July 13, 2008

For Team Successful Living this race was a great turning point in 2007 with a win by Ricardo Escuela in Stage 1 and had high expectations
for this year’s race. The field was stacked with past and present Tour (Tour de France) contenders including Santiago Botero, Levi
Leipheimer and Chris Horner.

With team Astana not being invited to the Tour de France this year, the Cascade Cycling Classic brought some exciting racing with Levi
Leipheimer and Chris Horner (both from team Astana) racing state side for the month of July.

Stage 1 brought not only some challenging terrain but also some extreme temperatures nearing 100 degrees. Curtis Gunn and Steven
Cozza (Garmin-Chipotle) were the first to make a move and stayed away for more than 25 kilometers. Immediately after, a dangerous break
of 12 slipped away and remained mostly together to the end of the race. Santiago Botero (Rock Racing) won the stage and the leader’s jersey. Ricardo Escuela finished in the top 20.

Stage 2 was a challenging 128 kilometer road race through Deschutes National Forest with a brutal 16 kilometer climb to the finish. Early in
the race, a break of 12 organized which included Successful Living’s Brian Jensen. With a flurry of attacks during the climb and the peloton
charging behind them, Brian was able to earn an impressive 8th place right behind Levi Leipheimer (Astana).

Day three of racing brought a double-day – Individual time trial in the morning and a criterium in the evening. Successful Living rode the
time trial “comfortably” and focused their efforts on the criterium. This strategy paid off as the team was able to position Ricardo Escuela for
the final sprint earning third place next to Kyle Gritters (Health Net) and Dominique Rollin (Toyota-United).

Stage 5 started with a 16 kilomteter climb out of town. After the first climb, Successful Living’s Brian Jensen and Brad White made the
selection of 12 riders that gained up to 2:30 minutes on the main field. Few of their break-away companions fell victims at the base of the
climb but Jensen and White endured the blazing pace to the top of Mt. Bachelor. With less than 200 meters, Brad White attacked and
gained a few seconds on Moises Aldape (Team Type 1) and Chad Beyers but was caught few meters from the line for third place.

With two podium finishes in the last several days, the team knew the last day could bring some more great results. After numerous attacks
early in the race, a group of 12 riders finally snapped the leash and got away. Unfortunately, Successful Living had no representation in this
selection. To remedy this situation, Successful Living’s JR Grabinger made an attempt to bridge solo but fell short and was reeled in by the
efforts of Team BMC. With the cooperation of few other teams, the main field caught the break with less than 15 kilometers to go. Managing
a few serious attacks by Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Santiago Botero (Rock Racing), the team brought it all back together to setup
Ricardo Escuela for the final sprint. Perfectly positioned going into the final turn, Escuela was able to come around Shawn Milne (Team
Type 1) in the final meters for the win.