I am feeling the guilt of not reporting so here is what happened atWalla Walla sunday RR.
The conditions were great to race: 75 to 80 degrees, clear sky andonly moderately windy.The first part of the race was relatively mellow with a few attacksand a couple of guys sticking to the front for just a few miles. As wearrived close to Walla Walla the pace increases as we were gettingmore exposed to the wind. Greg made an appearance to the front andstretched the pack even more as he took one “beast of a pull”.
As we arrived close to the hill on the back side 3 guys were up thefront from 3 teams: IJM, cucina and hagens. Greg took another strongpull and I knew that was for me. I decided to go for it as I had beenriding quite conservatively over the weekend. I launched an attack andbridged the breakaway, dragging another cucina guy with me. Therewere 5 of us now. As we went over the hill, it was clear that we werenot a great match as far as strength goes. That’s when the cucina guy,Matt, and I dropped the rest of the guys. With 50 miles to go, it mayseem like a mistake but the other guys were surely not moving fastenough!
The road going to Waitsburg was torture for the 2 of us with roughpavement and head wind. With a gap of 1min 30s, we knew we had a goodshot for the KOM but were quickly running out of steam. We agreed tosplit the prime and tempoed up the hill. As we made it through theline we decided to stop our effort and waited for the pack. It lookedvery lean and dispatched as it passed us but the pace slowed downdramatically after that. Perfect for recovering! I spotted Lyle, thenJay and Greg but no Ben, who I learned had been fatally isolated onthe backside downhill.
The decisive move happened before the feeding zone as 3 guys, amongwhich figured the stage and GC winner, a Whitman racer, took off. Thepack did not react and it took a while before the leader of the racestarted the chase (with no teammates). The pace picked up on thebackside before the hill; we were single-lined as suddenly a nastycrash occurred from the front of the pack. 2 guys were entangled onthe pavement and another 3 or 4 had to stop for mechanical issues.
As we got to the foot of the last hill, it was the usual mess ofeveryone trying to get positioned. The firework was initiated. As wetook that right turn 2 guys just in front of me went down for no otherreason than being hypoxic and brain dead. I blocked my rear wheel andthe guy behind me leaned on it but we both managed to stay upright.As the pace steadily accelerated a group of 30 guys, then 20 stayedtogether. In the last km several guys attacked and I could see Lylevery well positioned. I was happy my screaming legs could take me tothe line without too much damage and finished 19th about 15s behindthe leader of the group. From the breakaway, only the Whitman guysurvived with a 30s gap, which earned him 1st place on the GC. AsScott mentioned, Lyle had a great race and finished 6th! Greg and Jayfinished a bit later.
What a fun but draining weekend! There are surely good riders on theeastern part of the state! As Greg reported, it would have been niceto have a better start and loosing Steve was disappointing. But we didnot come back empty handed: tires, KOM and sprint prime, top 10finish. Very promising. I cannot wait for Vance creek on sunday!
Olivier
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