Sean Mazich, Scott Stewart, Carter Jones, Kevin Soller, Larry Warbasse, Stevie Cullinan, and I lined up for the Valley of the Sun. Rock Racing, Ride Clean, Bissell, Ouch, Livestrong, and a Mexican team showed up among several others.
First day:
TT: uhh not much to report. I didnt have a TT bike so barney King (Our ds) told me to soft pedal it. My cool down was putting it in the small ring the last 2 km. It was a strict tailwind out and headwind back which obviously helped my TT bike (or lack there of). Now I would like to bang a few nails into the table (w/e that saying means) and say: in cycling especially bigger races, we have designated riders (aka leaders) who we are working for. Since I was the only who did not have a TT bike, I was obviously out of the hunt to be the leader for VOS. Whoever did well in the TT was going to be the leader. Carter got 11th, Stevie 12th, Soller 14th or something like that. Therefore we worked for those guys. When there are big races you conserve your strength. This isnt a local race. There are legit guys here. The guy who won (the TT and the overall) is the current Elite National TT champ (he crushed everyone there). Then at the OUCH camp, John Chodroff dropped Landis on Palomar (or that's what i heard). If you noticed there were a couple of "slow" pros out there. You think they actually tried? Not at all. Its a hard concept for people to understand to sometimes for racers to back off a bit instead of giving 110% each race. Dont get me wrong I am by all means not some master of tactics or w/e in cycling.
RR: Perhaps the most frustrating ending. I will start with about 7km to go. Our whole team is on the front leading out Sean Mazich. I am second wheel behind Soller. Soller takes an epic pull to the base of this little roller. I take over and sprint up to the top of the hill (around 5km to go). I pull off and Scott Stewart attacks. 2nd place in GC, Ben Kneller, follows and then cracks as Scott lit him up. Then the Bissel guys chase it down. So with about 3km to go, there are two or three Bissell dudes, some other riders, an Ouch guy or two, then Carter, Sean, and Me, behind me Soller and Stewart then 10 other riders. So like 25 guys left. 3 of us in the top 10. then the motor slowed down and came up to us and told us the race is stopped. Everybody sorta ignored the official until the lead car dropped back, everybody finally figured it out that we were actually neutralized. I couldnt believe it. An uphill finish in the headwind, and we had like 5 guys in the top 15. I usually never say things like this (may be it is the fact that I am lying in the airport at midnight in Denver) but I am CONFIDENT in that one of us was going to end very near if not on the top spot of the podium.
*The crash was a pretty scary. Apparently a guy in the cat 3 race went over the bars and cracked his skull, broke his shoulder, and another dude broke his shoulder.
CRIT:
Think the Chattanooga course but slicker and faster. 6 turns, 5 left, 1 right. I got a good start around the 2nd row. the tactic was to just go up the road and line it out to shell all the extra baggage. Chodroff, who is super strong, but struggles in crits, was our target which aligned with Bissell's tactics. We sent numerous guys up the road and came close to winning all the primes. Yada yada (*Seinfeld joke*) There are about 50 guys left in the lead group the last 3 laps. Chodroff was dangling at the back. I bring Mazich and Carter up the front and jump around Rock Racing's leadout train for Justin Williams and Bahati. It was crazy bumping elbows with those guys. I was screaming at them to get out of my way (probably from the Red Bull and the caffeine Jelly Beans : ) Finally I got free with around 2 go to go and I waited for the last corner on lap 2 to jump. I jumped on the last corner just before but a Kenda Inferno rider grabbed my wheel. But I decided to keep going. I went through at the front on the bell lap and tried to keep the pace as long as I could. (Note: just before the first turn on the course is a median). I swung off on the left just before the first turn. Carter Jones and Chepe Garcia (rock racing) jumped away on the inside of the median. They were gone. Sadly, Garcia jumped out of the last corner with a bit of a gap to Carter and held it to the line. Garcia is a solid veteran and has been racing before Carter was born!!. had Carter not won 4 primes that day he might have had enough to get the win. But that is bike racing. He finished 2nd. But that time bonus and the gap to the field was enough for him to move up to 6th and solidify his lead in the best U23 rider. Freaking awesome riding by the team!
Hope I make it to ATL,
David
