Weekly Report

Hey Gang,
I busted ass to get back from Cascade just to make my newsletter deadlinebecause I know you all are waiting by your computers to hear the latest.Here it is hot off of the presses.Let's first start out with a healthy round of applause for Little Hurt.Andy Bestwick recently achieved his Cat I upgrade. This is the ultimatelevel in our sport and this allows Mr Bestwick to race at all elite levelevents in the US as well as qualify to go to the Olympic Trials Road Race.AWESOME JOB ANDY. While we are on the subject let me take a moment topoint out how rare this accomplishment is. The following is the list ofCat I's in Vegas that I am aware of that are actively riding and racing.If I miss someone please correct me but you should notate these individualsas they may have some knowledge about racing or riding that you are notaware of:Andy Bestwick aka Little HurtMichael Anderson aka The ChickenBrandon Cunningham aka yet to be determinedLouie Amelburu aka The BossAs you can see this is an elite club. Give them their due respect. Thereare a couple of others in Vegas but they are currently not active in thepeloton.
TNW:
This week was the return of Mark Henry. While the PT riders and Lance went tow to tow, Mark quietly followed wheels and nipped us all for the win atthe line. That is Mark's third win of the season and he is doing itvirtually with no help from any teammates. Can you say Savvy Rider!! Goodjob Mark!!San Marcos Circuit Race:I was not out to see this one since I was up in Oregon but I can attest tohow tough this race is. It has a nice little sprinters hill in it and thiscourse is known as a tough man's course. The following are the placingsthat I am aware of:Pro 1-2 Andy Bestwick in 14th and Lance in 19th. Two top 20 for Vegas in the Pro 1-2 field Junior Our own Nathan Williams brought home the W. That kid is starting to come into his own. Good Job Nathan Pro 1-2 Woman Asley Diamond in 9th place. Did you get that pro contract yet?? Woman Cat 4 Michelle King of the Paul Tracy Team brings home a 3rd place.NICE JOB MICHELLE. She has been knocking on the door all season and that Wis just around the corner.

Cascade Classic, Bend Or
I will open by once again singing the praises of this race. This is a full blown NRC race for the Pro and they treat all the categories just like the Pro Men. The organizer does an awesome job and for all you crit stars outthere that think you have been to some big crits, keep dreaming. I am not kidding when I put the spectator count at about 10-15 thousand peoplelining the course. Here is the stage by stage for the Master 35+ and 45+contested by myself, the boss, and the disciple Mark SchaeferStage 1: TT This was an out and back TT with 7.5 miles uphill and 7.5 back down. The grade goes from 3 to 6 percent and was a really good course to testyourself on. Mark had the best time of the three of us with a 35.27 to put him in 5th for the 45+. Louie posted a 35.51 for 19th in the 35+ and I hada 37.17 for a wopping 32nd place. Just to give you an idea of the level ofcompetition, the winner of the 35+ TT was a guy from Nebraska with a timethat would have been 15th in the Pro 1 race. Greg Leibert was leading the45+ raceStage 2: Downtown CritWOW, what a stage. Twilight crit with tons of spectators with a lot oftechnical corners and lots of preems. It was an awesome race. Louie was riding the front all day and looking for any opportunity to get away. Mark was keeping himself out of trouble and I was trying to maintain calm for the finish. At the half way point I got in a break and we got 20 seconds up on the field. We stayed away for 6 laps but the guys in the break keptsprinting for the various cash preems and we were doomed to get caught. We were caught with 20 minutes left in the race and I just tried to maintainthe front for a good finish. With two laps to go there was a big crash inthe corner and I barely came out of it w/out going down. Louie and Mark got caught behind and had to chase to make sure they did not lose any time.I was in awesome position going into the second to last corner when a riderin front of me lost it in the corner and i had to dive inside to avoidgoing down. I lost quite a few spots but came back to place 14th in the race. Louie and Mark both came home in the field and Mark moved into 4th on GC.Stage 3: Mt Bachelor RRYou like climbing, well here you go. You start with a 4 mile climb to thetop of Mt Bachelor, and than descend into the Cascade Lakes Valley to do abig loop around the Valley. On the way back you have a finishing climb of 8 miles back up the the finish at Mt Bachelor. The field stayed mostlytogether on the first climb. In the Valley two riders got away and startedworking to get a good gap on the feild. We kept Louie and Mark out of thewind and I monitored the front to see if there were any opportunities. TheGC leaders teams started to chase but after the second time through thefeed zone they had not made the catch yet. Myself and Greg Leibertfinished the chase and the break was caught at the base of the climb. Atthat point Louie and Mark took over and kicked some butt to put Mark on thepodium in third place in the RR and 4th overall on GC. Louie did a nicejob of leading Mark out to maintain his position and placed 11th in the RRand moved into 10th on GC. I dropped down on GC, enough said on thatsubject.Stage 4: Tough as Hell CircuitI have to say that by far this was the toughest race I have done all year.We do a 17 mile loop 4 times with two climbs in it. The KOM climb has tokick up to 15% grade and this is after three stages of racing. My legswere fried but the Boss and Mark kicked ass. Louie was vigilant at thefront all day and was in the final selection to finish 4th in the Circuitand moved up to 8th on GC. Mark finished just behind in 5th for hiscategory andf maintained his 4th on GC. I dragged myself home well behindthem but very happy to finish and ended up 37th on GC. Both Louie and Markget the Iron Man award this weekend as they basicly flew in from Nats,drove to Cascade exhausted, and both placed in the money in a very toughstage race.
Random Thoughts:
Damn, I wish I was a Cat I. Andy's Cat I Happy Hour will be announced inthe next day or two and I would suggest you all come out and buy the LittleHurt a drink. This is one hell of an accomplishment and he has worked veryhard to be at that level.Michelle King rocking the house in Socal. I smell an upgrade. Keep it upgirl Oregon guys can not corner, but damn they can climb. And how about a guy from Nebraska, the flattest state in the Union, coming up to the mountains and putting on one hell of a show of strength. Apparently you do not haveto be a skinny guy to climb. This guy looked like a little tank. Troll,there is hope for you yet.I have studied the boss all week and I now know that he is not human. hedoes not eat, he does not sleep, and he takes pleasure in denying me foodafter races. he is the food Nazi. I will be filing a complaint withAmnesty International for my poor treatment this weekend. Can any onespare a cheeseburger for the fatman. Jay, I have booked my plane ticketsand my trusty steed Saphire is waiting in Reno for my return. All I ask isthat I get to eat after the race and you have my services.I will be registering for Tour De Gap this week. Drop me a line and let meknow who else is going. I am calling all of you out. We need to supportthis race. Come out for the fun. Almost the entire PT team will be there.What about you Allegiant, McGhies, CES (sea of yellow), Pro Cyclery,Collins Motorsports (All Crit All Stars)???If you guys think the boss is bad ass, you are right, he is. But I need to point out that no matter what, anytime he races tandem, mark always finishes first!!I will finish with my sincerest thanks to the Boss and Mark for coming to Oregon. They were both exhausted from doing Nationals but came out to support me at Cascade as I said at the beginning of the season that I wanted to do this race, and as always, I had an awesome time. The fact that both of you placed in the money is nothing short of a miracle and itwas apparent that you were both vey tired. I will once again point out to some of you big budget teams out there, you are missing out by not doingsome of these events. I like local crits just as much as the next guy butif you want to take your game to the next level, you are going to have tostep up to some higher competition.