Back to Oregon for some crazy bananas

all that really needs to be said about Sunday
photo courtesy of Oregon Cycling Action

After spending the past few weeks racing up in Washington we brought it back south to race the third Banana Belt, which just happened to be the first race in the Oregon Cup series.  We didn't really have any plans for either series, we were just there to race as a team and see what we could come away with.

The plan was simple, keep the race together for the first two (of seven) laps and then start putting people up the road.  Kolben, Eli and I covered the early moves which essentially turned into a group ride.  I'm not sure if it was the presence of 8 Team Oregon riders in a 33 rider field or just the favorites marking each other.


Almost two laps in Will put in a dig and the field just let him ride away.  A short while later Adam followed a Veloce rider's bridge up to Will and the three of them went to work.  They quickly gained a minute on the field but were never able to get any more than that.  Colby, the 18-year-old-bound-to-be-pro, just sat and drilled it on the front.  Sure, we'd like to see Adam and Will ride away but if we could make Colby burn even half of his Costco-sized box of matches none of us were going to complain.

A lap later the break started to come back and the favorites started to make their way to the front.  And then it happened, someone let go of Bedford's leash for just a second and he was gone.  A super stacked break established and I sat there thinking "yep, there is goes, mission complete."  And then Bedford looked around, decided he didn't feel like playing tow truck for four laps and shattered that group.  Only one Veloce rider was able to follow and Bedford made short work of him, soloing the last lap and winning in style.  The final split: 4:30 from Bedford to a chase group of 3 and another 1:30 to the remnants of the field.

Will putting in the first big move of the day
photo courtesy of Oregon Cycling Action

Back in the field we had the pleasure of shutting down anything that moved.  Not too hard since Bedford's show of dominance took the fight out of almost everyone.  Except for the Dave Zibelman 60+ World Champion.  No joke, the one and only Masters' 60+ World Champ was in our field.  Turns out this dude can time trial like none other so when he got a little gap off the front in the closing 5k I knew that was bad news.  We were trying to set up Scott for the field sprint and while it may have just set up Colby, like it did at Cherry Pie, I knew if we didn't bring Zibelman back we'd lose the last points for the Oregon Cup.

photo courtesy of Oregon Cycling Action

So to the front I went.  I was there and I had the legs.  Turns out that dude can time trial.  Like a champ.  I brought him within striking distance but when the field made the surge with about 2k to go I dropped backward faster than a ship dropping anchor.  Success!  Scott took the field sprint and grabbed the last of the Oregon Cup points.  Yep, I finished off the back, again, but it's awesome to see the work pay off.  Overall, a solid race and nice to see we can adapt to situations no matter where we're racing.