Gray, Davis Usher win road race titles

May 15, 2011 by editor

SILVERTON — Scott Gray brought Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing’s winning streak to three Saturday at the OBRA Road Race Championships by taking a three-up sprint after bridging with two others to a daylong breakaway by Kennett Peterson (Hagens Berman). Anne Davis Usher (Upper Echelon Fitness Women’s Racing) jumped early on the long uphill drag race to the finish atop Victor Point and beat the field to the line for the Women’s Cat 1/2 win.

Davis Usher finished several seconds ahead of Lisa Turnbull (REP Gym/Riverstone) and Hillary Billington (Hammer Nutrition) after taking advantage of Ironclad Performance Wear rider Anona Whitley’s efforts to set up teammate Brianna Walle, who finished fourth.

“Anona (Whitley) took a hard pull the last mile or so,” Davis Usher said. “I was lucky enough to be on her wheel. I was sitting second at the bottom of the hill, and I just took off and went as hard as I could.”

Davis Usher was fading fast by the time she crested the hill for the short dip to the finish, but she had timed her effort well enough to be able to coast across the line and take her first OBRA Championship after just three years of racing.

“Lucky nobody was close to me at the end or they would have gotten me,” she said.

A breakaway just miles into the contest animated the Cat /1/2 men’s race for most of the day, with Hagens Berman rider Kennett Peterson, fresh off a tough few weeks on the National Race Calendar pro/am circuit, playing the main protagonist. Peterson escaped early in the four-lap, 70-mile race with Veloce’s Michael Palmer.

As Palmer began to falter, Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing’s Stephen Bedford, who last week placed third in the Collegiate Div 1 National Championship Criterium, bridged to the group to lend a hand in the escape effort. Unfortunately for the group, Palmer immediately dropped off the pace, leaving Peterson and Bedford to try and hold off the field for more than three laps.

The duo built a lead of as much as 3:50 before the wheels started coming off. Bedford couldn’t match Peterson’s pace the third time up the long climb early into lap three and was soon jettisoned out of the lead group and eventually out of the race. Struggling on by himself, Peterson’s advantage started to plummet as he tried to hold off the chase for nearly two laps.

Back in the field, Team Oregon, which had been patrolling the front of the field to protect its rider up the road, used its superior numbers to line out the chase at the bottom of the final long climb and launch Gray, who countered an attack from Rob English (Hutch’s) and brought along Team S&M’s Brad Winn.

Gray said the chase group gained confidence as the trio quickly ate into Peterson’s lead.

“He had three minutes and then pretty quick it was down to 1:45,” Gray said. “We were riding hard there for a half a lap, and then once we knew he was coming back we started riding tempo.”

Up front alone, Peterson knew he was starting to run out of steam.

“I didn’t have any legs left, really,” he said. “I’d been off the front since about two miles into the race, and I completely ran out of food. I didn’t really expect to be off the front that long.”

In retrospect, Peterson said, he should have waited for Bedford and tried to get a few more miles out of the Team Oregon rider.

“If I had waited for him and ridden with him for another half lap, I think I would have stayed away,” he said.

The chasing trio caught and quickly dropped Bedford, but it took another lap to reel in Peterson. The chasers made contact with about 10 miles to go, and Peterson immediately sat on the back of the new four-rider lead group. English launched an attack on a short, steep pitch with about 5 kilometers to go that dislodged Winn, and the trio cruised toward the finish to settle the three-up sprint for the championship.

Gray slowed the pace and led into the final 1 kilometer climb to the finish. Peterson was sitting third behind English when Gray attacked and opened the winning advantage he easily maintained to the finish with plenty of time to check behind and post a salute.

“That’s my specialty, short punchy climbs,” Gray said. “So I was glad nobody attacked me before that.”

Gray also praised Bedford’s early effort and the team’s execution of the overall strategy.

“That was kind of the plan,” he said. “Get a guy in a move early and make it hard later. If the move sticks it does, but if it doesn’t then we’re set up.”

Check out the PHOTO GALLERY from all the day’s racing.

RESULTS
OBRA Road Race Championships
May 14

Cat 1/2 Men
1. Gray, Scott (Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing)
2. Peterson, Kennett (Hagens-Berman LLP Cycling)
3. English, Rob (Hutch’s)
4. Winn, Brad (Team S+M)
5. Gallant, Brendon

Cat 1/2 Women
1. Davis-Usher, Anne (Upper Echelon Fitness)
2. Turnbull, Lisa (REP Gym/Riverstone)
3. Billington, Hilary (Hammer Nutrition)
4. Walle, Brianna (Ironclad Performance Wear)
5. Slawta, Jenny (Land Shark)

Cat 3 Women
1. Kaplan, Jessica (Therapeutic Associates/Sagebrush Cycles)
2. Tisdale, Sarah (Sorella Forte)
3. Charbonneau, Emily
4. Lewellen, Cindy
5. Cunha, Michelle (Ironclad Performance Wear)

Men Cat 3
1. Sherman, David (Bridgetown Velo)
2. Shane, Bennett (Portland State University)
3. Miller Ryan, (Pacific Power Blue Sky)
4. Sampson, Mckenzie
5. McDade, Stephen (Beaverton Bicycle Club)

Cat 4 Women
1. Johannesen, Annika
2. Burton, Alexandra (Upper Echelon Fitness Women’s Cycling)
3. Schultz, Alexandria (Ironclad Performance Wear)
4. Jilot, Trish (Sorella Forte)
5. Clark, Sandra (Word-RCB)
Masters Women 40+
1. Jerko, Christine (Sorella Forte)
2. Ralle, Martina (Sorella Forte)

Cat 4/5 Men
1. Lagerstrom, Eric (Athletes Lounge)
2. DiMarco, David (SLOCUM Rebound Racing)
3. Gibson, Nathan
4. Nelson, Eric (Soraz Racing)
5. Boerner, David

Master Men 40+ Cat 3
1. Rogers, Bruce (Hutch’s/Bend Dental/Lowes)
2. Magilner, Mark (Half Fast Velo)
3. Masuda, David (Team Bike Tires Direct)
4. Albrow, Richard (Bend Memorial Clinic Total Care Racing Team)
5. Babcock, Ron (Portland Velo)

Masters Men 50+ Cat 3
1. O’Brien, John (West End Bikes/Specialized)
2. Slawta, John (Land Shark)
3. Long, Steve
4. Stone, Cal

Master Men 50+ Cat 4/5
1. Kenney, John (Mountain View Cycles)
2. Upton, Rick (Team Bike Tires Direct)
3. Ontkean, Mike
4. Cortright, Robert
5. Gornick, Jon (Team Oregon/Laurelwood Brewing)

Complete OBRA results are HERE.