Valley of the Sun - Cat 2 GC win!

Going into Valley of the Sun weekend, I did not know what to expect. I was coming off a strong 60-miles of riding in a small break with Pista Palace's James Gunn at last Saturday's Boulevard 90-mile Road Race, but then marvelously cracked and limped in to the finish (just ask all my Swami teammates who passed by me to the line: Chris, Orion, Matt and Pascal). Realistically, I thought if I could crack the top 10 or 15 places on GC then I could get some points towards an upgrade. I was equally ready to commit to my two teammates, Matt and Chris, depending on who went the best in the 14-mile TT.

Stage One: 14-mile TT, Buckeye, AZ
Oddly enough, the event I felt most prepared for on paper at VOS, the opening time trial, ended up being a ho-hum performance in comparison to the Cat 2 field. I left San Diego very early on Friday morning and arrived to the start two hours before my start time. I had plenty of time to prepare equipment and get in a good warm up. I had my Power Tap race wheel with a Wheelbuilder.com disc cover so I could glance at my wattage from time to time and focus on maintaining a high and even pace throughout. The course was an out-and-back, with the out portion into a headwind and ever so slightly uphill and some jarring bumps in the shoulder. I rode an even paced race to place 11th on the stage at one minute behind the winning time of 30:43. I felt as though I rode well and was surprised I was not in the top ten. This told me I had not done my homework and should have ridden on the smooth white shoulder line, or maybe should have driven over the night before or finally (but worst to admit to yourself) was possibly outclassed by better riders.




Stage Two: 87-mile Road Race, Casa Grande, AZ
My two Swami's teammates, Matt and Chris, and I went into the road race with a loose plan of attack. We all felt good and we agreed we would be aggressive and opportunistic. No more than three miles after the start, one of my teammates launched off the front of the group and drew a few other out. Conditions were windy (crosswinds) so they didn't stay out for long.

On the second lap as we headed into the crosswinds, two riders jumped from the group and got a few hundred meters up the road. The pace in the group was sluggish, so I pushed a hard but steady tempo and no one followed. I was committed so I stayed in the saddle and bridged the gap to the two leaders. I told them to keep the pace steady but that the group was not following us. At the base of the climb, we were joined by three other riders and we were now in business. One rider in particular, Michael Jasinski from NorCal, was so strong on the climb that each lap we dropped riders from our break. I made an alliance with him that I would get the group to give him the KOM on the second and fourth times of the climb if he would pull us up (no brainer, right!). This guy was a workhorse but he had difficulty keeping a steady pace and his accelerations on the fourth of six laps whittled the break down to three. While he took top KOM time bonuses, I took second and got two seconds for each, four seconds in total.

On the penultimate time up the climb, a race vehicle told us we had two-and-a-half minutes on a chase group of six riders behind and that the peloton was nowhere in sight. Despite our own hard tempo pace up the climb, somehow we lost two minutes to the chase group behind. We were caught near the feed zone so with 10 miles left to race, we were a group of nine riders. The pace over the next seven miles was very hard and I had to sit out every other rotation. At the start of the final climb, I rode up to the NorCal rider and told him this was his race to lose and that he was the strongest climber in the group and he should "go and not look back". He listened and jumped and it instantly splintered the group. One rider followed him and they put 50 meters on me very quickly. I rode tempo and carried three others with me. With 200 meters to the line, those three jumped and I took fourth to the line. We put good time on those who had fallen off the pace early in the climb.



I ended up sixth on the stage and jumped into the race lead, four seconds ahead of the road race stage winner. My early gamble of riding in the break paid off.

Stage Three: 45 minute Crit, Downtown Phoenix
I told myself before the race I needed to stay aggressive and stay near the front of the race. In the opening ten laps I did neither very well. I was in poor position near the back of the group and was riding passively. The announcer started auctioning off primes and I started using the laps after a prime lap to move up in the group. Finally, halfway through the race I established a position in the front quarter of the group and the ride became easier from that point on. I finished safely in the group and ahead of the two GC contenders sitting in second and third place and hung on to a four second victory margin!



I am realistic and know that in the road race I might have managed to sneak one by the field. The guys told me that morning that racers usually note the top 10 GC riders and in 11th place I might go unnoticed. The group may not have given me a leash in the road race had my number been written on enough top tubes, but that was their fault and not mine. Maybe next time they will pay attention to the rider sitting 11th!



It was so cool having Emily and Kaia at the race cheering for Dad. It made sweating it out in the desert worth every second.