March 25, 2007 - Redlands, CA - Team Slipstream/Chipotle returned to California last week in hopes of continuing its breakthrough performance at February’s Tour of California; this time it was for the 19th edition of the Redlands Bicycle Classic, traditionally the premier early season stage race.

Redlands begins with a Prologue every year, and it always features a significant, steep climb at the finish. Setting out on the challenging 5 km course, Tour of California Prologue sensation Jason Donald was motivated to prove that his 2nd place to overall race winner Levi Leipheimer was no fluke. Donald put in a fine ride and ended up in 6th place. Team Slipstream/Chipotle got itself off to a solid start in the overall race as well, with four other riders ending up in the top-25.

Returning as a stage this year after a brief absence was the classic Oak Glen Road Race. As stage 1 this year, Redlands organizers clearly wanted to make their race exciting from the get-go. The stage featured three Category 2 climbs and finished with the ascent up to Oak Glen - 1690 ft. in 8 km, with an average grade of 6.7% and a steep pitch to the finish line.

Early in stage 1, a four-man breakaway escaped and stayed up the road for 75 km. On the third climb of the day, Team Slipstream/Chipotle’s Taylor Tolleson went to the front of the peloton and set a blistering pace which shattered the peloton into several groups, and leading to the breakaway’s demise. Two more riders gained a one-minute advantage, and they were soon joined by Team Slipstream/Chipotle’s Pat McCarty, who bridged to the leaders with just 6 km remaining in the race. Unfortunately, Pat’s tremendous effort to bridge to the breakaway took it’s toll, and he started to fade. Another of the team’s climbing aces, Tom Peterson, was having a great ride as well, and he finished strongly up the Oak Glen climb to take 13th on the stage.

Stage 2’s downtown Redlands criterium was more or less a recovery day for the team, with everyone trying to save some energy for the formidable Sunday road race.

Stage 3 brought more aggressive racing to the neighborhoods of Redlands, with the hilly, twisting 10 km loop connecting downtown to the Sunset area. Riders went on the attack on the first of 12 laps, and Team
Slipstream/Chipotle placed Tom Peterson and Timmy Duggan into the early break. Soon after, Jason Donald bridged with another small group and the significant results of the race were determined from this group. Donald took 6th place on the stage, with Tom coming in 11th.

Team Slipstream/Chipotle demonstrated excellent teamwork at Redlands, and came up with some nice results thanks to that teamwork. With Peterson’s 5th overall, and Donald’s 10th overall, Team Slipstream/Chipotle was the only team in the race to place two riders in the top-10 overall. Thanks to this
fact, Team Slipstream/Chipotle also finished 2nd in the Overall Team Classification.