Mt. Hood Stage Race

There are only 75 minutes left in the stage race, so this is as good a time as any to post the blog. The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic was my first race this year with a full team, as the teammates were finally thawed out from the New England winter. Long term, this was not one of my major targets for the year, so I planned to use it as an endurance block to train for some important upcoming races, doing a couple extra hours before the shorter stages.

Stage 1: 1.7 mile prologue TT. I rode fast, put out decent power, and finished in the front third or so of the field. My teammate, Matt White, took 12th. Not bad for his first NRC of the year. He claims it's meaningless, and his years of cross racing have made it so that he could do the same effort right off the couch after not riding for a month.

Stage 2: 90 minute crit. It was a cool course in a park in Portland, with a steep uphill and a sweeping descent. I rode well at the front and followed one attack, hoping to fry off the front and get my name out there a little. Of course, the big guys decided to race their bikes right then. Ben Jacques-Maynes, the race leader at the time, attacked. As I attacked up the hill, I found myself joined by him, Rory Southerland, Chris Baldwin, Ivan Stevic, and a couple other major contenders. Of course, none of them wanted to be in a break, so we came right back to field and that was it for my day.

Stage 3: 86 mile road race. This was my best day of the season so far. The course was 4.5 laps on a half uphill, half downhill course. The first time up the climb, a break of 6 had formed, and some of the major climbers in the race decided to join it. I was waiting for that sort of move, so I bridged up, and found myself with Neil Shirley (Jittery Joes), Chris Wherry and Jonny Clarke (Toyota-United), Andy Bajadali (Kelly Benefits), Matt Crane and Matt Cooke (Healthnet), Burke Swindlehurst (Bissel), Bradley White (Successful Living), Doug Ollerenshaw (Rock Racing), Ryan Trebon, and a few amateurs.

Healthnet didn't like the composition and instructed their riders to sit on. That forced most of the other pros to do the same or take short pulls, since they weren't going to just give the stage away. Our gap was up to two minutes by the time this was all established, and I only have one move like that in my legs per day, so I needed the break to stick. With the help of some of the pros on the smaller teams and the amateurs that had any legs left, we held the gap for a few laps. I set the pace up most of the climb with 2 laps to go, and we had three minutes by the finish line.

With 1.5 laps to go, the gap had gone down some. Bajadali, Ollerenshaw, Shirley, and Swindlehurst started attacking each other up the climb, and I held on and put in a few digs of my own. We traded punches while the rest of the break lost contact, and I think they were impressed to see me there.

At the top of the climb, the break was down to 8 or so, as Wherry and Ollerenshaw went back to the field with the amateurs. With nothing better to do, I stuck with it to the bitter end. Going up the final climb to the finish, we could see the field coming up behind us, but the attacks continued. I got ten seconds or so with about 10k to go, but Swindlehurst bridged and the rest followed, and then we were caught. The field accelerated, and I ended up losing some time on the steep parts of the climb.

Stage 4: 18 mile TT. The previous day's effort put me at a major disadvantage for the TT, as everyone else had enjoyed a fairly relaxing day behind the BMC train. As a result, my legs were worthless, and for the 3rd time in my life I was caught in a TT, finishing dead in the middle of the field.

Stage 5: 100 mile road race. This course started on the desert side of the mountain range here, in 90 degree eat, and gradually climbed from about sea level to a ski resort at 5500 feet. A break went early, and I focused on staying out of the wind and keeping hydrated. I think I drank 10 bottles in under 4.5 hours. With Healthnet's lead in jeopardy, they drove it hard up the final steep climb, shattering the group. I ended up in a selection of 40 climbers. I couldn't follow the attacks, and with the steep slopes making drafting pointless, I dropped myself and rode my own pace up the climb, catching and dragging a train of stragglers who came off the lead group after me. I stayed in the sight of the leaders, but could never quite bring them back. I saw one U23 rider with 1 k to go, and burned myself to catch him on the offchance that the other young riders ahead of my in the GC were all dropped. I caught him at the line, as the riders enjoying my tempo all jumped me, and I finished a solid 15th on the stage.

As it turns out, the other young riders were all dropped, and they awarded me the U24 jersey after the stage. Of course, the officials screwed up. It's true that I was the first U24 to finish the stage, but I didn't put nearly enough time on the others to take the jersey. Someone on Bissel is probably pissed off right now, so I'll wear my team stuff and return the jersey at the crit today. It was fun while it lasted.

The crit starts in two hours. It's 75 minutes, and looks like it shouldn't affect the GC much. If I have legs, I'll try to get off the front, but I expect to be in survival mode and try to finish with the front group.