International riders have claimed the past four overall titles in the pro men’s race at the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic.

Spaniard Francisco Mancebo will be looking to make it five straight in the week ahead as he goes for his third consecutive Cascade crown.

Mancebo, 36 and from Avila, Spain, has raced all three of cycling’s Grand Tours, including seven appearances in the Tour de France, where he has managed to place in the top 10 an impressive five times. He was awarded the Maillot Blanc (best young rider) in the 2000 Tour de France.

Currently leading the men’s individual National Racing Calendar (NRC) standings, Mancebo is a stage-race specialist who also excels in time trials.

“He’s still cleaning everybody’s clock in the NRC races, and he’s definitely the favorite,” says CCC on-the-road race director Brad Ross. “He’s just such a complete all-around rider. He can win the time trial, and then he can win the hardest climbing stage. He’s the most complete all-around rider in the United States.”

Mancebo, who rides for 5-Hour Energy, finished sixth in the Tour de France in 2004 and fourth in 2005. In 2006 he was linked to the Operation Puerto doping case — a scandal that involved several of the world’s most famous cyclists at the time — and he was not allowed to start the Tour de France that year.

Other pro men’s cyclists to watch include Phil Gaimon, who rides for Bissell and lives in Athens, Ga. Gaimon recently signed with Pro Tour team Garmin-Sharp for 2014.

“He’s super aggressive,” Ross says of Gaimon. “He’s not the kind of guy who will sit in and wait for everybody else to fade. He’s an attacking, aggressive cyclist. He’ll attack any time, any place.”

—Mark Morical