Winthrop provided the center for the Methow Valley Stage Race this past weekend. Garage riders "cowboy'd up" to the wild west town and the race. While we would of preferred horses, cowboy hats, and six shooters; the team came equipped with road bikes, helmets, and energy bars. Winthrop would have to get by with a weekend of clacking road bike shoes replacing the jingle of spurs.

The race started off with a more than challenging 10 mile time trial in Mazama. Lots of rolling hills make steady pacing nearly impossible. This is a TT to ride smart, not just hard. Garage was consistent in all fields: Kyle Farrell in cat 1/2, Morgan Coleman in cat 3, and Mike Burdo in the masters field all pulled 6th place finishes in the morning. Brent Carlson finished mid-field due to a mechanical that cost significant time.

Saturday night was a new event: a mass start hill climb up a single lane forest service road. In the cat 1/2 field Brent Carlson put in an early move to as the pace was letting up; on his return Kyle Farrell moved up to crest the steep first mile towards the front of the pack before eventually falling back to finish 9th on the climb. Morgan Coleman never needed the small chainring for the climb, flying up the hill to finish 2nd in the cat3 group. In the Masters field Mike Burdo regained face after a 6th place finish by daredeviling the descent and being the first down the hill (and presumably first to the Old Schoolhouse Pub!).

Former Garage rider Josh Gunn had the right idea by avoiding the next day's road race. Brent made the move of the day and had a 3+ minute gap on the field with two breakaway partners. Though Brent didn't stay away, the move made it much easier to sit in the pack for half the race.

Overall a good weekend with top 10 placings in the GC in all fields. Top it off with ice cream in Winthrop and Garage had a complete weekend.