Cherry City!

Now to Cat 2

Two guys in the top 10 made Word - RCB the most successful team in Cat 3 racing this last weekend in The Dalles.
Jake and Bedford are two guys to be so proud of.
Two guys almost angelic in character, and powerful in focus, they were the focus of the cat 3 peloton.
Now they are both cat 2s.

Racing aggressive and with endless strength Jake made the race on the hilly (but they called them "soft" hills) first stage, chasing everything.
Infiltrating, not instigating. Well... instigating a little.
Jake had them muttering the Word.

Regardless, Bedford came shooting out of the pack on the wheel of the Junior phenom Austin Boswell just in the last 50 yards. All the big sprinters were very near by. Bedford won.

People like the Cherry Blossom promotion team of Chad Sperry and family were impressed by the quality present in the 3s.

They gave him a red "leader's" jersey. We matched it up with red arm warmers. Bedford had white shoes. He was ready.

Stage two presented the toughest road race I have ever seen in Oregon. Personally, but I don't get out much.
Steep dirt climbs on two different loops included complex switchback descents overlooking thousand foot drops with open wide wind filled deserts of pain.
Jake lived there for almost an hour. Bedford blocked what was left of the field, but this was no regular field. When the dirt climb came the third time, a veritable "who's who" of cat 3 racing was present. Bozwell and Rossi had their own vision of Cherry Blossom. Amazing descending by the two of them put them off the front into the final descent before the turn up Olney road in the final 400k. Jake and Bedford did what they do best, they Pursued.

Jake finished fourth and Bedford finished seventh.

Now, back in the hotel room, people were suffering. Ice bathes and epson salt baths were part of the process, good food and periodic trips to specialty nutrition centers like Fred Meyer kept us in gourmet.
It was about rest.

Sunday meant a TT in the AM and a Crit in the PM.
Aero bikes were assembled the night before. Shorter stems made a big difference.
We practiced in the parking lot. We adjusted a saddle.
Jake got third and Bedford stayed top ten. Trevor Spahr of Ironclad won.
Now Jake was in second in the overall General Classification.


Downtown The Dalles has never before seen the hustle of a bicycle crit race, but a tight rectangle set them straight.
Bedford was like a hurricaine, he was off from the first lap. He would get caught, but attack again.
He won primes.
Both he and Jake finished "same time" with the day's winner, Trevor Spahr, finishing 2nd in the GC.


Catherine Hana Cooper and her son Mountain supported the team at the crit.
We all ate ice cream while talking to the elder pro Bozwell just back from Belgium.