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OUCH's newest rider puts the hurt on the Mt. Hood field
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The infamous Columbia River Gorge winds whipped themselves into a frenzy Friday and tried to whip the riders as well in the stage 2 time trial at the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.
OUCH-Maxxis' newest rider, Chris Baldwin, nipped race leader Paul Mach (Bissell), tightening the GC battle with two stages left. The women's race is also very tight with prologue winner leader Edwige Pitel (Sorella Forte) winning the stage and taking back the leader's jersey. Three-time Mt. Hood victor Leah Goldstein now sits in second just two seconds back.
Gusts topping 30 mph buffeted the riders as they tackled the 18.5-mile course. The race in The Dalles and pushed the riders up and over 1,975 feet of climbing on the Columbia River Gorge Scenic Highway to the finish in Hood River.
The men's race
Baldwin picked up his first stage win in his new team’s kit and closed the gap on Mach. He only beat Mach by three seconds, but time bonuses lifted him from third to second, just 15 seconds behind the Bissell rider on the GC. Baldwin is 1 minute 7 seconds ahead of third-placed Morgan Schmitt of Bissell.
Baldwin covered the course in 42:44.67.
Baldwin’s teammate John Chodroff finished third on the stage and now sits fifth overall. Prologue winner Mike Olheiser finished fourth on the day and is fourth overall.
Baldwin said the course is one of the toughest in the country, and he was thrilled with his ride.
“I’ve been struggling with time trialing the last couple of years,” Baldwin said. “But today I was kind of back to my old self. I felt relaxed and smooth, like I was absolutely flying. I stayed composed.”
Staying “composed” was key on a course with gusts capable of blowing a rider from one side of the road to the other.
“I talked with my OUCH teammates before the race about the wind,” he said. “The important thing was to stay relaxed and not let it get into your head. It was a mental game.”
Mach agreed, adding that pushing yourself as hard as possible to go 25 mph downhill can be terribly demoralizing.
“The wind was the worst,” Mach said. “You’d be going really hard, but you wouldn’t be going that fast. It kind of hurts you mentally to be hammering like that. I mean you’d be going downhill as hard as you can, and you're going 25 mph.”
With the narrow gap separating riders from two of the race’s top teams, fireworks should ignite on the slopes of Mt. Hood during Saturday’s 92-mile Wy’East Road Race.
“Anything can happen,” Baldwin said. “Obviously it’s the hardest, the Queen Stage. Anything can happen out there. Paul Mach obviously has the form of his life, and I’m really impressed with the way he’s riding, so it’s gonna be a hard nut to crack.”
Mach said the team will be keeping an eye on Baldwin, but added that he’s confident the five-man Bissell squad is up to the challenge.
“We’ve got a lot of good guys here,” Mach said. “With what me and Morgan (Schmitt) did yesterday, even with (teammate Burke Swindlehurst) flatting at the bottom of the climb, I’m pretty confident. It’ll be a fun day for us.”
Mach’s “fun” day will be spent defending his race lead over 10,500 feet of climbing so that he can take the leader’s jersey into Sunday’s Downtown Hood River Criterium.
“It’s always good to have the jersey on the last day,” Mach said. It’s better to defend it versus trying to pull something out.”
Pitel regains jersey
Edwige Pitel (Sorella Forte) put her French national time trial champion skills to work to regain the race leader’s jersey that she lost the day before on the finishing kick of the Stage 1 Cooper Spur Circuit Race.
Goldstein's proximity sets up a Battle Royale for Saturday, when the women will race 92 miles with more than 10,000 feet of climbing.
Pitel covered the time trial course in 50:05, beating Goldstein by just five seconds. Down nearly 20 seconds to Goldstein as she passed through the tiny town of Mosier about 10km from the finish, the veteran rider bore down, pulled back the lost time and added a little more for the win.
“Even if I couldn’t ride fast because of the wind, I could see that I was catching the other girls except for Leah (Goldstein),” Pitel said. “I wasn’t sure where she was because all the curves didn’t give me the opportunity to see her.”
Melissa McWhirter (Veloforma), who won the leader’s jersey Thursday on the slopes of Mt. Hood, slipped to third overall, finishing 1:42 off the lead pace. Wines of Washington rider Patricia Bailey finished fourth on the day, 2:18 back.
Pitel will need to have a very good day to keep the lead.
“Yesterday I did a few mistakes and I lost a couple of seconds,” Pitel said. “It will be very fast tomorrow. There are time bonuses in the crit, and (ValueAct Capital) has the team, so I guess they will give me a hard time, but that’s the way it is.”
Despite the lack of numbers to support her, Pitel said the stage 3 course may work to her advantage.
“It’s a long race,” she said. “We’ll see how it goes. It’s quite hilly I was told. I like hills. It’s easier to control a race when it’s hilly than when it’s flat. So I hope I can hold it.”
The three ValueAct Capital riders, of course, have other ideas, but Goldstein said winning the leader’s jersey will be a challenge.
“It’s not going to be easy,” Goldstein said. “Pitel is a good climber.”
The ValueAct Capital rider said the team used a series of attacks in Thursday’s circuit race to test Pitel’s climbing legs.
“We didn’t want to do it too much because we wanted to save some for today and (Saturday),” she said. “We just wanted to test where she is a bit.”
And what did they find out?
“She can be overworked, for sure,” Goldstein said. “One of my teammates is a very good climber so we have a game plan tomorrow to try and wear her out.”
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