Bend

Well, I have arrived here in Bend for the Cascade Classic. Just got my number and ate some lovely pasta.

The drive was long, and made longer by a scenic detour we had to take to avoid some fire that was happening on hwy 97. Pretty lame to say the least, but we made it and I'm ready to rock for tomorrow's fairly flat stage 1 (71.2 miles).

Check back tomorrow night of a recap of Stage one.

Also, don't forget to enter the contest on paulmach.com... awesome stuff to win... sorta

Benicia

The course was hard, the heat was unbearable, and the field was strong...

Recipe for disaster.

...

After a few laps a large break got up the road without any DBCers in it, so I followed an attack and rode as hard as I could to bridge up in a little less than a lap. I looked around to see 2 Ouch riders, the always present Gerlach, Scott Z, Reaney, Kline, couple of Webcore riders... and some other folks. aka- this break is going to stick.
Sweet picture

In a short amount of time we had 40 seconds on the field, according to bystanders. Our group slowly started to get smaller and people began skipping pulls like it was nothing... So I ended up on the front a bunch.

Once Zwizanski attacked it was over for me. I just could not accelerate anymore. The lead group was now the 2 Ouch guys, Scott Z, Gerlach and Colin Samaan. They fought it out for the win and lapped all but 16 people.

I fell into the next group on the road. Then a group led by Floyd Landis caught us and with 3 to go I EXPLODED.

I finished 16... last guy to not get lapped, and the finish played out right behind me.


Gnarly race, ready for the 4th!