Stage Races Are Fun

Damn I am still sore today, but that was a blast. 3 days and 4 races. Drove over thurs night in an absolute blizzard, hail, snow, wind...The racing weather couldn't have been better though. Not sure if I remember all the details, but what I will say is that it was by far some of the prettiest scenery of any race I have done. Screaming down from Rowena (pictured left) sunday on the historic highway was a blast. I was in the lead group so there were only 10 or 12 of us descending and I went to the front to have some room...what a blast. The descent definitely made the climb worth it.

Here's how it played out...
The first day was a windy one, that's what I remember. The back of the course we had a tailwind, but that first lap saw us just riding in a big pack without picking up the pace too much. The climbs were a crawl...there was a solid headwind and nobody was willing to go to the front and do any work...which was fine with me, I sat in and enjoyed the easy pace, staying close to the front, but never on the front. At the start of lap two a break of two team Oregon riders went off and it took the group a few minutes to respond, but we gave chase and a small gap formed...we were moving along with a tailwind, strung out in a single paceline...maybe 7 or 8 of us. We absorbed the two team Oregon guys and there was an attack again, I went. With maybe 5 or 6 of us I figured we might have a chance to make it stick...then we hit the wind...nobody wanted to be on front and work at this point. We played a few games, moving back and forth, but eventually we slowed down enough and the main field chasing us caught back up going into the final climbs...It was a group sprint to the finish so I made sure to stay out of trouble and not lose any time. I finished 9th with the same time as the leaders...I think 35 of 80 made the front group.

Sat morning of the time trial I was nervous...I had driven the course and knew that the first 4 miles would be tough (ever so slightly up hill) and that I would have to go hard and stay aero. (Chad hooked me up with some aero bars and a helemt which if nothing else made me feel faster). My plan was simple...Go fast, but not too fast, try and catch the guy in front of me, and don't let the guy behind me catch up...In hindsight I guess I could have gone a little harder on the way up, and there were a few spots where I should have pushed instead of shifting, but I noticed at the turn around that I had gained maybe 10 seconds on the guy that started in front of me, and that they guy behind was slipping back...I went hard on the way down and came across with a 21.00 even and a 17th on the day to move to 13th in the GC and 1min 22 back from the lead...I wanted to stay in the top 10, but I was only a few seconds off that so I was happy with the result.

The crit was uneventful, my plan was to stay in the group where I could see if any breaks formed, otherwise, just sit in. Besides one crash on the final lap that only involved one rider clipping their pedal on a corner, things went as expected. A few riders launched off for primes, but the group stayed together and I sat in for most of the race and never put out much effort. I watched to see if any breaks formed, and did one pull on the last lap to get towards the front for the sprint...another group finish and no time splits, I sat in for 25th place and no change in my time or GC placing.


Stage 4. Here's what I know. Going into the last day I wasn't really sure how the GC would change. The top 10 were a bunch of strong riders and I figured they wouldn't let a break get away, but I knew that some of them were not climbers and we would need to get away from them there. My goal was to find a way to break the top 10. The final stage was a 28 mile loop that we would do twice with two significant climbs and two good descents. (see the profile). I felt pretty rested and ready to go with whatever happened. I was 1 min 22 down so I knew I needed to get into something if I was going to make up any ground at all. I only hoped we left out some of the top ten if a break went. We started out slow, but the first climbing started only a couple miles in...and didn't let up till about mile 7. The field blew up right away when we hit the climb and I jumped into the front group that seemed to be splitting up. Before I knew it the follow car had slotted in behind us and we were gaining a big gap. I had my heart rate monitor on and was pushing 185 (awfully close to my max) we went over the top with about 12 riders and immediately got together to pull away. We worked to stay away (I heard we built up a 6 min lead on the field at one pt). We knew if we stayed away from the group going into the climb the 2nd lap we would be in good shape. We all looked around and realized that some of the key riders were not in the break. We had a few folks hanging on the back that were not working, but a little pushing it and we worked our group down to 9 of us who were all committed to working and making it stick. We worked a paceline and pushed the speed where we could. The pace picked up on the second lap and our front group splintered a little. When we hit the big climb I ended up chasing what became the front 6 with two others. Our chase group of three, went over the hill on the second lap about 30 seconds from the front 6 and we pushed it to catch up. Somewhere during the second climb out of Moiser our group turned to two and we did what we could to work together as we started passing cat 3 riders. We looked at each other with 1k to go and sprinted to the finish. A sweet day. I ended up 8th on the day and jumped to 8th on the GC breaking the top 10. I was really happy with the result. We had finished some 8 min in front of the previous race leader and some 10-15 min on most of the group.

A great weekend overall. It was cool to play the game of stage racing, which was new to me. Figuring out time splits, saving energy where I could, and going hard when needed. There were a lot of bike racers in the Dalles area and it was cool to see the communities come out in support of all the racers. Bend definitely represented with a pile of riders and some strong showings. Serena took charge and killed it in the time trial, building up a good lead going into the final day and hanging onto it to take the win in the cat 4 womens field. Solid!

Mostly it was just a blast to race bikes in some beautiful scenery, beautiful weather, and with a great group of folks.

Put it on your calendar for next year. An awesome race!
Check out the stage profiles and maps here.

Lots of photos here