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...

OBRA just released a tentative schedule the official schedule for 2010 events. Kenji emphasizes that this is very likely to change, but I have updated the schedule on this site to include those events. I encourage team riders to login and post the events that they are attending and might be considering to the schedule. If you've lost track of your log in information or would like some help, contact me and I'll get you set up. Once you've posted your schedule, it'll be visible to everyone via the team page. It's a great way to make travel plans and get in touch with the riders who plan on racing.

As races change, and appear on the schedule, I'll make sure to update the schedule.

I woke up Sunday morning to the sound of a heavy rain on the motel's metal roof. It was 40 degrees and genuinely nasty. Before breakfast, I didn't really pay attention to a little bit of stomach discomfort, but just figured I was hungry. A quick breakfast, we rushed to get everything ready so we could head home after the race and headed out to the start. I don't have any love for cold wet racing, but it seemed the conditions were perfect for a sucessful break. If a few of us could force a break in these conditions, the group would probably be hesitant to race hard all day. Sadly, I wouldn't get the chance. The official announced that the course was being shortened - the result is a glorified hillclimb. An 11 mile rollout to the base of Dooley Mountain and a 7 mile drag race up a climb that just isn't hard when attacked with fresh legs. 9 miles into that rollout, the back 3rd of the field eliminates itself by piling into each other at 30 mph. Among the fallers is the dominant race leader who has a nearly insurmountable 2 minute lead on GC. I stay upright, am briefly held up but motor back towards the field... just latching on at the left turn onto the climb. After going anaerobic for a few minutes, I dangle at the back of the group for a mile or two and give up the ghost. Dave hangs onto the lead group until just before the finish.

Mark lost enough time here that despite some misfortune by riders ahead of him in GC, he dropped to 6th. I'd venture to say that a 16mph climb up Dooley Mountain against fresh climbers didn't suit him as well as a climb after 100 miles. Matt and Richard rolled in in the top 3rd of the field and were waiting in the cold and wet for me to arrive with my car keys so we could get out of the wet and cold. Dave's strong final day helped him move up to 11th. We got back to Baker City, found out that results wouldn't be available for awhile. We regrouped for lunch, chatted about the good times, agreed to give it another go next year and headed home. My adventure didn't end there as my stomach ailments had gotten worse and allowed me to share my lunch with everyone on Hwy 26 a few hours later.

Oh, Matt raced the Jacksonville Short Track on Monday (and won) and then followed that up with the YMCA race win Yreka. Stupid 18 year olds.

In the leadup to Elkhorn, I'd been excited about the new TT course. I've never had a good day on the strange course Elkhorn has been using since '06. Regardless, after my bad luck on day one, I felt I should take the TT and crit easy. I wanted to make a long break attempt on Sunday - the early break has a history of success in the 3s. Richard, myself and a few others had agreed that trying to make something happen early would suit our talents and would be our best chance for success. Given this, I handed off my fast TT wheels to Dave, gave some other fast gear to Matt and was content to just ride tempo. Slight problem: my legs were fantastic and I seemed to be able to go fast without a lot of effort. I lost count, but I'm pretty sure I caught all of the cat3s who started ahead of me. I finished 13th with a 23:24 - hard not to think about what would have happened with a hard effort and all my gear but no regrets. Dave was 14th with a 23:33 and moved himself into 14th in GC. Mark's 6th place slotted him into 4th overall. Matt struggled a bit on the course - he hasn't had much time on the TT bike this year and the headwind back into town was brutal.

The evening crit was pretty straightforward — as always it ended in a sprint. I had no reason to race it so I tailgunned... normally a stupid thing to do in a crit, but this course is so wide-open that it's the easiest and least stressful place to ride - after having to close gaps for dropped riders on the first couple laps, I could always take the fast line and only had to pedal about half the time -- I was breathing through my nose most of the race. Matt, Dave and Richard all showed their faces at the front, but none of us are sprinters. Top 20 places by all three but we were all looking to Sunday.

Last Thursday, Dave, Matt and I loaded up my little Mazda and a good part of Bob's Subaru with our six bikes, countless wheels and enough stuff to sustain us for the three days of racing in Baker City. After 8 hours in the car, a few bad deli sandwiches and a lot of time waiting around in construction, we arrived at our plush accomodations at the Oregon Trail Motel. Meeting us there was Richard Wharton, a friend and client who has joined me at Elkhorn for the last several years. Between the four of us and our Land Shark friend/TTT teaammate Mark Krause, we figured to have a pretty strong group of guys in the cat 3 field.

In the long hours of Thursday evening and Friday morning we scouted the new TT course and drove the day one road course talking strategy the whole time. Eventually, after an eternity of waiting, our start time for stage 1 came and we rolled out. Day one at Elkhorn has a tradition of being a descent into hell follwed by a futile attempt to climb out. I've ridden since 2005 and have never seen temperatures lower than 90 and humidity higher than -100%. It's dry and hot and I have always withered in the heat and arrived at the finish 10s of minutes back begging for water. This year, the race started with temps around 70 and partly cloudly skies. I was on the front thru the neutral and kept myself in the first 5 riders for the first 30 miles - I did more than my share of time in the wind, but decided that I'd rather fatigue a little bit than lose a battle for position at a key moment. Dave and Matt were following the plan and staying in the top 20 but keeping their nose out of the wind. Richard came to the front at the base of the little climb to the first feed zone and briefly split the group. At the top of the climb, the weather suddenly changed. The suddenly dark skies opened up with a fury and the calm winds became a 20mph headwind. The descent into Union is about 5 miles and has some winding sections - nothing especially technical, but combined with the sudden downpour and glacial roads I was impressed how the field handled it. I got a bit spooked on the descent - I couldn't see the rider in front of me and found myself in the back half of the field by the bottom -- not where you want to be after turning onto the narrow 10 mile road that leads to the real climb of the day. The pace here was fairly slow and the group was taking the whole lane. In the first couple miles of this winding section of road, Matt had bridged up to a couple guys and was off-the-front, looking good. For me, moving up was difficult but I'd made my way to Dave's wheel with about a mile to the climb. Then, I flatted ... story of my life. I get back to the wheel car and see that another guy is grabbing a wheel. The car start to take off without assisting him with the change and I had to yell at them to stop for me. I try to convince the other guy to wait 10 seconds for my wheel change before he takes off, but no luck. Probably a good descision on his part because it took closer to a minute to get a wheel. By the time I'm up-and-running, the group is out of sight, my fellow flatee is a long way up the road and my hopes for racing the GC are dashed.

The change in weather also means a ripping tailwind for the rolling ride back to Baker City. Normally this is where you experience all nine stages of hell, but today I roll solo averaging 25mph from my flat to the finish but amazingly come in 8 minutes down on the race winner. Matt's little break was pulled back just over the top of the main climb and almost immediately Dave rolled off the front solo. Dave had a pretty good go. He got pulled back and ended up popping from the select lead group near the top of the neverending hills to the finish. He limited his losses well, finishing in the top 25 and only about 30 seconds back. Matt and Richard were just a short ways behind and Mark had a great ride to finish 10th just 2 seconds out of the lead.

Bryan Foster just emailed me to say that a public works project in Yreka is going to force the cancellation of the Yreka Crit for 2009.

The city was the driving force in getting the race back on its feet this year, but we couldn't avoid a conflict with a water main project that will cause problems on both the original crit course and an alternate course as well. Bryan and I joked about changing it to the Yreka Kermesse, but in the end we won't be able to run a safe event this year so we're pulling the plug. Both Bryan and the city are optimistic that we'll be able to get this back on the calendar for 2010.

Back in January, when I first contemplated the OBRA race schedule for 2009, the three week run of races in mid-to-late April seemed to be calling out to me. Kings Valley, Table Rock and the Willamette Stage race — three races I have either had relative success at in the past or at least have some belief that they are suited to me — were scheduled back-to-back. Seemed like the perfect way to hit my best form in weather that suited me and hopefully get back the upgrade points I lost after choosing not to upgrade when I had the opportunity last year.

Of the three races, Kings Valley probably suits me the best. With its power climbs and 1k uphill drag race to the finish, I've always felt like I could win by sitting in or finding a good break. In 2005, my first year racing, I attacked at the base of the 1k finish climb, bridged up to a solo move and got outsprinted because I tried getting cute in the last 200 meters. Ignoring that I was crashed out the next year, my racing has been passive and frankly dumb ever since. I've sat in, letting myself getting pushed too far back for the finish climb - every year I've moved up 20-30 spots in final km but was so far back at the start that I was irrelevant. This year, while Dave was actually racing his bike, attacking 3km out (countered by Mark Krause who nearly pulled it off), I spent too much time tail-gunning it and finished an anonymous 18th.

Table Rock is important to me just because it is a local event. If the weather is cool and the race goes my way, I think I could have a really good result on the course. The finish is a little steep for me but it doesn't eliminate me either. The day didn't go well in any respect. Our field started at 1:40pm on a day that reached 90 degrees... only 11 cat 3s showed up so we got combined with the equally small 1/2 field... both fields were stacked with strong guys. 5 or 6 cat 1s were present... the cat 3 winner WAS a 2 before breaking his leg last year and the rest of the cat 3s have the legs to be 2s. It was going to be a tough day. We rode Meadows at a fast pace at times. Kennett Peterson, the eventual 1/2 winner made a couple moves. Steve followed the first one and they never got a gap. I followed the second and then pulled through even harder -- looked back after 30 seconds at 23mph on the steepest part of the climb and everyone was there... no gaps just one lined out field. Steve came back up and did most of the work to get us over Antioch only to pop himself about 200 meters from the top. Dave and I and most everyone else was still present. Not for long. Just as we start the descent, a very expensive piece of equipment just went flying and hit the ground. I had to stop or I'd be spending $400 to replace it. After a few long minutes, I found it and got going again. Steve and I regrouped on Meadows and agreed to ride a nice easy pace to the finish. Indeed we finished -- after the finish area had been torn down. Ugh.

Early on the day of Table Rock, rumors were spreading that Willamette was going to be canceled due to lack of attendance. Indeed, I looked at the cat 3 pre-reg list. There were 8 of us. The pro 1/2 men's field had a respectable 45 riders but barely 100 riders total had signed up. Mike Ripley put down an ultimatum that he needed another 100 riders by Tuesday or the race wasn't going to happen. On Monday evening, he announced a modified race plan that would combine the 1/2 and cat 3 fields - eliminate the queen stage on the Wolf Creek course and still allow most of the riders to race - this scenario only needed 60 additional riders. No go - Tuesday came and went and the race was canceled. I understand times are tough - lots of people are struggling with money and a $115 race registration fee plus lodging etc are hard to justify. At the same time, Willamette is raced on some of the finest racing roads in Oregon and it's centrally located to most of OBRA. The race has come and gone in a number of incarnations over the last 20 years but it's always been well attended. In 2006 all of the fields were full - some overfilled... I have an nasty scar on my right leg because the cat 3s weren't used to riding on narrow roads with 115 other people. 2008 saw smaller fields yet a respectable turnout despite miserable 40 degree rain for 4 days straight. It's frustrating to see a race die this way.

So, here we are. The most important part of my season has passed and I didn't do anything of note. I've thought about my plans for the rest of the year and haven't made any firm decisions. I finished the week with the most enjoyable 4 days of riding I've had in a long time and put in 21 hours to boot -- by far the biggest week I've ever done. Elkhorn, a race I love but have started to concede that the climate is too hot and too dry for me, is the logical place to focus my attention. Having Dave there was guaranteed to make the racing a bit more enjoyable and this week I also learned that our newest cat 3 teammate, Matt Dooley, is planning on attending as well. So we'll have a really strong team of three guys.

I guess maybe it's not all doom and gloom.

Photo Courtesy of Oregon Cycling Action

Yesterday, Dave Reitz and I flew the colors for Etna Brew/DeSalvo in the 3s and Bob and Rebeccah rode in the Masters and Women's fields. My anonymous 18th place finish after sitting in all day wasn't much of a highlight. Dave in the photo above (by Pat Malach) was aggressive late. After doing more than his share of work in the last two laps, he tried a late flyer and just wasn't quite able to hold it for the finish.

Etna Brew was all over the top end of the results at the first Southern Oregon TT. Steve Maluk was just off the podium overall with near-personal best time in the ITT. Myself and Dave Reitz both put significant time into our previous best on this course taking 1st and 3rd respectively. Mark Krause, who has come out of nowhere this season, took second with an amazing time of 32:43 - one of the 5 fastest times ever ridden on that course. Unfortunately, Mark won't be racing next week so Steve will slot into the 3rd spot overall, making it look pretty likely that Etna Brew will sweep the money for the series again.

With a little help from Matt Dooley, Steve, Dave and I put over two minutes into the field in the TTT. Land Shark had an unfortunate flat and had to wait for Brad Earl who had been dropped early on the way out. Even so, we were nipping at their heels before that happened.

Results are here.