May 28...

Matt Weyen took 6th place today in a very cold, wet and miserable day in the first stage of the Ecology Center Classic.  The race had a 7.5 mile dirt section that with the rain turned into a muddy mess.  The riders had to go through that section twice. 
 
After an early attack got off the front iomega-Orbea's Gonzalo Tagliabue broke away with 2003 Univest Grand Prix winner Ted Huang of Team Webcor just before entering the mud section for the second time.  At the end of the dirt/mud the field regrouped and headed up the next climb. 
 
Shortly after the decent off the climb Webcor's Huang attacked again this time with iomega- Orbea's Matt Weyen going after him...almost immidiatly they opened up a 200 meter gap and motored away towards the leaders and to the last climb to the finish. 
 
Just before the climb as the peloton gave in to the two groups up the road and sat up, Tagliabue attacked again this time going clear with a solo move.  Tagliabue paid for his efforts as they hit the climb and 1/3 of the way up was caught by the remnants of the peloton containing iomega-Orbea's Eric Ransom and Esteban Jukich.  Jukich later fell off the pace as his legs didn't feel well and Ransom followed the pelotons leaders. 
 
Ahead Weyen and Huang closed in on the leaders but the gap was too big and Weyen finished 6th for the day. 
 
Ransom some 4km from the line in a chase group took a serious fall at 30 mph in which he flew over the bars and onto his head crushing his helmet and ruining his rear wheel. 
 
As Tagliabue passed he saw his teammate Ransom screaming in pain and agony and stopped and and pushed Ransom to the finish.  Tagliabue later said ..." the way he was breathing and crying in pain, I thought he was going to collapse right there on the bike....it didn't look or sound too good.  I was really worried."  Ransom saw medical attention at the finish and later seemed OK physicaly and luckly walked away with only with a minor concussion.  
 
Official team results for the day were Weyen 6th, Jukich 29th, Ransom 31st, Tagliabue 32nd, Hamilton 40th.