So, I wasn't at the race but Matt Weyen(Bob's Bicycles.com) won. I may have mentioned his name before (and may have overestimated his weight, but hey, he's BIG compared to me [but who isn't]), nobody should be too surprised at that result. He opened up a gap by winning the time trial and finished with the front bunch for the rest of the stages (2nd in the crit) and was probably the strongest guy there.
Hagens-Berman was, of course, well represented as Oregons own Andy Fischer took 6th overall and won the stage 3 Waitsburg RR. Donald Reeb(CMG/Alpine Mortgage) made the top-10 overall. CMG teammate Seth Hosmer, whose scorching form has apparently cooled a bit, rounded out the top-20.
The Three Rivers RR was on Sunday for us Oregon guys that couldn't make a trip to Walla Walla. This was a great race on beautiful roads with little traffic, it could become really big (how 'bout we make it part of the Oregon cup?). Candi said the state championship was probably going to be on the 3 Rivers course next year.
As for the race, wel Kenny Williams(First Rate Mortgage) and Chad Hartley were there and the peloton basically let them have their way. An early group of six got off and on the second lap, Kenny and Chad were allowed to motor on up to it and the rest is right here.
Mark Blackwelder(Gentle Lovers) had a good ride bridging the gap with Steve Holland(Finnegan's/Discover Chiropractic) and picking off a few stragglers from the break.
Memo to Chad:
Dude, thanks for coming to race with us on your off weekends, it's cool to race with pro's and get a feel for how you guys ride. That said, it is probably not a good idea to be tossing your bottles off in the middle of nowhere backwoods Oregon. At the Tour de Georgia extra bottles probably make cool souvenirs for the kids watching, at OBRA races it's throwing trash in the yards of the people who happen to live on the course. Promoters lose courses because of the impact on the area us riders make. Please help us keep cool up and coming races going and be an example to the rest of us who, though none of us will admit it, look up to you pro's. Use the feed zone, at least there's someone to pick it up.
Janez Brajkovic won the Tour de Georgia, and will one day win the big one (in France). He's like 115lbs and can (almost) TT with the best of 'em.
Evan Elken(Jittery Joe's) top-10'd the final stage's wicked fast bunch sprint (that's him in the white there) pic by Jonathan Devich from CyclingNews.com.
Doug Ollerenshaw(HealthNet/Maxxis) hung tough even though that crazy ass 29 minute break took him WAY out of contention. He even showed for suicide duty jumping with like 3k to go in one of the circuit finishes.
See you guys at PIR unless it gets real nasty, which it probably will. Go race in Eugene this weekend.
5 comments:
Memo to integrity filled gossip columnist,
First thanks for calling me out, that nice. I have to say I did huck my bottle away well before the feed zone, but as you may have noticed I was kind of attacking at that part of the course and didn’t really feel like carrying my bottle while I attacked and then toss it at the top of the hill. As for the “middle of backwoods nowhere Oregon”, I really don’t think the forest likes being called that, it kind of insulting. Besides the woods, in which I place my bottle, resides 200 meter before the 1 k sign because although clif bar is kind enough to give my team a ton of bottles, I don’t have any at home. And therefore each and every bottle I get is precious to me. So the part of my interaction with my new athleteslounge.com water bottle that you didn’t see is this; post race driving a whole 600 meters out of my way to collect my new but used bottle, apologizing to it by giving it a nice warm bath in the dishwasher and tucking it nicely into its new bed on my 2nd shelf, right cupboard. So fear not cuddly woodland critters (that includes environmentalist too) my #4 recyclable water bottle is not not biodegrading in the woods, its here with me in Beaverton. So again thanks.
Plus I have a bunch of stuff for sale so buy some please. Thanks
water bottle lucky to have you as owner and woodland critters happy. (i spoke to them last night.)
Wow-wish there were more people out there like this. Seems as if this isn't the first time jza jumped to conclusions about the integrity of a cyclist without getting his facts straight. Man-and to publicly dis a "pro" is one thing, but to incorrectly dis a "pro" could be a death sentence. Thanks for coming out to PIR last night Chad-from what I heard, JZA didn't come up to you personally and apologize-maybe he will hide behind his computer soon and publish an apology.
The question is, how many people saw Chad huck the bottle and how many saw him return post race to pick it up? I'd say the numbers are skewed to the "saw it thrown" side. Now, how many of those that saw him throw it thought "hmmm, I bet he's going to go back to pick that bottle up?"
I think it's great that Chad was responsible and returned for his precious water bottle. However, it's a bit overboard to get all sanctimonious about getting called out.
Oh, and before someone makes a comment about not being able to utter some disclaimer about picking that bottle up later while engaged in an attack, save it. He made the decision to toss the bottle. Tossing stuff in local races can have serious access ramifications. What if a local saw the toss? What, pray tell, would you expect that local to think about a bike racer tossing a bottle to the side of the road? That local probably isn't thinking that a bike racer would be coming back to pick it up.
A public apology? I don't think so. It was up to Chad to set the record straight (without his pissy but humorous tone). Let's not forget it was Chad who hucked his bottle in full view. Tossing stuff while racing has two potential ramifications; 1) Other racers think it's cool to do and emulate that behavior without the responsible returning to pick it up part, and 2) folks who control access (partially or fully) don't look highly on littering.
I picked up a couple water bottles on my way in. I figured that by that point I hd the time to stop for a sec and pick two up.
they now reside with obra somewhere.
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