1.5

Today took its toll on our team. A huge group got away after a short while. We had bad representation as thus had to make a huge chase to bring it back. Trent Klasna was in the group up the road and he was dangerous. He won the Oak Glen Stage last year and could very well do it again. The real kicker was the downright stupid time cut. Many races use a 20% time cut. Meaning you must finish in a time of 120% of the winner to go on to the next day. If the race was won in 1 hour 40 minutes for example, you would have to finish in 2 hours to make a 20% time cut. A 4 hour (fast for this stage) winning time meant the 5 percent cut was only an additional 18 minutes or so. We went all out to chase and our riders slogged up the hill. the bad news is 4 of our 7 riders missed the time cut. If we did not chase (to defend the jersey) there could have been a bigger gap. Maybe as large as 15 or 20 minute gap to the leaders. That could have seen 20 riders in the next days stage. Officials stuck with the 5 percent cut and eliminated 58 riders. What does that mean for me? Three riders left for tomorrow’s stage. With Eric and myself that means I have an average of 1.5 bikes to wash.