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Zajicek takes TT, lead at Cascade

By Kathie Reid
Published: Jul. 14, 2007

Phil Zajicek (Navigators Insurance) beat teammate Ben Day by just one second in Friday morning’s Cascade Classic stage 3 time trial, but put enough time on the other GC contenders to take the leader’s jersey away from Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United), retaining it through the evening’s stage 4 twilight criterium in downtown Bend. As the sun set in Central Oregon, Ivan Dominguez (Toyota-United) returned to stage racing after his mid-May crash at the Tri-Peaks Challenge with a resounding win in a dramatic bunch sprint at the crit.

Time trial
Coming into this week’s Bend Memorial Clinic Cycling Classic, everyone in the know predicted that Friday’s time trial would separate the men from the boys. Zajicek’s smokin’ performance today did manage to increase the gaps between the major GC contenders and make pack fodder of the majority of the field.

Baldwin said a new position on the bike helped him turn in his best TT performance of the season, with his third-place finish 30 seconds behind Zajicek.

“My legs still don’t feel like I want ‘em to, but the position felt much, much faster,” he said.

Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health-Bissell) took third place in the time trial, and was 44 seconds back. When asked at the finish how he felt about the course, he responded, “Just brutal!”

The 15-mile out-and-back route – seven-and-a-half miles each way – was a new one for Cascade,. The course began at Summit High School in Bend, and though the way out was a gradual climb and the way back in a descent, Jacques-Maynes was surprised at how difficult it felt.

“It felt like a lot more climbing than when I was practicing, just going up and up and up. [You’d] go over a little rise and think it’s gonna level off, and it just kicks into another one.”

The course was apparently quite tough for another GC contender, as well. Ricardo Escuela (SuccessfulLiving.com-ParkPre) was race leader on Wednesday and just five seconds down from race leader Baldwin on Thursday. While his team director, Steve Hegg, predicted that Escuela was a “unique all-arounder” and “should be able to maintain or not lose too much” time, his time-trial performance sent him far down in the GC; he is now two minutes and 46 seconds behind leader Zajicek.

As for Zajicek himself, he couldn’t be more pleased with the course and his time trial.

“I’m happy with how it went,” he said. “On the way out, that was a perfect climb for me. Perfect grade, not too steep, but, still, you know, power-based …and it felt great.”

He also indicated that having Jeff Louder (Health Net-Maxxis), another GC contender, within his sights, helped spur his performance.

“I was able to see him the whole time, and I caught him just before the turn-around. And then it was good, because on the downhill, he actually passed me, and then we leapfrogged almost the whole way down. Having that was a lot of motivation.”

Criterium
While the Desert Orthopedics/Rebound Physical Therapy Downtown Criterium results made no change in the top four on GC and just minor changes within the remainder of the top 10, the throngs of spectators in downtown Bend for this ever-popular event were not disappointed, as the field of top American racing talent put on quite a show.

The racers noticed the crowd as well. Eventual winner Dominguez exclaimed after the race, “Oh, man, there’s so many people. It’s good. I love it. You can see a lot of people love cycling here.”

The crowd was amply rewarded for its devotion. In just the second lap of this 90-minute crit over a very fast, 0.7-mile, six-corner course, they were thrilled to see three Oregonians emerge from the pack on a break: Ryan Trebon (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada), Donald Reeb (CMG), and Doug Ollerenshaw (Health Net-Maxxis). Just a few laps after the break, though, Reeb took a spill and ended up in the pit and then back in the pack after his free lap.

Former roommates and training partners Trebon and Ollerenshaw carried on, managing a blazing pace as high as 29.8 mph, maximizing their gap at 30 seconds by lap 27 of the 68-lap race.

“Two local guys out there. It was fun,” Ollerenshaw said, though he knew the fun would end. “I knew it was a suicide move, I knew we were coming back.”

It only took until about the eighth lap for GC leader Zajicek’s Navigators Insurance crew to organize at the front of the peloton to lead the charge toward getting the gap in check. The men of Toyota-United, BMC, Priority Health, and Health Net-Maxxis took turns mixing it up with the Navigators up front, protecting their respective GC contenders as well.

On lap 53, David Vitoria (BMC) bridged to the break when the gap was down to 10 seconds, and Aaron Olson, riding without any of his T-Mobile teammates this week, bridged on the very next lap.

At this point, Toyota-United started to organize at the front of the chasing pack a bit more aggressively. When asked about the team’s plans for the crit earlier in the day, Baldwin had said with a smile, “Let Ivan Dominguez win the race. It’s his first time in Bend, so when he sees the crowds in the downtown Bend criterium, he’s gonna be an unleashed wildman.”

With four laps to go, the entire break had been absorbed, and Toyota-United was steamrolling through downtown Bend to get their wildman to the finish.

A variety of powerhouse teams, though, didn’t let up without a fight, making for an exciting bunch sprint. Coming out of the last corner, Kirk O’Bee (Health Net-Maxxis) was ahead of a fast-charging Dominguez.

“I didn’t want to come from behind,” O’Bee said, “so that was a move I wanted to make just before the last corner, and it just didn’t quite work out.” O’Bee crossed the line in second place, followed by Dan Schmatz (BMC) and Escuela.

With a hilly course up next in Saturday’s road race, and a multitude of time bonuses up for grabs in Sunday’s final stage circuit race, the fight for the GC isn’t over yet. Leader Zajicek is not worried, however.

“[The stages are] gonna be quite hard, but I mean, we have seven really capable guys here, so we’re up to the task.”

2007 Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic
Stage 3: Bend Research, Inc. – Skyliners Time Trial
1. Phil Zajicek, Navigators Insurance, 15 miles at 13:33
2. Ben Day, Navigators Insurance, at 0:01
3. Chris Baldwin, Toyota-United, at 0:30
4. Ian McKissick, BMC, at 0:52
5. Ben Jacques-Maynes, Priority Health-Bissell, same time
6. Glen Chadwick, Navigators Insurance, at 0:53
7. Jonathan Garcia, BMC, at 0:56
8. Ryder Hesjedal, Health Net, at 0:57
9. Chris Wherry, Toyota-United, at 0:58
10. Jeff Louder, Health Net, at 1:02

Stage 4: Desert Orthopedics/Rebound Physical Therapy Downtown Criterium
1. Ivan Domingues, Toyota-United, at 1:29:31
2. Kirk O’Bee, Health Net, same time
3. Dan Schmatz, BMC, s.t.
4. Ricardo Escuela, SuccessfulLiving.com, s.t.
5. Frank Pipp, Health Net, s.t.
6. Jacques-Maynes, s.t.
7. Alessandro Bazzana, SuccessfulLiving.com, s.t.
8. Remi McManus, Razzignators, s.t.
9. Wherry, s.t.
10. Zajicek, s.t.

Overall
1. Zajicek, 236 miles in 8:47:48
2. Baldwin, at 0:13
3. Jacques-Maynes, at 0:44
4. Wherry, at 1:12
5. Louder, at 1:16
6. Scott Moninger, BMC, at 1:55
7. Garcia, at 2:09
8. Hesjedal, at 2:11
9. David Vitoria, BMC, at 2:35
10. Burke Swindlehurst, Toyota-United, at 2:43