Cascade

First: congrats to Cadel Evans. Never before has anyone looked so much like a shaved pug and still won the Tour.

They're twins.

Anyways, this weekend was Cascade. It's 3 days, 4 stages, and a lot of pain. The first day was a 70 mile road race with a 10k climb at the end. I learned about 5 miles too late that I couldn't shift up into the 53 tooth ring. Well, I could pull on the cable at the down tube, then hold it up with the shifter, but I couldn't keep it there for very long. So I just did the whole stage in the small ring. I decided to Clif Bar it up at about mile 60. Then the road turned up mid-chew and I lost a bunch of spots while gasping for air while chewing. I was still at the back of the pack on at the bottom of the climb. Then I was off the back of the climb. I chased the rest of the way up the hill and came in a couple minutes down.

The time trial was hard. TTs are always hard, but this one is hard and uphill. I was mediocre as usual, but I did have some excitement. I was nearly kicked out of the race by this guy.

Now for the good part. The crit course there is a long, slightly downhill straightaway through the start finish, two corners that are really close together, a long, slightly uphill straightaway, and a bottleneck down to one lane coming into two corners that are really close together. This was the hardest crit I did last year. When I say I "did" it, I really mean I "started." We only raced for a half an hour, so it was really fast. I tried being faster than everybody else a few times and went off the front. Nothing ever got away, so I stopped trying after about 15 minutes. I got shuffled a little coming into the last lap and wound up about 30 riders back. I waited until the backside and powered past about 20 guys through there. Then I went really hairball into corner 3 and moved up a few more spots. I came out of corner 4 5th wheel, perfectly positioned for the sprint. I knew I couldn't hold the field off for all three blocks to the line, so I waited a little. I was still the first one to jump. That worked for a while. For 250 of the last 300 yards, there was nothing between me and the line. A guy came around me with about 50 to go and just put in a better sprint than me. I tried but couldn't quite catch him. I wound up in 2nd place.

That's beer you're seeing. Typically, cash is given for doing well at races. I tend to take that cash and buy beer, so this saves a trip to the store.

Stage 4 is the Awbrey Butte Circuit. It's like racing dump loops, which I enjoy doing. It's a bunch of short, steep climbs then a sprint for the line. I liked my odds on that course. We were the only field that didn't get the whole road, so I had to work really hard at staying at the front. That didn't always work, and I had to move up in the corners and hills. Somebody yelled at me for moving up in the corner. I apparently "did the same sh*t in the crit." The same sh*t all the way to the bank! I didn't really care and just kept doing it. I didn't ever actually see who was yelling at me. I would have been intentionally sketchy around him if I had. I moved up a lot on the Archie Briggs climb every lap, so that was a complete reversal of last year. I made it with the lead group over Archie Briggs on the last lap, and was scheming for the sprint. I wanted to make another crazy maneuver in the final roundabout and get a gap between me and the rest of the field. Back in reality, there were cars parked on the descent. We got all slowed down and I got confused and moved to the back of the pack. Had I known about the cars, I would have attacked over the top of the climb and gone crazy through the cars. But I didn't, and just wound up shuffled. I finished in the pack. When I got back to the car, Josh had drank all of my remaining podium beers. He made Ben drive him home. We're an elite cycling team like that.

It says so on the trailer.