Brubaker, Bevin battle wind & rain for Piece of Cake wins

Veloforma's Tina Brubaker used a leadout from teammate Elise Huggins to take the Women's Cat 1/2/3 race Sunday at the Piece of Cake near Salem.

PERRYDALE — Rubicon-Orbea introduced its latest weapon to the Oregon peloton Sunday at the Piece of Cake Road Race and quickly exploded the Men’s Pro/1/2 field on a windswept, rain-soaked course northwest of Salem. Veloforma’s Tina Brubaker charged away from a small breakaway in the Women’s Cat 1/2/3 race to take the win.

Paddy Bevin (Rubicon-Orbea) notched his first Oregon win Sunday at the Piece of Cake Road Race.

Patrick “Paddy” Bevin, New Zealand’s 2009 U19 rider of the year, has been in the United States for little over a week, just long enough to rack up three wins in as many outings, adding Sunday’s Piece of Cake to his already impressive palmares.

Although Rubicon-Orbea’s newest rider got the win, it was HP Chiro’s Donald Reeb and Aaron Coker who initiated the day’s winning move as the field turned from the 2.5 mile roll out onto the 12.5 mile circuit that they’d cover five times before the day was over. Bevin quickly countered and grabbed their wheels, followed by his teammates Omer Kem, Quinn Keogh, and Aaron Tuckerman. Steven Beadsley (Gentle Lovers), William O’Donnell (Westwood Velo), Karsten Hagen (Echelon Gran Fondo/ZteaM), Paul Bourcier (Hutch’s), Matt Ritzow (Bicycleway.com), Graham Howard (HP Chiro) and Roger Stevens (HP Chiro) also made their way into the early but decisive break. With four riders each in a very solid looking move, the race seemed headed for a battle between two powerhouse squads in HP Chiro and Rubicon-Orbea. And it all happened so fast.

“It was one of those races where you race from the front,” Kem said. “It’s almost not attacks. You get splits. With the cross tailwind at the start, the field just shattered immediately because it’s single file on the center line.”

But the same conditions that allowed the leaders to so quickly dismantle the chasers behind also battered the break when touched wheels in crosswind sections knocked Coker, Reeb and Tuckerman from the lead and forced Beardsley and O’Donnell to abandon before the end of the first lap. Now with three riders in the eight-rider break, Rubicon-Orbea had dominant numbers and an apparent stranglehold on the race.

“A little bit of Kiwi racing style from the gun,” Bevin said of how the day played out. “We had four guys up there to start with. So we had nothing to lose and we just kept rolling. And then Aaron got caught behind a crash, but we still had three guys out of eight in the break, so it was our race to lose as much as it was to win.”

Bourcier, the Hutch’s rider, said the remaining Rubicon riders went to the front and tried to decide the race over the next few miles.

“All three of them got together on the white line,” he said. “They were going to do a three-man time trial, but they had 45 miles to go. I negotiated with Omer (Kem) and he realized it’s too windy out and they probably wouldn’t make it. In the middle of the summer, like June, they probably would’ve made it. But today it was questionable. So they went over to the yellow line and started an echelon.”

It was smooth sailing from there once the break was cooperating. With just one rider choosing to sit in for most of the ride, the leaders quickly gained time on the remnants of the field (14 riders out of a field of 50 abandoned the race).

“(Bevin) sat on that whole tail section,” Bourcier said. “I guess he was the designated sprinter. But they were being pretty fair. (Kem) led the last 4 miles into the winds, and he was just dying.”

The Rubicon trio had a rested sprinter and control of the lead group, but at least one rider in the breakaway tried to beat the odds. Echelon Gran Fondo’s Hagen expended some energy trying to sneak away near the end of the race but left just enough in his tank to pull off second in the sprint when his late attacks didn’t pan out.

“Toward the end there we really slowed down,” Hagen said. “People were starting to mess around getting ready for the sprint, so I tried a couple attacks and nothing stuck. There’s just too much horsepower up there. So I decided to wait for the sprint. Nice long sprint and a good wind up.”

Hagen wound it up for second, cruising in several seconds behind the young New Zealand rider. HP Chiro’s Howard crossed the line in third, ahead of Ritzow in fourth and Keogh in fifth. Bevin credited his new teammates with his first win in Oregon.

“The guys set me up perfect,” he said. “I split between working and saving myself because there were a couple of guys sitting on, so we couldn’t have all of us up there and then lose the race.”

The Piece of Cake win is Bevin’s third since arriving in the U.S. He also won the Tour de Dung in Sequim, Wash., and and the Mason Lake Road Race #3 near Shelton, Wash.

BRUBAKER OUTLASTS BREAK IN FIVE-UP SPRINT

The Women's Cat 1/2/3 field and other afternoon races faced the same on-then-off wet, windy conditions as the morning races.

Veloforma’s Tina Brubaker took the cake in the Women’s Cat 1/2/3 afternoon race that slugged it out under the same wet and windy conditions as the morning events. The race was shortened from four laps to three after getting delayed behind a road closure because of a mishap in the Women’s Cat 4/Masters 40+ race.

Unlike the men’s race, where the decisive break shattered the field within the first few miles of the start, the women took a couple of laps to make the final selection.

“The break formed on the back flat section where everyone was guttered pretty hard to the right,” Brubaker said. “There was a little popper up to the left, and we knew that was where we were going to attack. We attacked the first lap and it didn’t stick, tried the second lap and got away.”

Things came back together briefly before the leaders powered away one more time. Brubaker and teammate Elise Huggins were joined by Heather Hill (Life Cycle Bike Shop), Anona Whitley (Ironclad Performance Wear) and Emily Charbonneau (BRIHOP) off the front of the main pack.

With the finish closing in, the Veloforma riders worked together to seal the win for Brubaker. Huggins said they tried to keep the pace high coming into the finishing straight.

“We hammered a little bit into the right turn (off the circuit and onto the diversion toward the finish) and kept it rolling. ” Huggins said. “Then there was a little bit of who’s taking the lead, and I just floored it coming out of the last corner there.”

Brubaker took it from there.

“She just punched it for me,” Brubaker said. “I know what to do from there. I may have to lead out Elise next time. I owe her one.”

BRIHOP’s Charbonneau was next across the line for second, with Huggins cruising in for third ahead of Hill in fourth and Whitley fifth. Veloforma’s Stephanie Chase won the field sprint for sixth.

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RESULTS
Piece of Cake Road Race
Perrydale, Oregon
Sunday, March 28

Men Pro/1/2
1. Bevin, Patrick (Rubicon-ORBEA Benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation)
2. Hagen, Karsten (Echelon Granfondo/ZteaM)
3. Howard, Graham (HP Chiropractic)
4. Ritzow, Matt (Bicycleway.com)
5. Keogh, Quinn (Rubicon-ORBEA Benefiting the Lance Armstrong Foundation)

Women Cat 1/2/3
1. Brubaker, Tina (Veloforma)
2. Charbonneau, Emily (BRIHOP)
3. Huggins, Elise (Veloforma)
4. Hill, Heather (Life Cycle Bike Shop)
5. Whitley, Anona (Ironclad Performance Wear Portland)

Juniors 16-18
1. Wait-Molyneux, Colby (Specialized River City Bicycles)
2. Pugh, Lance (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
3. Fawcett, Brian (Pistis)
4. Chasse, Derrick (Fred Meyer/Lakeside Cycling Team)
5. Branch, Keenau (B.E.A.))

Juniors 13-15
1. Rising, Jack (Fred Meyer/Lakeside Cycling Team)
2. Carrick, Camerou (B.E.A.)
3. Dunlap, Colin (B.E.A.)
4. Prettyman, Walker (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
5. Lee, Dey Shaun (Word-RCB)

Juniors 10-12
1. McElroy, Grant (Beaverton Bicycle Club)
2. Hammerquist, Erik
3. King, Aaron (Capitol Velo)
4. Fitzgerald, Thomas

Men Cat 3
1. Willis, Andrew (Ironclad Performance Wear)
2. Edgerton, Adam (Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing)
3. Buchholz, Cort (Cyclesoles/Sagebrush Cycles)
4. Vollmer-Buhl, Brian (Paul’s Bicycle Way of Life Cycling Team)
5. Fitzgerald, Stephen (Liberty Cycle)

Men Cat 4
1. Masuda, David (Team Bike Tires Direct)
2. Deardorff, Chris (BRIHOP)
3. Frechen, Nathan R (Team Beer)
4. Conley, Shaun (Ironclad Performance Wear)
5. Ralston, James (Hammer Velo)

Men Cat 5
1. Engelhard, Brian (Pacific Power Blue Sky)
2. Heinrichs, Steve
3. Winans, Chris (Sunnyside Sports)
4. Potoczny-Jones, Isaac (Word-RCB)
5. Rosko, Richard (Hammer Velo)

Women Cat 4
1. Chinburg, Megan (Veloforma)
2. Jorgensen, Rachelle (Life Cycle Bike Shop)
3. McNair, Abra (Showers Pass)
4. Loder, Erica (Veloforma)
5. Goodall, Erin (Artisan Family Racing)

Women Masters 40+
1. Fournier, Sami (OrganicAthlete)
2 . Moss, Jan (Sorella Forte)
3 . Carter, Julie (Hammer Velo)
4. Thiele, Barbara (Team Rose City)
5. Leyva, Joanne (Team Rose City)

Men Masters 40+ 1/2/3
1. Holland, Steven (United Finance)
2. Babcock, Ron (Portland Velo)
3. Browning, Scott (Echelon Gran Fondo/ZteaM)
4. Ghilarducci, Thomas (Presto Velo)
5. Vigeant, Robert (Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing)

Men Masters 40+ 4/5
1. Webb, Tom (Team Rose City)
2. Meller, Greg (Life Cycle Bike Shop)
3. Nichols, Kevin (Pacific Power Blue Sky)
4. Shigeta, Robert
5. Anderson, Eric (Pacific Power Blue Sky)