Everyone has arrived and is ready to roll for this year's Mt. Hood Classic. Our team line up goes:
Category 3: Derek Titus (me), Matt Heck, Michael Black, Ryan Mongan and Andy James.
Category 4: Ian "DiRtY" Mullins, Patrick Dean, Tim Kibler and Matt Stanigar.
Today's stage was set out to be 47 miles with 5100 feet of elevation gain, rolling out from Toll Bridge park and climbing 15 kilometers up to the Cooper Spur Ski Resort with a hill top finish followed by a long twisty descent back into the orchards to do it all again 3 times. 3 ascents, 2 descents. The stage profile resembeling a triangle.
72 Cat 3 men rolled out at 2:05 into a 2 mile neutral roll out to hwy 30 to begin the long drag up to Cooper Spur. The race featured only a few attacks, however the speeds were fast. The great thing about Mt. Hood is that it's a race of attrition, not a race of tactics. It's about survival, not playing the breakaway game. The field gets widdled down mile by mile.
Matt Heck was holding good position up at the front the entire race, while me and Andy were chillin towards the back. The first 2 times up the climb featured nothing exciting as far as attacks or crashes, but it was hot (85 degrees) and fast.
At the base of the climb for the final time, ominous clouds loomed in the distance. Thundershowers were forecasted, but the start had high temps and blue skies. With 5 miles of climbing left the wind picked up and it began to rain (some of the california guys were whining about it, but I couldn't be happier).
With 2 1/2 miles to go the peloton took the right hander off of the highway and onto the Cooper Spur road (the steeper part of the climb, 6-8%). A few riders attacked while I chased hard to close their gap with a few other non-contributing riders in my slipstream. I never did catch them, which is impressive because I was hauling up that mountain at 17 mph!!! I got counter attacked by a few people that were sitting in my slipstream with 1 kilometer to go, but I still hung on to finish at the back of 5 riders for 12th place, 20 seconds behind the front group. Matt Heck finished notably as well, 1:20 down in the General Classification. And Andy James some 2 minutes down.
Time to eat a truck load of cucina fresca pasta and recover for tomorrow's 18.5 mile grueling Time Trial featuring 2000 feet of climbing and a gnarly headwind. It truly will be the race of truth.
Category 3: Derek Titus (me), Matt Heck, Michael Black, Ryan Mongan and Andy James.
Category 4: Ian "DiRtY" Mullins, Patrick Dean, Tim Kibler and Matt Stanigar.
Today's stage was set out to be 47 miles with 5100 feet of elevation gain, rolling out from Toll Bridge park and climbing 15 kilometers up to the Cooper Spur Ski Resort with a hill top finish followed by a long twisty descent back into the orchards to do it all again 3 times. 3 ascents, 2 descents. The stage profile resembeling a triangle.
72 Cat 3 men rolled out at 2:05 into a 2 mile neutral roll out to hwy 30 to begin the long drag up to Cooper Spur. The race featured only a few attacks, however the speeds were fast. The great thing about Mt. Hood is that it's a race of attrition, not a race of tactics. It's about survival, not playing the breakaway game. The field gets widdled down mile by mile.
Matt Heck was holding good position up at the front the entire race, while me and Andy were chillin towards the back. The first 2 times up the climb featured nothing exciting as far as attacks or crashes, but it was hot (85 degrees) and fast.
At the base of the climb for the final time, ominous clouds loomed in the distance. Thundershowers were forecasted, but the start had high temps and blue skies. With 5 miles of climbing left the wind picked up and it began to rain (some of the california guys were whining about it, but I couldn't be happier).
With 2 1/2 miles to go the peloton took the right hander off of the highway and onto the Cooper Spur road (the steeper part of the climb, 6-8%). A few riders attacked while I chased hard to close their gap with a few other non-contributing riders in my slipstream. I never did catch them, which is impressive because I was hauling up that mountain at 17 mph!!! I got counter attacked by a few people that were sitting in my slipstream with 1 kilometer to go, but I still hung on to finish at the back of 5 riders for 12th place, 20 seconds behind the front group. Matt Heck finished notably as well, 1:20 down in the General Classification. And Andy James some 2 minutes down.
Time to eat a truck load of cucina fresca pasta and recover for tomorrow's 18.5 mile grueling Time Trial featuring 2000 feet of climbing and a gnarly headwind. It truly will be the race of truth.
Thanks to Beki and Gaylord Waisath for providing the pictures. We'll try to get a few on here, until then you can view them at http://www.teampics.smugmug.com/gallery/8445374_hup27#555088408_KFAo2
- Derek
And now to DiRtY to recap the 4's pain.....
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