I just got done with the first stage of the 2008 Cascade Classic and it went pretty good. I got to sleep at 11pm last night and woke up at 8am. Ate a decent breakfast then drove over to the race start at Redmond with Wes and David, slapped on some sunscreen, then rolled over to the start line.
Right from the gun the pace was hot with one rider attacking at 0km - Probably one of the Garmin/Chipotle riders. The first hour or so didn't provide much to write about. I spent it trying to keep near the front, a couple attempts to get into the break, following Horner's wheel... I figure that if I ride close to him, chances are I'll be doing something right.
Going into the KoM, 50 miles into the 80 mile stage, I tried to position myself as close to the front as possible. The feed was on the KoM climb and I managed to grab a bottle from David. About 2/3 up the climb I got popped off the front of the peloton and ended up in a group of about 6 riders. We worked together, picking up more riders, and eventually chasing back onto the peloton. Phew!!! We passed Ben Brooks that looked to have crashed hard on a cattle guard - Not a pretty sight. He ended up getting taken to hospital by helicopter.
The past couple of times I've raced a stage finishing at the top of Pilot Butte, I ended up getting popped off in the wind thanks to poor positioning. This time I made damn sure I was tucked into the line when it got single file, and moving up whenever I had the opportunity to do so without wasting energy.
About 15-20km to go, I saw Chris Horner pull over to the side of the road with a flat. I stayed as close to the front as I could, with a few scary moments thanks to a median, stopped cars, a construction zone etc. Finally we made it to the base of Pilot Butte and I was right there with many of the big names of domestic pro cycling. 200m into the climb and I drop my fucking chain. Argh!!! I tried to shift it back on, but ended up getting off and having to use my hands to remount the damn thing. I got passed by 20-30 riders thanks to that. F**k.
In the end, I finished 86th out of 145 finishers @ 2min 52sec behind the winner. I'd have preferred to have made it onto the first page of the results sheet, but still not bad to only lose 2:52. Tomorrow is another day with a 10 mile b***h of a finish climb. Probably easy to make or lose a ton of time there. Hopefully I'll not be losing.
Evel Knievel riding home after Stage 1.
