Neil Shirley Mt. Hood Classic Diary – Stage 2

5/15/08 - What an awesome race! Today’s stage was held in Tabor Park, which is a gorgeous setting up on a hill overlooking downtown Portland. This was technically a criterium, but with 130’ of climbing over 2k’s it wasn’t your standard four corner flat crit. The organizers outdid themselves with this venue; it was epic! This was a new stage this year so no one was quite sure how it would unfold. While pre-riding the course I realized how important positioning for every lap would be. If you slacked off for even one lap you could be in trouble. Well, the 90-minute race got under way and as expected it was fast from the beginning. I made sure I sat in the top 30 and tried to limit my efforts for the first 30 minutes. Bissell was immediately on the front of the race. They did an amazing job the first hour, keeping the pace so high that no break aways could get established. I was coming around in the second half and had no problem accelerating on the climb with the front group. Riders were going out the back as the fast pace and the climb ate into the legs. Bissell was feeling the pressure with 20 minutes to go and I thought a break was going to go, but as usual I was wrong. I made sure I was riding heads up to make a potential break but it never materialized as Bissell kept scrapping it out and held on until the end. Toyota took over with a lap to go for their sprinters and our big guy Evan Elken slotted himself onto the Symmetrics train. I was sitting top 15 and thought I might have a shot to move into the top 10 but as soon as the sprint started I got pushed around a bit and slipped back but stayed in the front group. Evan wasn’t able to follow Symmetrics to the finish, to bad since their sprinter, Pinfold, got third. Toyota showed that they have the sprint team to beat with Hilton Clarke taking the win Toyota’s and potential GC winner Stevic in second. All four of us Bean Teamer’s finished on the same time as the winner and set up well for the next few big GC days. We’re all feeling good, so we’ll see. I am excited for tomorrow’s 90-mile climbing day to finally blow out the legs and see how I’m going. Until tomorrow...

Neil Shirley
NeilShirley.com