In what he described as “the most painful 3k I’ve had in quite awhile,” Kirk O’Bee (Health Net-Maxxis) outsprinted second place Ricardo Escuela (SuccessfulLiving.com-ParkPre) and third place Ben Jacques-Maynes (Priority Health-Bissell) to take the sixth and final stage of the Bend Memorial Cascades Cycling Classic on Sunday.

Phil Zajicek (Navigators Insurance), on the other hand, looked like pain was the furthest thing from his mind as he came across the finish line at Summit High School in Bend, Oregon, with the knowledge that he had just clinched the overall title. After five days of GC competition, he had bested second place Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) by 28 seconds, and third place Jacques-Maynes by 51 seconds.

Prior to the start of the Deschutes Brewery Awbry Butte Circuit Race, a tough 17-mile course around which the race would travel five times, riders and fans alike were fairly certain that the final leader’s jersey was still up for grabs. After all, the time gap between first place Zajicek and second place Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) was only 13 seconds, and the fast and hilly course included opportunities for sprint time bonuses each go-around, beginning with the second lap. In the best case scenario, a rider could pick up as much as one minute just in bonuses because the first three riders across the sprint line 13.3 miles into the circuit would receive 15, 10, and 5 seconds respectively.

Predictions of a down-to-the-wire contest looked to be fulfilled in the first lap, as the men of Toyota-United set the pace of the peloton around the fast and windy curves and climbs, and reeled back a few early attacks. At mile 12, T-Mobile’s Aaron Olson attacked and was joined shortly by Ryan Trebon (Kodak Gallery-Sierra Nevada). The fans scattered across the course must have approved of this break, as both Olson and Trebon are from Oregon, and the peloton was comfortable with letting them get away for a bit, as well.

Into the second lap, though, as the two-man break neared the time bonus sprint line, Toyota-United led in ramping up the pace of the pack, and a variety of teams began setting up their GC contenders for the bonus sprint.

“We actually pretty much executed our plan pretty flawlessly until the last 500 meters” before that first sprint bonus line, Baldwin said. “We had to expend a lot of guys” to bring that two-man break back, though, and “we were kinda left with just [Ivan] Dominguez and me, and I think a lot more people participated in the sprint than we thought were going to…it seemed like everybody in the race wanted a piece of it…We got swarmed. And by the time Dominguez went, he took off like he was sprinting. I had to sprint to stay with Dominguez, which is a tall order…I think the more patient riders just came around him in the end…we needed to string it out so everybody was working, and we didn’t. We waited and waited and tried to do it too late, and it didn’t work.”

Navigators Insurance was apparently one of the teams that sent more men into the mix than Toyota-United had expected. Zajicek recalled that “Darren Lill [Navigators Insurance] attacked a few kilometers out before the sprint, and Toyota kept things under control…And then about a kilometer out, I was knocking handlebars with Chris Wherry [Toyota-United] and Dominguez, trying to get Baldwin’s wheel…They were getting their lead-out going, and then Ben Day [Navigators Insurance] attacked, and that completely botched their whole lead out. It created complete pandemonium, and I was able to take advantage of that.” Zajicek managed to come through Baldwin and Jacques-Maynes with about 100 meters to go, and he took the 15 second time bonus, followed by Jacques-Maynes and Jeff Louder (Health Net-Maxxis).

Jacques-Maynes also commented on the intensity of that first bonus sprint. “It was like the end of a race – competing lead-outs…Phil [Zajicek] came through nice and strong…kinda gave notice that he’s not gonna lay down and die. He’s got the goods.”

“Toyota controlled things until the first sprint, and then I won the first sprint,” Zajicek said with a grin at race’s end. “From then on out,” he further explained, “I had a twenty-eight-second gap, and it was pretty straightforward. [We] put the boys in the front and they rode amazing.”Once the excitement of the first time bonus dissipated, things settled down in the pack, and remained fairly calm until the finishing sprint. In the third circuit at around 33 miles, there was a breakaway of four riders that became a break of seven by mile 35. The break included Scott Nydam (BMC), Ryder Hesjedal (Health Net-Maxxis), Jonathan Garcia (BMC), Christopher Jones (Nerac), Burke Swindlehurst (Toyota-United), Aaron Tuckerman (Team Rubicon), and Ian McKissick (BMC). None of these riders were GC threats, so the peloton, now mainly controlled by Navigators Insurance, let them away for the time bonuses on the third and fourth laps. Early in the fifth and final circuit, the break of seven had decreased to just three, and it became apparent that the peloton was aiming to reel everyone in to focus on the stage win.

On the final climb a few miles before the finish, Louder attacked and split off with a small group, according to teammate O’Bee. “They kinda were following him, and then let him go again, and so I bridged up to them,” O’Bee said. At that point, he explained, Louder decided to let O’Bee go for the stage because he recognized that, as a GC contender, they would get chased down if he stayed there.

So O’Bee went, “and then Jacques-Maynes came raging up,” he said. “I was suffering, but he was flying, and I just got on his wheel and took one pull, and pulled as much as I could.”

When they came around the last roundabout just before the finish line, he knew he had the win in the bag. He saw Escuela coming, but knew he had enough ground on him to succeed. And he did.

O’Bee conceded that, though moving Louder up in the GC would have been ideal, Health Net-Maxxis “rode as aggressive as we could…We came out on top today [with the stage win], so it was worth it.”

Race NotesOne hundred and fourteen riders began the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascades Cycling Classic when it started on Wednesday. Only 58 racers completed all six stages that occurred over five days.

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2007 Bend Memorial Clinic Cascades Cycling Classic
Stage 6: Deschutes Brewery Awbrey Butte Circuit Race
1. Kirk O’Bee, Health Net-Maxxis, 80 miles in 3:05:55
2. Ricardo Escuela, SuccessfulLiving.com-ParkPre, same time
3. Ben Jacques-Maynes, Priority Health-Bissell, s.t.
4. Darren Lill, Navigators Insurance, s.t.
5. Jeff Louder, Health Net-Maxxis, at 0:03
6. Michael Grabinger, SuccessfulLiving.com-ParkPre, same time
7. Phil Zajicek, Navigators Insurance, s.t.
8. Chris Baldwin, Toyota-United, s.t.
9. Chris Wherry, Toyota-United, s.t.
10. Scott Moninger, BMC, s.t.Overall
1. Zajicek, 403 miles in 15:33:08
2. Baldwin, at 0:28
3. Jacques-Maynes, at 0:51
4. Louder, at 1:26
5. Wherry, at 1:42
6. Moninger, at 2:10
7. Jonathan Garcia, BMC, at 2:50
8. Ryder Hesjedal, Health Net-Maxxis, at 2:55
9. David Vitoria, BMC, same time
10. Burke Swindlehurst, Toyota-United, at 3:07