Team Type 1’s Matt Wilson won Thursday’s stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic in honor of teammate Ben Brooks, who was severely injured in a bad crash in the opening stage on Wednesday.

Wilson wrote a daily diary for 10 Speed during the Tour de Georgia.

Here’s Team Type 1’s account of the stage win, followed by its account of the crash.  Keep Brooks in your thoughts and prayers.

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.

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