Julie Beveridge of Aaron's finished with the front group and retained her lead.

Three-time Mt. Hood winner Leah Goldstein (ValueAct Capital) helped chase down one of Longo's many attacks on the final climb in an effort to protect her second place overall position, just 8 seconds ahead of Longo.

Goldstein gave up a few seconds to Longo in the end, and she goes into Sunday's final stage with a 2-second gap of the French star.

With a win in Friday's time trial and a second place on the GC, Goldstein said she is satisfied with her Mt. Hood performance, even without a fourth consecutive win.

And she said her teammates, who worked tirelessly for Goldstein this week, will get a chance to shine in the final race, the downtown Mt. Hood criterium.

"We have a lot of good strong criterium riders who should be able to do really well tomorrow," she said.