It may have been an off weekend in Oregon, but the conveniently located Independence Valley RR provided a veritable who's who of NW racing. By all accounts, the course was beautiful and the weather terrible (sounds about right for Olympia!). A three-up breakaway dominated the day as perennial Washington fast guy Jamie Strangeland(Wines of Washington) took the win. The CMG/Alpine Mortgage guys were in attendance and new member Kyle Valenta took second (his name rings a bell and I know he rides track, otherwise ???, he used to ride for HUP United?????). Hagens-Berman's Richard McClung got third after flatting out of the breakaway.
Oooooooh!!! Snaaaap!
Rob Campbell(Bob's Bicycles.com) took the sprint for fifth over Donald Reeb(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) and Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage). Rob needed to win the sprint to show off the new Bob'sBicycles.com kits that finally arrived.
Other riders in attendance:
-Russell Stevenson(Benaroya Research Institute), who's apparently back in Seattle
-Zach Winter(Zach Winter Factory Team), making like post-Genesis Phil Collins
-Dan-do a ton of-Harm(Rubicon), figured he'd be at Redlands
-Steve Holland(Finnegan's Toys/Discover Chiropractic), so Rich McClung doesn't feel too old
and a bunch of guys that race in Washington and are all special in their own way.
The race sounds like a very cool one and is just an hour north of Portland. I hope we see more races in this area, bringing together the Oregon and Washington guys is always good fun. (plug Piece of Cake RR, April 1, here.)
Sounds like Zach W had a pretty bad day. He seems content to be okay going it alone, but don't be surprised if he shows up in a new jersey soon (BRI?, Hutch's-OIC????, ??????????).
Mike Hone was there and took a ton of pictures, they're all up on Flickr, hope he doesn't mind that I'm using some here.
Erik Tonkin won the first MTB race of the year, surprising exactly nobody. There's a few roadies hiding out in that results list.
Redlands happened over the weekend, some NW names in the mix: Omer Kem & Morgan Schmitt(Priority Helath), Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet), Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's), the Hagens-Berman Elite team (which is mostly NW guys). 190 rider field (with time cuts strictly enforced, Toyota-United Pro's uber-fastguy Ivan Dominguez got time cut by :30 in the sprint points jersey!) Andy Bajadali gave Jelly Belly a huge win.
Get your sprint legs warmed up! The Icebreaker Crit. Hutch's-OIC will be there defending their turf. Who's gonna challenge?
The Final Four is turning out to be just as predictable as Milan-San Remo. Other riders (like Boonen and Pettachi) talk about Oscar Freire(Rabobank) with the sense of awe reserved for a guy named Armstrong. Cipollini says he has an "extra leg" in the sprint. Pettachi finished with a suck and a blow, being beaten Eric Zabel, his leadout man. Italians were nowhere to be seen.
The Ducks went down shooting. Good run, I bet they could have taken any team except Florida.
2 comments:
It is too bad that Seth is so strong yet such a dip shit. Why would someone like Hutch's pick him up when his consitstant screw ups or lipiness would reflect upon their business? He's not a team player so chances are he would burn more bridges on his next road team. Maybe he should goto the track......
bark...you mean, Zach, not Seth (super quiet nice guy on CMG, right?)
And yes, the kits are in, at least one long sleeve jersey and a pair of bibs. The whole set is supposed to arrive soon...You will hopefully see the Bob's jesey on the "top step" at Piece of Cake where I was 3rd last year.
Nice blog jza.
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