Cherry Blossom Stage Race, Full Report

Cherry Blossom Stage Race Report –

3-days back from Walla-Walla, the guys headed off the The Dalles, Oregon in search of the Cherry Blossom Stage Race and a win.

Here’s Pat's report from Oregon.cyclingaction.com –please visit his site and buy a t-shirt and support Oregon.cyclingAction.com –keep Pat reporting on the Pacific Northwest cycling action!

Stage 1 -

THE DALLES — Rubicon-Orbea’s Patrick “Paddy” Bevin notched his first Oregon stage win Friday at Cherry Blossom’s Columbia Hills Road Race by spending the entire morning off the front of the 90+ rider Pro/1/2 men’s field and crossing the line alone nearly two minutes ahead of the bunched-up field.

The New Zealand U19 rider of the year was the first to bust off the front of the pack in the opening kilometers before another handful of riders bridged up to him. When that group was quickly reeled in near the top of the course’s major climb — about 12 miles into the nearly 20-mile course — Bevin rolled off the front again, this time with Hagens Berman’s Phil Elsasser in tow, and the pair quickly built a workable gap.

“I was pretty keen to have a day off the front and just ride aggressive,” Bevin said of his opportunistic win. “I didn’t think I’d finish solo. I was bait, basically, and I was hoping there’d be a group of five or six and we’d roll hard and we’d decide the tour, basically. But as it happens.”

As it happens, Bevin and Elsasser worked well together and started accumulating time, topping four minutes at their largest advantage. But after a pair of flat tires, one for each rider, Elsasser dropped off the pace when Bevin pressed the issue at the start of the last lap.

“That guy was really strong, and we just rode through steady,” Elsasser said of his breakaway companion. “I thought I was holding back a little bit, but I flatted maybe 5k before the start of the third lap and then got back on. Then he flatted in the same place on the next lap and then got back on. Maybe 2k after that he attacked me. I held him for a while, and then I just didn’t have it. He was quite a bit stronger than me. He stood up, shifted down a couple gears and was gone.”

The pair started the last lap with a gap of about two minutes, Bevin said he needed to attack and drop Elsasser if he wanted to have a chance to win the race, even if it meant holding off the now-chasing field for an entire lap.

“It was a bit longer than I wanted,” Bevin said. “To be honest, I don’t think (Elsasser’s) heart was in the break. He had the team manager in his ear with signs, and so if he’s going to be like that, I’ll go solo. When he punctured, he kind of lost his momentum. The speed dropped a bit, and I was pretty sure that if I wanted to stay away I’d have to leave him be. I’d just got back on after a puncture, so I pulled a couple times and thought, well, it’s earlier than I want it to be, but I knew I had heaps and heaps in the legs.”

Those heaps propelled Bevin through the flat fast tailwind section and added more time onto his advantage by the time he crested the major climb for the last time. Bevin said his confidence peaked when he came through the feed zone on the last lap with a gap of three minutes.

He was sort of right. At the finish Bevin had dropped a minute to the pack from his split at the feed zone, but over the entire last lap he only lost a few seconds. , which crossed the line 1:53 later, but he only Hagens Berman’s Sam Johnson led the field across the line for second 1:53 later in front of Rubicon-Orbea’s Mike Northey in third. Lenovo, which had been active in the last part of the race trying to track down Bevin, also led out the sprint but was denied a podium spot.

Johnson said he capitalized on Lenovo’s late-race efforts.

“Chris Wingfield went up the road with another guy, and they were rotating with with about a k to go,” he said. “(Lenovo’s) Ian McKissick decided to just put an end to it. He chased them down finally. He was basically just saying I’m not letting anybody off the front. I was on his wheel going into the last k. Lenovo’s Shawn Ongers led it out, and I was on (Rubicon-Orbea’s) Mike Northey, and I just kind of came around him in the last hundred.”

Northey, New Zealnd’s U23 National Criterium Champion, said he didn’t realize riders had full use of the road for the finish, or things may have ended differently.

“I rode bang on the centerline the whole way,” he said, “and if I’d swung left I’d probably got second.”

Chalk that one up to experience, the kind that Bevin has been picking up quickly during his brief foray into U.S. racing. The young rider said competing in last week’s Tour of Walla Walla with some of the same teams that are in this race helped boost his confidence in the final stretch to the line.

“In my mind, I knew (Lenovo) would be the ones chasing, but they’d also be a little bit gun shy after last week with Walla Walla, where they got worked over on the last stage,” he said. “It’s a funny game, cycling.”

Stage 2 -

THE DALLES — Sending riders over Cherry Blossom’s stage 2 Orchard Run Circuit Race was like dropping a bomb on the peloton; fields disintegrated early in the race into small groups fighting for survival on the constantly up-or-down roads as the Gorge’s infamous winds blasted through.

Despite the carnage behind them, the top two riders from Friday’s Stage 1 simply swapped spots on the podium after Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman) and Patrick Bevin (Rubicon-Orbea) got away with a small group the second time up the gravel climb. They soon whittled the break down to two and then battled to the final steep finishing pitch, where Johnson outgunned his young rival for the win. Bevin finished just three seconds later and held onto his leader’s jersey with a 1:50 lead over Johnson. Lenovo’s Ian McKissick finished third on the day, more than four minutes back, and now sits third overall at 6:05 behind Bevin.

With more than 8,000 feet of climbing in just 70 miles, the new Cherry Blossom course was merciless. Riders circled twice around a short, six-mile loop and then headed off for four laps of a larger 15-mile circuit that included a 1.5 mile gravel climb and a twisting descent back into the orchard strewn valley.

“That’s my hardest day of racing in Oregon — big time,” said Jelly Belly’s Jacob Rathe, who finished sixth on the day more than seven minutes back and now sits fifth overall.

The field quickly fell prey to the efforts the race’s two strongest riders, with Bevin matching Johnson’s attacks on his leader’s jersey, a feat he said was not so easy.

“That was a tough day on the bike,” Bevin said. “We knew with four guys we were going to be up against it, but I think you saw the two strongest guys in the end. Sam was amazing. Actually, the gravel it was something to see; he had me on the rivet, and he did a lot of the work.”

The pair escaped the field by bridging up to early escapees McKissick and Bevin’s teammate Mike Northey on the second gravel ascent. Johnson said he tried to shake the race leader with his attack, and it almost worked, but Northey saved the day and maybe his teammate’s overall lead.

“I got up to McKissick and we were working together a little bit,” Johnson said. “But then Northey dropped back, got Bevin and pulled him back up to us.”

The four riders worked steadily and began building a gap when another Johnson attack shed Northey from the group. (Northey later crashed out of the race). McKissick was next to go when Johnson attacked the third time up the gravel, but Bevin hung tightly to his GC rival’s wheel, and the pair started the last lap together.

“I tried real hard on the crest of the gravel climb and then on the tailwind climb to drop him, but he just wasn’t gonna get shaken,” Johnson said. “So I figured I’d ride for the stage win and put time into McKissick because I know he’s probably gonna win (Sunday’s time trial).”

With 1k to go, Johnson stopped pulling and forced Bevin into the lead, which he took into the final corner up the 300-meter pitch to the finish. Johnson jumped at the bottom of the straight, and Bevin tried to counter but had nothing.

“I butchered the sprint,” Johnson said. “I went way too early. But we were both cramping, and I still got him. He was feeling just as bad as I was. So, not bad. A stage win and move closer in GC.”

Bevin said the sprint played itself out slowly on the uphill grind to the finish.

“It came down to a bit of a slow-motion sprint, but I was toasted,” he said. “And (Johnson) had done so much work. I wasn’t sad to see him win.”

With less than two minutes between them on overall time, and the nearest competition lagging more than six minutes behind, it appears to be a two-man race for the 2010 overall crown. Johnson will have two more chances to eat into Bevin’s lead. The Sunday morning time trial will be his best bet, although it’s only 10 miles. Then there’s an afternoon criterium on a long four-corner course that’s not conducive to breakaways.

Stage 3 -

10 mile out and back time trial; Ian McKissick won, but not far back was Patrick Bevin at in fourth -baring anything crazy, Patrick should win the Cherry Blossom Stage Race.

Stage 4 -

Rubicon-Orbea’s Patrick Bevin couldn’t resist adding another cherry to his overall crown at the 2010 Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic. New Zealand’s U19 rider of the year picked off the Cherry City Criterium Sunday afternoon from a flying field that averaged just under 30 mph for the 50-minute event.

With his teammate Mike Northey out of the race because of a crash on stage two, and teammate Roman Van Uden missing the entire stage race because of an injury he suffered at the messy NRC Dana Point Criterium, Bevin had just two helpers left in the bunch to defend the jersey. But it was more than enough.

“It went really well with the boys,” Bevin said later. “Quinn (Keogh) and Aaron (Tuckerman) rode really well. I was never really worried. I only had to keep an eye on one guy, and he was kind of hard to find for awhile. I think he was kind of sore. Then, coming down to the money end, it just stepped up real nice. It was quite spread out. There were a few gaps, which is good because I like it quicker. Coming into that last corner I was fourth wheel and just lined it up.”

Jelly Belly’s Jacob Rathe finished second, clinging to Bevin’s wheel but not able to get around, and Steven Beardlsey, (Gentle Lovers) finished third.

“He queued up on my wheel,” Bevin said of Rathe. “I had a sneaky look back with about five to go, because I knew he was looking for me.”

But Bevin’s two-rider lead out and his top-end speed proved too much for the Jelly belly rider who is now headed to Europe with the USA Cycling U23 National Team.

“The guys had to go early on the back straight because we had Quinn who was second, and normally would have rolled first, so there was that panic,” Bevin said. “But then things stepped up fast and I came up into perfect position.”

The top end of the General Classification remained unchanged after the criterium, with stage two winner Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman) nailing second and stage three winner Ian McKissick (Lenovo) in third. Johnson, who bided his team in the bunch during the crit and helped try to move teammate Phil Elasser up in GC, said he was happy with his second-place showing this year after finishing fourth last year.

“This felt a lot better,” he said. “I got stage win, and that just feels fantastic. Patrick Bevin was super strong, but I wish that we could replay that first stage and see what would happen if we didn’t give him a two-minute head start on the first day. But, honestly, he is incredibly strong and he is a very deserving winner, as he proved today with that crit win.”

And Bevin also, even as he was soaking up the prizes and the cheers that went along with his first U.S. stage race win, wondered if he couldn’t have pulled it off with a little less pain.

“I still maintain that if I knew how hard stage two was going to be I’d change my tactics,” he joked. “I was pretty sore this morning for the TT. But I felt good tonight.”

Bevin, who finished 11th at the NRC Dana Point Grand Prix Criterium after narrowly avoiding the late-race melee that took out Van Uden, plans to continue his U.S. campaign this coming week at the Tour of the Gila.

“I’ve never raced at altitude, so I’ve got no real expectations,” he said. “I hope to survive the first and last stage and hopefully throw my hand up for the middle two. Then we’ll do Joe Martin the week after, which suits me a lot better.”

RESULTS
Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic
Stage 4 Criterium
Sunday, April 24

Pro/1/2 Men
1. BEVIN, Patrick L(Rubicon-Orbea) 49:44 @ 0
2. RATHE, Jacob (Jelly Belly Cycling) ” ”
3. BEARDSLEY, Steven (Gentle Lovers) ” ”
4. REEB, Donald (HP Chiro/Scott’s Cycles)” ”
5. TRAFTON, Brandon (California Giant Berry Farms) ” ”

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION

1. BEVIN, Patrick (Landrover Orbea) 7:40:05 @ 00:00
2. JOHNSON, Sam (Hagens Berman) 7:41:17 @ 01:12
3. MCKISSICK, Ian (LENOVO) 7:44:57 @ 04:52
4. REYNOLDS, Lang (Hagens Berman) 7:48:49 @ 08:44
5. RATHE, Jacob (Jelly Belly Cycling) 7:49:09 @ 09:04