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Team Type 1's Milne Runner-Up In Final Cascade Stage
All photos "Copyright, Kurt Jambretz, Action Images"  -  (www.actionimages.cc)

 Bend, Ore. - Team Type 1’s Shawn Milne finished second on the final stage of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic Sunday, capping an emotional five days for the team in Bend, Ore.

Matt Wilson and Moises Aldape each won stages for Team Type 1 and Aldape took home the polka-dot jersey as winner of the King of the Mountains competition. Wilson also finished fifth overall.

But what brought smiles to the faces of more than just Team Type 1 was the news that the condition of Ben Brooks had remarkably improved since his violent crash Wednesday, an impact that broke his bicycle in half and initially left him unconscious and unable to breath on his own.

Brooks was transferred out of intensive care Sunday, Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said, and was actually kidding and joking around with members of the team who visited him after the race.

“Ben actually threw the guys out of his room and told him that he was tired of looking at them,” Beamon said. “We got the KOM jersey and won a couple stages, but I can’t remember feeling as good as I felt walking out of that hospital room, seeing Ben alert and his personality coming out.”

In Sunday’s Deschutes Brewery-Awbrey Butte Circuit Race, Milne and Aldape were part of a small group that came to the final 2.5 miles (4 km) together. Milne said he was feeling strong, despite the heat and humidity that had many racers pulling out early in the 83-mile (133.5 km) race.

“I kept talking to myself and told myself to toughen up and deal with the heat,” Milne said. “Finally, the adrenaline kicked in the last lap.”

Aldape led out the sprint for Milne, who was only beaten before the line by Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living presented by Parkpre). Ted King (Bissell Pro Cycling) was a distant third.

After the race, Brooks’s father thanked the riders, the race organization and the community of Bend for the overwhelming support of his son. Brook’s wife, Rachael, arrived in Bend Thursday and his parents flew in from Australia Friday.

“My dad had to go to through the same thing when I was hit by a car in 2001,” Milne said. “Hearing him talk about Ben had me starting to break down a bit.”

Aldape Wins Team Type 1's Second Stage At Cascade
All photos "Copyright, Kurt Jambretz, Action Images"  -  (www.actionimages.cc)

Bend, Ore. - Moises Aldape won his first race of the season Saturday while scoring Team Type 1’s second stage win at the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic.

Aldape won the 83-mile (133.5 km) Cascade Lakes Road Race by out-sprinting five breakaway companions in the final few hundred meters of the mountainous finish of the Cascade Lakes Road Race at the Mount Bachelor Ski Resort. The 26-year-old also took the lead in the King of the Mountains classification and will wear the polka-dot jersey for the final stage Sunday.

Perhaps most impressive was Aldape’s ability to wait for the right moment to launch a vicious sprint, which quickly closed a huge gap that Blake Caldwell (Team Garmin-Chipotle) had opened up with an attack of his own in the final 500 meters.

Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said he second-guessed Aldape’s decision to wait for the final sprint.

“It looked like Caldwell was going to win the stage at 200 meters, but at 150 meters Moises went flying by,” Beamon said. “He just stayed so calm and collected and composed, it was driving me nuts.”

The decision to remain patient for the most decisive moment of the 83-mile (133.5 km) race was an easy one, Aldape said. Caldwell first launched an attack with six miles (10 km) to go that gained him 20 seconds on the breakaway, which at that time included eight riders.

“When Caldwell attacked, Ed told me to ‘go, go, go,’ but I felt confident I could jump across,” Aldape said. “So I just waited. I was counting on a little difficulty in the terrain in the last kilometer. As long as I could see him (Caldwell) ahead of me in the last 500 meters, I was confident I could win.”

Caldwell faded to finish sixth, while Chad Beyer (Team USA) was second and Bradley White (Successful Living presented by Parkpre) was third.

Aldape has been on a tear of late, scoring the team’s best finish (seventh) at the Commerce Bank Philadelphia International Classic and winning the points classification at the Tour de Beauce in Canada. Next month, he heads to Beijing to represent Mexico in the Summer Olympic Games.

Saturday’s victory added to the emotion first raised by Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson, who won the second stage of the race Thursday. He dedicated his victory to teammate Ben Brooks, who was critically injured Wednesday in a high-speed crash.

Brooks has since shown signs of recovery, Beamon said, and is awake and conscious of his surroundings. The full extent of his injuries, which include head trauma, will not be immediately known.

Sunday’s final stage of the six-stage, five-day event is the Deschutes Brewery-Awbrey Butte Circuit Race, another 83-mile (133.5 km) race. Wilson is fifth overall, but only 25 seconds out of second place. Levi Leipheimer (Astana) remains the race leader by two minutes and 30 seconds over Jeff Louder (BMC). 

Wilson Wins Cascade Stage For Injured Teammate

Bend, Ore. - Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson made good on a pre-race promise to himself to win Thursday’s stage of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic for teammate Ben Brooks.

But as much as Wilson wanted to celebrate his victory in the 78-mile (125.5 km) Three Creeks Road Race, he could not help but think of his fellow Australian, who crashed badly in Wednesday’s race.

“My initial feeling was one of happiness of this being all great,” Wilson said. “But the first thing you think about is that you don’t have the right to be so happy about it when Ben is in the hospital. So I definitely have mixed emotions.”

Thursday night, Brooks remained in intensive care in critical, but stable condition. 

Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon, who visited Brooks before and after Thursday’s race, said the 29-year-old is showing signs of making steady progress. 

“He is breathing on his own now but is pretty heavily sedated,” Beamon said.

Wilson not only emerged from a breakaway group of a dozen riders to win his third race of the season, but the 2004 Australian national road champion also took the yellow race leader’s jersey from Stage 1 winner Santiago Botero (Rock Racing). Wilson now leads Levi Lepheimer (Astana) by 37 seconds and Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) by 45 seconds. He also holds the lead in the King of the Mountains competition.

Wilson said the sizeable gap, which reached more than four minutes at one point , that he and his breakaway companions enjoyed as the 10-mile final climb began, ensured the winner would come from their group. Wilson greatly benefited from the work his teammate, Valeriy Kobzarenko, did for much of the day. 

“Kobzarenko was awesome today,” Beamon said. “Once the break got established, BMC and Rock Racing were rolling on the front of the pack but the time gap kept growing. ‘Kobza’ was in full worker mode until Matt took over.”

As all but Thomas Peterson (Garmin-Chipotle) fell back on the mountainous ascent to Three Creek Snow Park, Wilson said he was only thinking of the win, and not the overall race leadership that could possibly go along with it. 

“In the last five kilometers (3.1 miles), I probably could have gone a lot faster and gone a lot harder, but my effort was 100 percent to win the stage. The yellow jersey was a bonus,” Wilson said. “Now that I have it, I’m not going to sit back and not defend it. But it’s going to be virtually impossible to hang onto it tomorrow against such strong time trialists. But there’s still a lot of racing to come after that.”

Friday is the double-stage day of the five-day, six-stage National Race Calendar event. The 14-mile (22.5 km) Skyliners Time Trial goes off in the morning and the 90-minute Downtown Criterium begins at 7 p.m.

Team Type 1's Brooks Stable Following Violent Crash

Bend, Ore. - Team Type 1’s Ben Brooks is hospitalized in stable condition following a violent crash Wednesday during the opening stage of the Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic in Bend, Ore.

The 29-year-old Australian fell victim to one of a half dozen cattle guard crossings along the 83-mile (133.5 km) Prineville Road Race. A cattle guard is a series of parallel metal bars installed in the road to deter cattle and other hoofed animals from crossing. The gaps between the bars are wide enough for an animal’s legs to fall through.

Team Type 1 Sport Director Ed Beamon said riders who witnessed the crash told him the cattle guard sent Brooks into a spin that catapulted him off his bicycle as the 150-rider field was traversing a mostly flat, but twisting, section before a descent about 50 miles (80 km) into the race.

“They had to be going about 60 kilometers and hour (37 mph) and it was single-file, full gas at the time,” Beamon said.

A rescue squad rushed Brooks to a local hospital.

“He is at an excellent facility with excellent care and his condition is stable,” Beamon said. “We are just reaching out now for good thoughts and prayers. We are fairly confident he will be OK.”

Brooks’s wife, Rachael, was en route to Bend Wednesday night, Beamon said.

Team Type 1 is a first-year professional squad that created in 2004 by two riders with Type 1 diabetes to inspire people living with diabetes to take a proactive approach to managing their health and overcoming the obstacles often associated with the condition. Brooks is not one of the four racers on Team Type 1’s pro team that has Type 1 diabetes.

Team Type 1’s Christopher Jones finished fourth in the stage that ended with a climb up to Pilot Butte State Park. Jones was joined by teammate Glen Chadwick in an 11-man break that was away most of the day. Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) won the stage.

Check out the team's website at www.teamtype1.org