Toyota-United Wins Cascade Team Competition
0 Comments Published by Unknown on Sunday, July 15, 2007 at 7:27 PM.
Photo by Cascade Events Photography.
Bend, Ore. - Chris Baldwin of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team saw his quest to overtake Phil Zajicek (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team) on the final day of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic end with a sprint for a time bonus that looked like more like a frenzied dash to the line in a European classic.
“We thought it would be us against Phil – which is good for a guy like me,” Baldwin said. “It’s simpler and safer and cleaner. Instead, it seemed like everyone in the race wanted a piece of that first time bonus sprint. Health Net was lining it up, along with every other team. We got swarmed and I was never in front of anyone.”
Baldwin needed to win at least one of the four 15-second time bonus sprints in Sunday’s 80-mile Deschutes Brewery-Awbrey Butte Circuit Race to overcome a 13-second deficit heading into the final stage. Instead, Zajicek powered his way through to take the sprint himself and increase his lead from 13 to 28 seconds on the way to capturing the overall title. Meanwhile, Baldwin logged his third runner-up finish in a stage race this season.
With the way the first sprint played out, Baldwin knew it would be hard to be successful on any of the other three remaining. Said his teammate, Chris Wherry, who won the race overall last year on the exact type of time bonus sprint:
“We had a shot and we took it and it didn’t work out, but that’s kind of how life is sometimes,” Wherry said.
Despite coming up short for the overall title, Toyota-United did have a lot to celebrate after the five-day, six-stage race. The squad won the team classification, Baldwin finished in the top three on four stages, Ivan Dominguez won the downtown criterium Friday night and, in unofficial figuring, Toyota-United is back atop the National Race Calendar team standings (see sidebar).
“We tried to get the overall lead, but coming out with second, fifth and 10th on the GC and the team win was great,” Willett said. “The guys delivered.”
Another stage win for Dominguez was almost in the cards on the final stage, too. The Cuban sprint specialist – racing for only the eighth time since a crash in mid-May – nearly made it over the final climb with the leaders.
“If we get him over that climb, he probably wins the race,” Wherry said. “It’s a big sign of him coming back from his injury that he is coming onto form.”
In addition to Baldwin’s second place overall, Toyota-United placed four riders in the top 15 to win the team classification: Wherry was fifth (1:42 behind Zajicek); Burke Swindlehurst was 10th (3:07 behind) and Justin England was 13th (4:09 behind).
Swindlehurst jumped across a gap that opened after the first time bonus sprint to infiltrate a five-man breakaway that never gained more than a minutes’ lead. However, Swindlehurst made the most of his time on the front by going for the bonus sprints himself.
“I was just doing it (sprinting for the bonuses) to protect Wherry’s position because one of the riders in the group was fairly close to him. It was more to take the time sprints away from that guy than move myself up the standings.”
Swindlehurst picked up a total of 25 seconds in bonus time but it did not move him up on the general classification because he conceded time to the leaders at the finish.
Toyota-United’s other finishers were Heath Blackgrove (26th, 10:51 behind), Stefano Barberi (31st, 12:47 behind) and Dominguez (42nd, 28:04 behind). Jose Manuel “Chepe” Garcia felt the effects of working hard on Stages 4 and 5 and did not finish Sunday’s race.
Kirk O’Bee (Health Net presented by Maxxis) won the final stage in a sprint over Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living.com presented by Parkpre) and Benjamin Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health presented by Bissell.)
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