Well, that's Stage 2 of the Cascade Classic in the bag. Went almost how I wanted... Started off at the at the front on the start line, and kept as close to the front as possible without killing myself for most of the race (83 miles). The first part of the stage covered half of Sunday's circuit race along OB Riley Rd. which is rolling, then part of the old Tumalo TT course. It was balls out from the gun, with a lot more single file action than Stage 1. On a few occasions Rock Racing were on the front, followed by Bissell, and I was tucked in behind them along with some Health Net guys. That was pretty cool! Going through Sisters was like a crit with a bunch of turns to negotiate at balls out speed. Rail it at 30+mph, brake to 20-25, turn, don't crash, sprint back up to 30, repeat! The profile of today's stage made the final climb look like 10 miles of hell, and it probably would be a tough ride solo, but hills aren't as noticeable when you're in a peloton climbing at warp speed. At about 8km to go my legs started to unravel. The peloton split into two large groups and I just missed getting onto the front group. I spent some time in a smaller group behind that just trying to limit my losses, eventually finishing the stage pretty much solo. Lots of stragglers behind that has been shelled earlier.
I finished in 79th place @ 6min 10sec behind the winner, which moves me up 10 spots to 76th GC @ 7min 52sec.
I'm hoping to get in a solid TT tomorrow, and make it through the whole crit in one piece. After that are two fairly big days. Cascade Lakes road race on Saturday with a bunch of climbing, and the Awbrey Butte circuit race on Sunday. Lots of time can be lost or gained on the Sat/Sun stages so there's still some hope for me to leap up the GC some more. I went into this stage race a lot more fresh than I've gone into similar races in the past, so I'm hoping that I keep improving right through until the final stage. Mentally I'm there, physically I'm lacking about 5%...
Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, and me after the stage. I thought I was light at 145-150lbs, but damn they're small!
During the race, one guy said to his team mate "Hey, don't let that little kid pick on you!"... "The one on the Evel Knievel bike". That was pretty funny. Before that, a Slipstream rider swerved to the left side of the road almost eating shit. Apart from that, pretty uneventful.
