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Cascade Classic - NE
Oregon, USA, July 6-10, 2005
Stage 1 - July 6: Brooks Resources Prineville Road Race, 105 miles
Fraser wins in painful slow-mo sprint
By Rob Karman
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Canadian National Champ Gord Fraser (Health Net pb Maxxis) is no stranger to stage wins or leaders jerseys, though most if not all of them have come to him in different ways than today's. Known for his fast finish in bunch gallops to the line, Fraser joined a breakaway of 6 early on in the hilly 130 mile stage and climbed his way into the yellow leaders jersey on the steep finishing climb atop Pilot Butte in Bend, OR.
After a few miles of neutral rollout from the host town on Bend, the attacks came fast and furious as soon as the flag was dropped signifying the race was on. Several combos both large and small tried to escape the grip of the peloton, but none would stick for more than a handful of seconds until Chuck Coyle (Vitamin Cottage) made a bold solo move 13 miles into the stage. He quickly gained ground and a chase group of 5 bridged up a few miles later. In the group was Fraser, Coyle, Phil Zajicek (Navigators), Johnny Sundt (Jittery Joe's), Zach Taylor (TIAA-CREF), and Taylor Tolleson (California Giant Strawberries). With many of the major teams represented and a long day ahead in the hot sun, the pack was content to let them go and the gap ballooned to 3 minutes very quickly.
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Not wanting to be left out of the action, Sea Silver sent the pair of Kyle Gritters and Curtis Gunn in pursuit as the gap continued to grow. 3 minutes soon grew to over 6 as the race rolled through the town of Prineville and the Robberson's Ford Hot Spot Sprint taken by Tolleson. The Sea Silver duo was making ground as the pack fell further behind and it began to look as though the break might succeed to the finish.
On the lower slopes of the day's main climb, Gritters and Gunn made contact and the now 8 leaders set tempo up the climb. Toward the top, Fraser went back to his team car to get a bottle just as Zajicek took a pull on the front which was just too much for some of the others. After a moments hesitation, Fraser bridged up and the race was made. Over the top of the second KOM they had 15 seconds and the two Tucson residents felt like they were on a typical training ride together... into a block headwind for 50 miles with a pack chasing them.
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The final climb loomed ahead as it was in view for most of the final 20 miles. Most people's money was on Zajicek, but as the road steepened in the final km, he started to feel the effects of his longest ride since breaking his foot at the Excel Sports Boulder Stage Race in May and cramps set in. Fraser started to pull away but with 150 meters to go he started to cramp as well and Zajicek closed in. In what Fraser described as the world's slowest sprint, he took the win by a half a wheel.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by
- National Champions Chris Wherry and Gord Fraser (Health Net) pose with a fan before the start
- Gord Fraser leads the break
- The break ot a big gap very quickly
- Johnny Sundt (Jittery Joe's) leads out the first KOM sprint...
- ...but Phil Zajicek (Navigators) comes around him for the KOM points
- This large early break away lasted less than a minute
- Jonny Sundt drives the break
- Strong winds spread the race out a cross the road
- Chuck Coyle (Vitamin Cottage) instigates the winning move
- Taylor Tolleson (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) takes the sprint in front of the Prineville county court house
- Phil Zajicek leads Gord Fraser over the top of the second KOM
- Zajicek and Fraser did a two man TT for about 50 miles
- Kyle Gritters and Curtis Gunn (Seasilver) make contact
- Bend's own "La Diablo" cheers on a racer with 500 meters to go
- Fraser leads Zajicek with 1k to go
- All smiles on the podium
Results
1 Gord Fraser (Health Net/Maxxis) 4.38.19 2 Phil Zajicek (Navigators) 3 Cesar Grajales (Navigators) 0.57 4 Chris Wherry (Health Net/Maxxis) 5 Nathan O'Neill (Navigators) 1.07 6 Cameron Hughes (Subway) 1.16 7 Aaron Olson (Colavita/Sutter Home) 1.22 8 Ben Jacques-Maynes (Kodak Gallery) 1.23 9 Cameron Brenneman (Kahala LaGrange) 10 Neil Shirley (Seasilver) 11 John Hunt (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) 12 James Mattis (Webcor) 13 Andrew Bajadali (Vitamin Cottage) 14 Daniel Bowman (TIAA-CREF) 15 Josh Horowitz (Kahala LaGrange) 1.35 16 Doug Ollerenshaw (Health Net/Maxxis) 17 Jeff Louder (Navigators) 18 Tim Johnson (Jittery Joe's) 19 Russell Stevenson (Benaroya Research) 20 Kevin Bouchard-Hall (US National Team) 21 Scott Moninger (Health Net/Maxxis) 22 Taylor Tolleson (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) 23 Burke Swindlehurst (Seasilver) 24 Steven Cozza (USA U-23 National) 25 Christopher Brennan (Team Rio Grande) 1.52 26 Blake Caldwell (TIAA-CREF) 27 Zachary Taylor (TIAA-CREF) 28 Christopher Jones (Karl Strauss/SDBC) 29 Andrew Fischer (Broadmark Capital) 30 Roman Kilun (McGuire/Langdale) 31 David Robinson (TIAA-CREF) 2.01 32 Tom Peterson (Broadmark Capital) 33 Gonzalo Tagliabue (TitleOne/Orbea) 34 Geoff Rapoport (McGuire/Langdale) 2.09 35 Christopher Baldwin (Navigators) 36 Glenn Fant (Monex) 2.15 37 Andres Gil (Delta Velo) 38 Pat Dunaway (McGuire/Langdale) 39 Eric Pardyjak (Park City Cycling Academy) 2.23 41 Craig Wilcox (Jittery Joe's) 42 Kyle Gritters (Seasilver) 43 Chris Lieto (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) 2.29 44 Michael Sayers (Health Net/Maxxis) 45 Esteban Jukich (TitleOne/Orbea) 2.39 46 Aaron Tuckerman (Team Rubicon) 2.43 47 Jason Bausch (Seasilver) 2.46 48 Ryan Yee (Seasilver) 49 Jon Tarkington (Vitamin Cottage) 50 Curtis Gunn (Seasilver) 51 Mike Zagorski (Unattached) 2.56 52 Chad Nikolz (Benaroya Research) 53 Todd Cornelius (Subway) 3.01 54 Jonathan Denison (TitleOne/Orbea) 55 Marc Collard (Webcor) 56 Jonny Sundt (Jittery Joe's) 3.12 57 Tom Zirbel (Sports Garage) 58 Christian Johnson (Park City Cycling Academy) 59 David Richter (Subway) 60 Jesse Gordon (Park City Cycling Academy) 3.27 61 Zak Grabowski (TIAA-CREF) 3.33 62 Justin Morgan (Broadmark Capital) 63 Evan Elken (Jittery Joe's) 64 Sheldon Deeny (TIAA-CREF) 65 Tyler Farrar (Health Net/Maxxis) 66 Jeff Hopkins (Jittery Joe's) 3.44 67 Ian MacGregor (TIAA-CREF) 4.06 68 Bernard van Ulden (Webcor) 4.10 69 Sterling Magnell (Monex) 4.15 70 Zack Walker (McGuire/Langdale) 71 Matt Dubberley (McGuire/Langdale) 72 Benjamin Stafford (Webcor) 4.21 73 Pleasure Jackson (Broadmark Capital) 4.30 74 Patrick Briggs (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) 4.38 75 Tad Hamilton (TitleOne/Orbea) 76 Remi Mcmanus (Subway) 4.44 77 Calvin Allan (BODE Cycling) 78 Aron Huerta (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) 5.23 79 Kirk O'Bee (Navigators) 5.48 80 Oleg Grishkine (Navigators) 7.42 81 Omer Kem (Subway) 10.51 82 Adam Curry (Broadmark Capital) 11.36 83 troy critchlow (Broadmark Capital) 12.34 84 Alex Rock (Porcupine/Contender) 85 Owen Gue (Broadmark Capital) 12.46 86 Charles Coyle (Vitamin Cottage) 13.51 87 Shawn Milne (Navigators) 15.47 88 Ian Tubbs (Broadmark Capital) 21.43 89 Dario Falquier (Webcor) 26.26 90 Mike Henry (Benaroya Research) 31.26 Teams 1 Navigators 13.57.01 2 Health Net 0.28 3 TIAA-CREF 3.03 4 Seasilver 3.17 5 Cal Giant / Village Peddler 3.23 6 Mcguire / Langdale 4.12 7 Benaroya Research 4.50 8 Jittery Joe's 5.06 9 Broadmark Capital Cycling 5.22 10 Subway 5.25 11 Titleone / Orbea 5.37 12 Webcor Builders Cycling Team 6.30 Mountains classification after stage 1 1 Phil Zajicek (Navigators) 16 pts 2 Gord Fraser (Health Net/Maxxis) 13 3 Jonny Sundt (Jittery Joe's) 5 4 Cesar Grajales (Navigators) 3 5 Taylor Tolleson (Cal Giant/Village Peddlar) 2 6 Chris Wherry (Health Net/Maxxis) 2 7 Nathan O'Neill (Navigators) 1 8 Curtis Gunn (Seasilver) 1
