Eugene

Well, it's that time of year again for my most favorite stage race: the Eugene Celebration!  This year in revolving chairs lodging arrangements, I scored a ride and stay with Alex Yale and Kyle Brown of Theraputic Associates.



We totally coulda fit another person or two in the ride.

McBeth

Yeah, same hillclimb, about the same time for me as last year.  So moving onwards, let me show you this awesome queen-szie inflatable mattress that Alex let me use:



The bed was a key component of my success the following few races.  I put my legs up on the headrest as I slept.  It was quite comfortable.

Briggs Hill

Well, going in I knew that this race was going to be quite crazy since it seemed like half of the field was known for attempting and succeeding in breakaways.  Also, there weren't really any teams there, so it was basically every man for himself.

About a mile into the race Dillon Caldwell, Ben Thompson and another dude got the gap.  Well, I knew that with the small field and combo of riders up there, it would be dangerous, but not many people seemed interested in actually cooperating to bring it back despite me trying to get people to do so.  We went up Briggs hill and it seemed like we were trying to get a Strava KOM until it was apparent the field was back together after the turn onto Spencer Creek.

Oh, by the way, at this point, Sam Schartz had been off the front for like half a lap.  The pack stopped doing an organized chase everyone-for-themselves-attempt-to-breakaway and eased up.  However, I was at the back and just kept my race speed wondering if anyone would follow, but nobody did.  And so I bridged up to Sam Schartz.  He then decided to start hammering for me which was fine by me.  Before the next hill we were joined by Paul Bourcier and Kai Applequist and we worked well together.  The next lap a sizeable group including Colby WM, Kyle Medlin and maybe 2-3 others joined us.

At this point, those 3 that had basically gone from the gun had 2:30 on us.  But then our race official car stopped us at the top of Briggs Hill cause an ambulance had blocked the way.  And we learned that those 3 had passed the lead car!  And the refs said they were disqualified and no longer the race leaders.  The rest of the peleton was also stopped at maybe 1:30 behind us.

This changed the dynamic quite a bit and it sure seemed like Colby and Kai who were up in the GC were no longer interested in doing much work.  So after we had climbed Fox Hollow it was grupo compacto except for Paul Bourcier who went just before we were caught.  Bedford guttered us all and asked me who had the gap to which I replied "GASP GASP GASP, paul bourcier, GASP GASP GASP."  And he saw that the entire field was behind him so he didn't feel like going again, I guess.  After a little bit of people waiting for someone to do something I put in my final getaway attempt right before Territorial rd and saw that I was getting away.  I got into TT mode for 30 pedal strokes, set my eyes on Bourcier, then checked behind and saw some attempts to bridge to me.  And then I was in TT mode for 2 minutes, set my eyes on Bourcier who I was catching up to, then checked behind and saw the gap was growing to the field.  And this continued up Briggs hill where I caught Bourcier at the top.

We then drilled it very cooperatively all the way until Bourcier gave me the flick with 300m at which point I unleashed the stompie.  I had to give it one final push at 50m to win by half a wheel.  It was a good win, but I was most pleased that I had gotten away from the coulda-woulda-shoulda group.  In fact Paul and I had gotten away to the tune of 2:30!  And that put me in the lead by 3 seconds.

Then Alex and I went out for Thai and I stopped at Laughing Planet for another burrito.

Coburg TT

I was pretty happy about my TT.  It was crappy weather, but I was able to put in a great time and lost only 9 seconds to Paul Bourcier (Paul has beat me in every TT at the stage races this year).  Also, Colby and English didn't gain anywhere close enough time to get back on GC.  Oh, and I got to ride my awesome TT Bike.

Crit

Well, it was just flat and stuff.  Oh and it started raining at the start so it was slick.  Sam Schartz had exploded yesterday, so he was down on GC and nobody seemed interested in chasing him when he went.  But somehow Kaler Marshall also snuck away and both of them lapped us all!  The rest of the race was or really all of it was Paul and I mostly defending GC and everyone else attacking.  I also did a few attacks but when it became clear that Carl Hoefer was gonna take those remaining 4 bonus seconds for third, I settled for a pack finish and prayed that Kaler Marshall hadn't hoped up too high in GC.





Turned out Kaler jumped from 5th to 3rd with me grabbing 2nd GC and Paul Bourcier finally winning his first Eugene Celebration Stage Race in the p1/2s after 80 attempts.