Sunday morning in Baker City greeted us with rolling thunder and heavy rain. Getting motivated to do anything but stay in bed was a challenge and being the last day of the race, we also needed to get the car ready for the long drive home. I was unable to finish the traditional Dooley stage breakfast championed by Reny - 3 Buckwheat Pancakes, 2 Sausages and 2 eggs. Weird - never had trouble with that before. Eventually we were lined up and rolled out out onto open roads.

Second Ascent had their act together Sunday. When a rider made a move, Justin would give a nod or shake of the head to a teammate on whether they needed to chase him down. The plan was for Spencer Newell to dangle himself off-the-front somewhere around mile 10. Travis had gone up front in the first few miles and just rolled away. A couple riders jumped on his wheel, but neither ever took a pull and Travis built a 20 second advantage and was just dangling there. Another non-gc rider went to the front and this time Second Ascent jumped on him. As the gap started to close, the attacks started. Spencer made a couple moves that were countered and unfortunately only served to bring Travis back. I checked in with Travis briefly and made my move pushing hard for about 30 seconds and then backing off to allow people to bridge up. Cort came first dragging a Second Ascent rider with him. We kept the pace mellow for a bit hoping a few more riders would come along and eventually Mike Brown, Bruce Bilodeau from SLC and another Second Ascent rider were on and we hit the gas.

This had all happened before we were 10 miles into the stage. We quickly realized the two Second Ascent guys were just there for a free ride and a couple of us were a bit frustrated with them - we didn't know that one of them was 2nd on GC. Not my favorite race tactic, but it's smart. It's not without its flaws though. Justin would only have one teammate in the group and if the group refused to work (as it did on Friday) we wouldn't come back. I also knew that Cort, Mike and myself would work together than the group behind and Bruce quickly becomes the vocal coach keeping our pace steady and smooth. We all encouraged each other and were careful to get everyone to eat and drink. Every year I've done this stage, an early break has gone away. In '08 my friend Richard was in a break that stayed the distance - he wasn't able to hang onto Will Niemann-Ross and Robert McGovern who rode away to a 5 minute win on the day. Richard blew up spectacularly and came in 30 minutes down after getting caught at the base of Dooley. There have also been close calls like in 2007 where a big break with GC contenders came really close to pulling it off. Long story short, I thought we had a chance.

We rolled over the dam and kept things fast to the base of the first climb. I wasn't sure what to expect here - the four of us who were working agreed that we'd ride our pace regardless of what the two Second Ascent riders did. The climb seemed to be a non-factor. We kept the pace steady but reasonably fast and it wasn't an issue. I led the descent and we got back to riding a steady pace on the rollers into the second climb. Somewhere in here we got our first reliable time split of 6 minutes. Cool. Then I flatted. First race-day flat of the year damnit! I got a quick wheel change, the break waited and it only cost us maybe 30-45 seconds before we were rolling. Somewhere in here Mike started missing pulls and expressing his fatigue. He's the best climber of the group so this hurt - he was still a big help keeping the pace fast on the second climb but it's quickly obvious that he's going to struggle to stay with us.

At the base of the third climb, Mike says go get 'em and drops off. Bruce is also starting to show some wear and Cort and I do the majority of the work up this climb. From here there is basically a 30 mile tailwind descent to Dooley and suddenly the Second Ascent guys have dropped back. I know from experience that a motivated group will do this in under an hour which is probably a tough ask for us. We get a time split in there somewhere of about 6 minutes so the group isn't taking time back... in the back of my mind, I know that I'll need a 4 or 5 minute headstart on Dooley to stay away. As the approach to Dooley comes we get another split of 2:35 and I have to encourage the guys to keep going. Cort doesn't want to get shelled on the climb - hard to blame him, he's got a good GC position but we agree to keep going. When the climb comes, Bruce quickly falls away. Cort and I ride together for a bit before he fades and yo-yos off my wheel for a bit. About 5k into the climb, I go around the first switchback and look down to see the group gaining ground fast. Another km and the lead officials car flies by me and shortly thereafter, I'm caught. The pace isn't so bad, and I sit in for a bit. It looks like there are only about 15 guys here. After another kilometer, I start to really feel the days efforts... and I'm suddenly hungry and just shut it down. Cort managed to hang in a bit longer. After I'm dropped, the rest of the climb goes quickly - for the first time all day I start to notice the cold and rain but I get to the top congratulate Cort grab some food and Colin stuffs me into his van to get warm. After some unknown period of time, Travis shows up and gets stuffed into the van and my long day is over.

In retrospect, I have no doubt that having one more strong rider would have gotten us the rest of the way. Regardless, I couldn't be happier with my race. For the first time at an Elkhorn stage I have no regrets. Of course it's disappointing to put so much effort into a long day and not get a tangible reward, but I'm satisfied. I was off the front for 85 miles, I attacked to create the move and was the last to get caught. I couldn't have done anything more and had a hell of a fun and memorable day on the bike. Damn, I love this sport.

There's this little race 400 miles from here that keeps me coming back. My first season of regular racing was '05 and showing up in Baker City as a cat 4 I honestly thought my strong TT and what I thought was solid climbing ability would get me good overall result. Instead it was my first real experience of how brutally hard stage racing can be. As Travis might say, Elkhorn punches you in the ovaries on the good days and stabs you in the back on the bad ones. I got steamrolled on the first big climb in the 90 degree dry heat and was never competitive... I rode a pretty good TT in retrospect, but was disappointed at the time to see my name listed 4th on the day. Some guy named Justin Vanhulle took the TT win that year.

In the years since my introduction to Elkhorn, I've had all sorts of interesting experiences. In 2006, I was so heavilly dehydrated after the first stage that I was bent over the toilet all night. I've fallen for the pee break attack on day 4 and had to ride 70 miles off the back. There was the "alternate" stage 1 in 2007 where we descended into the furnace of the powder river canyon with 115° ambient temperatures on the road. I've seen friends go up the road in 80 mile breaks only to finish an hour down. Crits have been cancelled because of rain-slickened roads and stages have been shortened because of snow. I've flatted more times than I can remember and I've had a wheel collapse mid-race. None of these things elicit happy feelings, but they are memorable. Baker City is a great place to go race bikes and all of these experiences keep me coming back.

This year, I spent a solid month where pretty much everything bike related was with Elkhorn in mind. I won't say I followed a training and nutrition plan to perfection, but things went pretty well. I had some solid days racing and had some confidence going into Baker City. Day 1 had perfect weather, not too hot or cold. We rolled out pretty slowly. The field was small by Elkhorn standards - about 70 guys but only a few teams had more than a couple riders. Second Ascent, the biggest team with 4 guys, initially seemed content to set the tempo. After the first feedzone, the pace slowed a bit. I wanted to be sure I kept my good position and wanted the descent into Union to be safe so I went to the front and rode tempo. Problem is no one would pull through once we started up Catherine Creek. I wasn't going to waste myself to keep the pace high and everyone else had the same thought so we rolled along at 18-19mph most of the way to the base of the first climb. The masters field behind wasn't so kind and with a few miles to the base of the main climb, Candi (our official) rolled up and said she was going to have us neutralize for their field at any moment. No one liked that so Second Ascent went back to work and the climb came quickly.

This climb scares me. I've never gotten over it with the leaders. I was comitted to doing so on Friday, whatever the cost. In the comotion following Candi's warning, I wasn't super attentive and fell from about 5th wheel to mid pack. The climb was hard and there was a split in the group in front of me that I didn't have the opportunity to bridge, but I rolled over the top with a handful of motivated guys and we got into the lead group without much trouble. New territory here. The group swells to about 50 guys by the bottom of the finish climb. The finish climb wasn't all that interesting except that I had a bad moment with about 5k to the top and lost contact. I rolled in solo 1:50 down on the stage winner. I'm not exactly happy about this, the pace was managable and I shouldn't have been dropped. but at the same time, I'm in better position than ever before.

Not much to say about the TT - I was 6th... moved up from 39th on GC to 22nd. I don't feel like I rode as fast as I could have but like the day before, it's my best result at this race and the crit was still to come. Justin Vanhulle won the TT - beat me by 35 seconds - and took the lead overall. I seem to have found a fondness for agressive riding in crits - my legs felt good that afternoon, but the claps of thunder that began about an hour before our scheduled start were rather ominous. The Cat 4 women's crit finished on wet roads while the cat 3 riders are ducking for cover wherever it can be found. Initially we're told our race will be delayed and shortened... then later told it'll be cancelled. Almost immediately the skies clear and the Senior Men get to race. Boo.

While waiting for our start, Spencer Newell, Mike Brown and Cort Buchholz roll by and ask if I'd be willing to try a suicide break on Sunday. How'd they know? That was my plan going into stage 4 last year but the weather shortened stage altered those plans.

To be continued...

Here's a couple of pics from Gracia Orlova in the Czech Republic last week....Ally had a good result in the queen stage and is looking foward to getting home just in time for the Tour of Ca. women's crit. in Sacramento on May 16th....

photo from Jan Kondziolka procyclingwomen.com

...this should add some relief.  Rebeccah at the start of the 1st TT of the season in Anchorage, followed by a 4 hour, snowy cross ride.  She got 6th on the day.  Git 'em Rebeccah.  You keep us humble.

A rare photo of Spencellara wearing arm skins......How cold was it?....I didn't think Spencellara even owned a pair.....I know the blue gloves were all for show but the arm skins just look weird on him....photo from  Curt Hawkinson   

With his cousin Fabian doing tolerably well over in Europe, Spencer was feeling the need to make up for his illness-induced sub-par March time trials.  He did so by winning the Ice Breaker Crit in Eugene.

photo courtesy of ulchey