Turnbull takes Road Race title at the line; Van Uden outsprints break group

(The complete Cycling Action Rehearsal Road Race photo gallery is now posted online HERE).

RAINIER -- Therapeutic Associates Inc's Lisa Turnbull outlasted the field up the finishing climb at the Senior Women's OBRA Road Race Championship Saturday to take the win in a close charge to the line.

Turnbull adds an OBRA championship jersey to the Oregon Cup Leader's jersey she currently wears. She won the sprint from a select group that paired itself down to 16 riders over three laps of the 16-mile course that will be used again next Saturday to decide another handful of champions.

The group was temporarily slowed by a confused fawn in the road ahead that had slipped on the asphalt while trying decide if it wanted to cross or turn around. Other than that, the leaders plowed ahead unimpeded, shedding remnants of the starting field in their wake. But the group seemed to hold steady at 16 for the last half of the race.

“It seemed like less of a selection than usual,” Turnbull said.

The group approaching the finish line at the Rainier schools complex was more than twice the size of the lead group that contested last Sunday’s Silverton Road Race finale, where Turnbull finished third behind Sue Butler (MonaVie-Cannondale) and Teri Sheasby (Bend Bike & Sport).

Turnbull took advantage of having several teammates with her in the lead group this time.

“I had a teammate working hard up front, so I got to sit near the front,” She said. “And then in the end I sat on whoever had legs until they got tired, and then I went on my own.”

Lindsay Kandra (Hammer Velo) finished second overall and won the Women's Cat. 3 Championship, which was scored separately. Tina Brubaker finished third overall and second in the Senior Women's Championship, followed closely by a group that contained Washington rider Patricia Bailey (Wines of Washington), Lindsay Fox (Team Oregon), Beth Burns (Veloce/Felt) and Stepahnie Chase (Veloforma).

Turnbull was happy with the result, but she still wouldn’t mind a rematch.

“We don’t get to rehearse,” she said, noting that the Senior Men get two chances at the course. “Next year I hope they consider adding two races for the women.”

Van Uden Serves Up Rehearsal Win

Roman Van Uden, who rode to the race from his home in Vancouver with his Land Rover-ORBEA teammates, also rode his way into the break and then out-rode that group up the final 200 meters to take the win in the five-lap, 80-mile men's race. Junior racer Wes Stein (Hammer/CMG Racing) added a lot of power to the breakaway and finished second ahead of Team Oregon's Kennett Peterson in third.

A group of 11 formed eight miles into the race and eventually whittled itself down to eight as it built a lead that hovered around a minute-and-a-half before surging to four minutes in the final laps. Most of the top teams had at least one rider in the break; Paul Bourcier (Hutch’s), Dave Zimbelman (ZteaM), Todd Gallaher (Counterbalance), Brandon Dyer (Therapeutic Associates Cycling/GENR8), Mark Blackwelder (Gentle Lovers).

Peterson said he was a little surprised the leaders got away so easily.

“Roman (van Uden) attacked and Wes (Stein) followed,” he said. “We didn’t really go that hard, and all of the sudden we had 11, 12 guys up the road. It was a really slow breakaway; felt like a bunch of people had noodle legs. It was kind of frustrating, but we stayed away.”

Van Uden shared that assessment.

“The bunch really didn’t react at all, so we got away with a good gap,” he said. “I set it up by rolling to the front just for one of the hills and attacked. The road’s skinny enough that if three guys sitting up front don’t go anywhere, then you can get a bit of a gap and go away with it.”

The leaders played a bit of cat and mouse on the last lap, but as the group approached the final kilometers intact, the uphill pitch at the bitter end dissuaded any long-lived solo fliers, setting up Van Uden’s powerful finishing kick.

“One of the older guys sort of tried to go with about a kilometer to go, which is a bit too early," he said. “But it gave me a good lead out and I got the position I wanted.”

Van Uden bided his time near the front but not quite on it until the time was right to strike.

“I was pretty tired by the end,” he said. “And I knew the uphill finish was going to be tough, so I waited as late as I could -- until about the 200 meter mark. I was following the young Hammer kid and I just came around him with about 75 meters to go. And it hurt.”

Blackwelder crossed the line fourth, ahead of Dyer, Bourcier, Zimbelman and Gallaher. Van Uden's Land Rover-ORBEA teammate Jim Camut and Nike Northley finished ninth and tenth.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
Rehearsal Road Race/OBRA RR Championships
May 23, Rainier, Ore.

Senior Women Championship
1. Lisa Turnbull (Therapeutic Associates Cycling/GENR8)
2. Tina Brubaker (Veloforma)
3. Patricia Bailey (TRIA/Wines of Washington)
4. Lindsay Fox (Team Oregon)
5. Shari White (Team Castelli)
Women Cat. 3
1. Lindsay Kandra (Hammer Velo)
2. Beth Burns (Veloce/Felt)
3. Stephanie Chase (Veloforma)
Women Cat. 4
1. Anna Vaughn (Hammer Velo)
2. Kira Crawford (Ironclad Performance Wear)
3. Lisa Reeve
Tandem
1. Jim Fischer/Heather Paris (Pacific Power Blue Sky)
2. Allen Kraft/Ronny Brigham (North River Racing)
3. Ivan Meadors/Mike Adams (Finnegans Toys/Discover Chiropractic)
Juniors 10-12
1. Grant McElroy (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
2. Sam Rosenberg (Hutch's)
3. Hannah McDade (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
Juniors 13-14
1. Maris Eryn (ASC Racing)
2. John Sullivan (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
3. Walker Prettyman (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
Men Cat. 5
1. Jeff Curtes (Twin Six)
2. John Eckert (One Cup Cafe)
3. Andrew Buswell
Men. Cat. 4
1. Jeff Ballantine (Portland Velo)
2. Adam Edgerton (Team Oregon)
3. Phelan Kostur (Fred Meyer/Lakeside Cycling Team)
Men Cat. 3
1. Brandon Fisher (Team S&M)
2. Kent Heli (Southtown Velo)
3. Jeff DeWolf (Therapeutic Associates Cycling/GENR8)
Men Pro/1/2
1. Roman van Uden (Land Rover-ORBEA)
2. Wes Stein (Hammer/CMG Racing)
3. Kennett Peterson (Team Oregon)
4. Mark Blackwelder (Gentle Lovers)
5. Brandon Dyer (Therapeutic Associates Cycling/GENR8)

Swan, Turnbull grab wins at sunny Eugene-Roubaix

(UPDATE: Complete photo galleries for the Eugene-Roubaix morning races are now posted HERE.)

EUGENE - Team Oregon's Chris Swan won the Men's Pro/1/2 Eugene-Roubaix Sunday ahead of Seth Hosmer (HP Chiropractic) and Steven Beardsley (Gentle Lovers) as a breakaway of six approached the line together.

Therapeutic Associates Inc. rider Lisa Turnbull followed up her win at Kings Valley last weekend by taking the women's race in a two-up sprint with breakaway companion Lindsay Fox (Team Oregon) after the pair put more than four minutes into the chasing field.

Early morning cloud cover gave way to sunny skies and summer-like temps Sunday afternoon on the 13-mile course west of Eugene, brushing against the southern tip of Fern Ridge Reservoir.

Men Pro/1/2

Mark Blackwelder started the festivities early with a solo escape on the first of five laps in the 65-mile men’s race. The Gentle Lovers rider built a lead of more than a minute on the field before five more riders jumped across the gap to join him on the fourth lap. Swan, Beardsley, Jeff Bannink (Team Type-1), Seth Hosmer (HP Chiropractic) and Rob English (Midtown Direct) made the crossing. The new grouping at the front appeared to give Gentle Lovers an advantage with two riders in the break, although Blackwelder had been cooking himself out front alone for the entire race when his teammate arrived.

After reeling-in the solo rider, the new lead group started adding more time to the gap.

“We got organized nice and quick,” Swan said. “We rode hard, and we rode as a group really well.”

With most of the well-stocked teams represented in the break, the field behind settled in for field sprint for seventh. The lead group continued to pour it on until they rounded the corner for the long straightaway to the finish, beginning with a short stretch of hard-packed gravel road.

“As we got onto the dirt we started cat-and-mousing,” Swan said. “I was kind of watching Beardsley. He’s the strongest sprinter in the group and had his teammate to lead him out. The sprint started kind of early. I moved around Beardsley and had a little gap on those guys.”

Hosmer and Beardsley crossed the line next, followed by Bannink, English and Blackwelder. Kennett Peterson (Team Oregon) won the field sprint for seventh.

Women 1/2/3

Fresh off her field-sprint win in front of Kelly Benjamin (Colavita Sutter Home) and Robin Secrist (Veloforma) at the Kings Valley Road race April 11, Therapeutic Associates Inc. rider Lisa Turnbull turned up the heat again Saturday in a two-rider breakaway on the second of three laps with Team Oregon’s Lindsay Fox.

The small women’s field struggled to chase but eventually lost about four minutes to the escapees.

“We worked really well together,” Turnbull said, explaining the sizeable time split the two riders achieved. “And I had a teammate sitting back in the pack who wasn’t working.”

With their lead well established on the final lap, the two escapees approached the line for the two-up sprint, where the more experienced Turnbull took a lead out from Fox, who started the season winning Cat. 4 races.

“I sat on her wheel for awhile,” Turnbull said of the closing sprint.

She eventually came around the Team Oregon breakaway companion for a comfortable win. Fox also seemed pleased with the finish.

“I led her out really well,” she joked.

Masters Men 40+

With a slightly smaller field and one less lap, the Masters 40+ event began to look a lot like a condensed version of the Pro/1/2 race when River City Bicycles’ Tim Butler soloed away from the group on the first of four laps and looked determined to stay away.

Butler rode by himself for more than two laps and built a significant lead when Mark Steger (Nike) decided to take matters into his own hands.

“The peleton wasn’t, uh, well they weren’t really racing so I decided to give it a go,” Steger said.

He caught Butler about six miles later on the back side of the course and the two quickly forged an alliance to power the break and stay away until the finish. Butler said Steger showed up just in time.

“When (Steger) bridged up I was pretty gassed,” Butler said. “He sat on and rested, and then we took even pulls for the rest of the race.”

Steger, who considers himself a sprinter and not usually one for small breakaway tries, said sometimes you have to take the risks if you don’t want to end up sprinting for the consolation prizes.

“If we had gotten caught we surely would have lost in the sprint,” he said of the day’s escape effort. “So we made a commitment to stay away. We had to work together to stay away from the field. And it worked out wonderfully today.”

At the finale, Steger put his sprint to work in the last 200 meters and opened a gap to finish just ahead of Butler. Half Fast Velo’s Mark Magilner led the field across the line for third.

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

Men Pro/1/2
1. Chris Swan (Team Oregon)
2. Seth Hosmer (HP Chiropractic)
3. Steven Beardsley (Gentle Lovers)
4. Jeff Bannink (Team Type-1)
5. Rob English (Midtown Direct)
6. Mark Blackwelder (Gentle Lovers)
7. Kennett Peterson (Team Oregon)

Women Pro/1/2/3
1. Lisa Turnbull (Therapeutic Associates Inc.)
2. Lindsay Fox (Team Oregon)

Men Masters 40+
1. Mark Steger (Nike)
2. Tim Butler (River City Bicycles)
3. Mark Magilner (Half Fast Velo)

Bartlett, Turnbull Sieze Kings Valley Crowns

(UPDATE: Complete Kings Valley Road Race photos are now online HERE.)

KINGS VALLEY, Ore. -- On a day when the fields defied a course designed to break up groups and ensure success for small breakaways, Lisa Turnbull and Josh Bartlett outwitted crowded bunches at the finish to take the 2009 Kings Valley Road Race crowns.

Moderate temperatures and light winds prevailed on the 18.6-mile course over agricultural roads near the tiny berg of Kings Valley southwest of Salem and Dallas. The course, ridden on wide well-paved roads, featured a few twists and turns, long straightaways exposed to the winds, a few rollers and a steep climb through the finish area.

WOMEN Pro/1/2/3/4

The large group making up the combined women's field battled for more than 56 miles over two-plus laps, but approached the final hill together after break attempts big and small met with little success.

Lisa Turnbull (Therapeutic Associates Inc.) said the women's field had been neutralized just before it approached the final climb, which caused the group to bunch even tighter as the finishing line approached, making for a crowded, hectic charge to the line.

"I jumped on Kelly Benjamin's wheel when things started taking off," she said. "I used that lead out and then came around her at the line."

Indeed, Turnbull gained a couple of seconds over second-placed Benjamin (Colavita/Sutter Home) and a handful over the sprinting field. Last weekend's Cherry Blossom Classic overall winner Robin Secrist (Veloforma) crossed the line for third ahead of Jen Akeroyd (Team Group Health) and Beth Burns (Veloce/felt).

MEN Pro/1/2

Just like the women's race, the large Men's Pro/1/2 field had its share of adventurers throughout the three-plus-lap race that covered 75 miles. But nothing seemed to stick as the field reeled-in anything that looked dangerous and let small fliers dangle off the front before bringing them back.

Josh Bartlett (Land Rover-Orbea) eventually soloed away from the bunch with one kilometer to go and crossed the line first, seconds ahead of Mark Blackwelder (Gentle Lovers) and the rapidly closing field.

Bartlett finished the race where he started -- in front of the field.

"I tried attacking pretty much from the gun," Bartlett said. "And that didn't really go anywhere. So I spent most of the race sitting in and conserving. I wasn't feeling too snappy today."

Bartlett credited his two Land Rover-Orbea teammates at the race, Logan Hunn and Evan Elken, with attacking and patrolling the front of the race while Bartlett waited in the pack, especially on the frantic last lap.

"We had Logan going off the front toward the end, there, trying to keep the other teams chasing," Bartlett said. "Then Evan had a couple digs. We hit that last corner with a little over one K to go and Chris Sheppard went. I went on his wheel for a little bit and then went around at about one K."

Bartlett just held off Gentle Lovers' quickly closing Mark Blackwelder, who crossed the line second. Brandon Dyer (Therapeutic Associates Inc.) finished third at the front of the main field.

"That was a hard kilometer," Bartlett said. "Two hundred and fifty meters from the line I thought I was gonna die and get caught. I saw (Blackwelder) coming up behind me and I was just hoping that he would die too. The last 200 meters were just a creep."

Junior Joe Prettyman Stays On Winning Track In Senior Men's Cat. 4 Field

Beaverton Bicycle Club's Joe Prettyman, 16, has wasted little time acclimating to the Men's Cat. 4 field after stepping up from the Juniors' races he grew accustomed to winning. Prettyman sprinted to another Cat. 4 win Sunday, just edging a charging field that hung together for much of the race, including the finale. Seventeen-year-old Phelan Kostur (Fred Meyer/Lakside) finished second. Marcus Benton (Pacific Blue Sky) was third.

Earlier this season Prettyman finished first in the Juniors' Cherry Pie race and won the first two Banana Belt Juniors' races. Prettyman went for the double at the last Banana Belt, finishing fourth in the senior Men's Cat. 4 field and finishing fourth again with the Juniors.

Prettyman finished a modest 29th in the Cat. 4 field at the March 29 Piece of Cake Road Race in Woodland, Wash., but struck back hard and fast by snagging the overall GC prize in the Cat. 4 Men's field of the inaugural Cherry Blossom Classic in The Dalles. The Junior finished 20th in the stage one Columbia Hills Road Race. He came back with a fourth-place finish and moved to fourth overall on the strength of his stage two 8-Mile Time Trial. Prettyman dropped to sixth overall after losing time with a 17th place finish in the stage 3 Cherry City Criterium. But the young rider kept his cool, and his sixth-place finish in the challenging stage four Columbia Gorge Road Race propelled him into the top podium spot for the Cat. 4s.

Nigbor Wins Masters At The Line

(UPDATE: Original winner Mike Sheppard, a Masters Cat. 2 who is back racing this year after nearly 20 years away, was not eligible to win the Masters field, which was limited to Cat. 3s, 4s and 5s for this race. Finnegans Toys' Jon Nigbor won the Masters 40+ race).

The Masters race followed the familiar pattern of fruitless attacks that were either quickly swallowed up or were allowed to dangle just off the front. Mike Sheppard outlasted the rest of the field up the finishing hill to take first by a whisker ahead of Jon Nigbor (Finnegans Toys) and Paul Duncan (Hammer Velo).

Two riders made a serious attempt to get away on the first lap and stayed away for the better part of a full go 'round, but those left in the field eventually found their legs and reeled the pair back in with about a lap to go.

Kings Valley galleries from all fields are posted HERE.

Highlights slideshow: