7 seconds

After a troubling ride at Mt Hamilton, where I went over the top with the leaders, then proceeded to ride directly off the road on the decent, and lost contact, I got a shot at Mt Hood.

After a wet start in Portland, where we had a Prologue TT and a hilly crit, the racing really got underway on stage 3 around Mt Adams in Washington.  The course was absolutely beautiful, but I was unable to take my eyes off the riders in front of me as we were pretty much single-file for the entire race with the United Healthcare team setting tempo for the 100miles.  I was feeling good, and even made it too the front on one of the technical snow covered descents.  Unfortunately, I got caught out towards the finish, when the race leader Morgan Schmidt flatted and the field sat up to let him rejoin.  When he made it back to the front, there was a HUGE surge, and the road at that point was little more than a dirt path and a steady 6% grade that caused major splits. I got stuffed into the second group, while a few cat 2's made it into the lead and got over a minute on us.  I finished 5th on the stage.

The following stage was the 18.5 mi TT along the Columbia River.  With a headwind and 2 moderate sized climbs, it was a very difficult stage.  After a demoralizing start where I was passed by both my 30sec and 60sec men after only 5 miles, I settled in and managed to turn a decent time.  I moved into 2nd place on the cat 2 GC.

With the Queen stage of 10,000 feet of climbing, and 92 miles, I knew anything could happen...but I didn't expect to be the "virtual leader" on the road.  The leader got a puncture on the first major climb and was unable to make it back into the speeding peloton. UHC was setting tempo and other teams were attacking all day, but a breakaway never escaped which kept the pace brutally fast the entire race(Avg 25m/hr!!!).  With 20km to go, I knew that I had to hold the wheel of the guy behind me on GC (13sec. back) and I could win the race.....but, by then I was pretty trashed...when you are riding single file for hours, it is hard to eat anything.
With 5km to go all I could do was stare at the hub of the 3rd place guy and follow its every move.  He(and his teammates) threw in some pretty hard digs, but I kept contact...until about 1km to go where I was completely spent, and I let the smallest gap open, but he saw, and attacked yet again-like a shark tasting blood.

I let him go, I had nothing.  A deep breath refueled my brain, and then I realized what slipped through my fingers, but there was no fixing it--he was gone.  Scott Grey ended up with a 20 second gap which gave him a 7 second lead on GC.  And after a wet, and essentially neutralized crit the following day, It was final--2nd place.  A bittersweet ending to my favorite Oregon Race.

My fitness is coming along nicely in preparation for the U23 Nationals Road Race in 2 weeks.  I am hoping for a little better conditions, as last year, it was over 100 degrees as we raced in the middle of the day.  Warm Bay Area weather will at least get my body acclimated to riding in the heat, but nothing like that dry desert air.