Day 1-second half, Day 2 and Day 3 prep of VotS
The TT ended up being a rough day out. After a good warmup, I rolled up to the start house. Curtis Gunn from So-Cal rolled up and started talking to an official he knew. He was talking smack about his equipment. Gunn went with a fixed gear with a 60 tooth. I'm not sure what cog he had on the rear, but it was small. In the end, he finished close to Sandros who happened to light things up and only miss 1st by 1 second I think. That's fast. I ended up having a decent ride. I was nearly the same time gap back from the leader, who was slower than last year. I was 27 seconds slower than last year, but I think it was a tougher day. The crazy thing is that time gap from the winner of the stage last year had me in 9th and this year 27th. That's a lot of fast TT guys. For a 30+ minute effort, I was pretty worked. After dinner it was back to Motel 666.
Day 2 looked to start out good. The forecast was for mid-80s and sunny. I thought that would be great! We rolled down to the course and got things rolling for race day. I'll have to try to take a picture and post it of the sweet wheel setup I was riding. Those wheels are fast! The wind started to kick up hard from the south before the start and I think it kept blowing harder as the day went. On the second lap on the south end of the course it went in the gutter. Ouch. I think the field dropped by 20 - 25. Sandros and Santa were up close to the front protecting their GC positions and doing a good job at that. On the climb we had a tailwind. In 80+ degrees, a tailwind isn't very comfortable, especially when you're hauling up a climb. I heard someone say we were doing 24-25 mph every time up the hill. There were numerous breaks that got away and one was really big, putting the Hagens-Berman GC leader in trouble since he missed the move. There was a hard chase and they were brought back. As we went through the start heading to the south end, Rock Racing legend and tattoo billboard Clinger got off the front with a few guys. We had two times up the hill before the finish. They dangled about 60-90 seconds off the front for a long time, but the pack wasn't too concerned.
When we hit the tailwind I was feeling good so I decided to try to get across because it looked like this would be the move. A Rock Racing guy went with me and fortunately when we got halfway he started to help out. We made it before the top of the climb, and for a while things were rolling. Rubelt came across with someone else and all of a sudden the 2 teams with 2 guys each in the move decided it was time to attack the guys they didn't know. Before long I was taken off the back and gapped. Dejected, I went back to the pack and a short time later saw another opportunity to get across. Bryson ended up with me and 2 other guys. I thought that might be safer since we were all from different teams. Little did I know that I was going to blow in the crosswind section. I tried super hard and was just out of gas. When the pack caught me I got spit out the back. I had used up too much trying to make it to the break the first time and cover attacks. It was a tough call trying to get to the move. If I would have stayed with the pack there was a chance that I could have sprinted it out at the finish. But if I made it to the break I had a chance to gain a lot of time and a high finishing position. I thought I was alright, but I blew. It is February though. Fun and games anyway. I had a great time in the road race. It's good to get the first one out of the way!
A-train and T-bird...Rubelt says hey!