Mt. Hood Classic- Day 4: Downtown Hood River Criterium, and wrapup

Short but sweet.... that's the story of yesterday's final stage!

It was a hot and surprisingly humid day in downtown Hood River. After picking the short straw, Craig got stuck driving the rental car down from the Cooper Spur Inn while the rest of us got a nice 23mi, mostly downhill warmup, allowing us to slowly bid adieu to the beauty of Mt. Hood's subalpine forests.

I could not have imagined a better crit course. Lots of turns, with short stairstep climbing pitches inbetween, an uphill finish, and a fast, off-camber hairpin descent into a tailwind backstretch through the 'stink' (the backside of the Full Sail Brewery: Essence de fermentation, according to vintner Craig).

The day before, I lost 2'20" to the 6 leaders on the final 35mi climb, and Jonathan "Jock" Boyer (first American in the TdF, former winner of the Coors Classic) displaced me for the last GC podium spot. With a 34" deficit to Jock, I was eager to get away in the crit without him and try to move into 3rd GC. I was hoping he might be a bit tired from the previous day's herculean efforts (according to Kev, Jock was doing the Lion's share of the work in the break), but I could not shake him and it soon became evident that due to the brevity of the race, no single move would gain more than 10-12" on the field.

So I decided to wait and watch. Dan Martin and Kev had been dangling 6-12" OTF almost from the gun, and traded a Nike rider (who got dropped) for Shaun Locker (who bridged) in the closing laps. Random riders made sporadic efforts to get across, but Craig, Dylan and I were vigilant and smothered these attempts.

With 6 to go, OV (the poor bugger) was following an Amgen rider during one of these attempts and I hooked up to his wheel. Cresting the first rise, he looked over his inside shoulder for a tenth of a second... just long enough to miss the Amgen rider slipping on a manhole cover and going straight into the pavement. Mike barely had time to turn his head back around before he was in a full somersault, airborne and over the top of the crumpled Amgen rider. Amazingly, Mike took a free lap (along with Dylan) and got back in, but I'm sure he was too shaken to salvage a result with only a few laps remaining at that point. He banged up his knee pretty good, and I hope he's OK. Didn't hear about how the Amgen rider fared.

Craig and I continued to watch the gap as the race drew to a close. Dan Martin picked up a number of primes in the last 6 laps, which sapped some of his go-juice, and with 2 to go the gap was down to 6 seconds. With 1 to go, the field seemed to have given up even though the break was in striking distance. I followed an acceleration to the top of the finish climb, and when this subsided, I knew the time had come. I accelerated into the hairpin and came out of it at full speed. I got away clean and put my head down, digging into the stink of the backstretch with my gaze locked on the backside of the break.

I connected at the top of the first pitch, a mere 250m from the line, and immediately concealed myself from Martin, who was second wheel behind Kev and getting ready to start his acceleration to the line. I knew I had to get the jump on him, so I inserted myself between the two, swung to the inside, and held it for the win. Shaun was 2nd and Kev 3rd, while Craig hung on for 9th.

Props to the Safeway crew for a fine four days of racing! Mike and Robert rode their tails off to secure Dan's GC victory. Those guys really earned it.

The 6 of us were very happy with how we raced, and came away with a more thorough appreciation of each other's strengths. Everyone made the most of their talents and rode selflessly on behalf of the team. Dylan's wealth of experience and perspective was pivotal in defining strategy each day. What a great team effort!

Jeff