After everyone arrived and we sat on the couch for a while, we headed outside to pack bikes, and arrange our things in the van for the drive to El Paso. We said our good byes to our hosts, as well as John and Heidi, and headed back to Texas. That brings us to now, still in Texas, when we should be in a plane heading home. Unfortunately American Airlines WW2 era planes have a tendency to have their wings fall off and so we have been pushed back onto a flight that gets back to God’s Country (Toronto) at midnight. A lot of sore tired bodies, but we are heading home.

I should take this chance to say thanks to everyone involved with the team, I can safely speak for every one of the riders that we had a great time, and that all your efforts are most definitely appreciated! Check back for more when my brain regrows all the cells I killed yesterday.

Today actually got to sleep in for once this week and we awoke to a delicious smell coming from the kitchen. Our host Gloria had made us New Mexico style breakfast burritos, and let me tell you they were amazing. Thanks Gloria! After all of us had enough to feed ten men our attention turned to this afternoons crit. We were all worried about how fast it would be and if we would make the time cut. For the first half of the race the pace was actually pretty slow. (slow compared to how fast the rest of the week has been) With about 20 laps to go the pace started slowly ramping up, until with ten laps to go it was all out. Jamie and I got popped late in the race while Anton, Zach, Luis, and Erik finished in the pack. We all survived to race the Monster of the Gila tomorrow. We have been told that this is one of the toughest, if not the toughest course we will ever race. Wish us luck!

On the way to Silver City from El Paso airport. You can't even see Zach under the pile of wheels

Before stage 1, with two of our guest riders Luis and Erik

Stage 1 – 151km to mountain top finish.
Pretty uneventful stage until the big climb. Two guys rode away early and opened 8 minute gap within an hour as the peloton pedaled backwards, but only moved forward thanks to a wicked tailwind the whole way. The occasional bumps of bars and wheels and slams of the brakes were the only thing keeping everyone awake it seemed.  Eventually Competitive Cyclist team went to the front and closed that 8 minute gap just as effortless as it was opened. However once we approached the foothills of the climb United Healthcare took over and set an eye-popping pace where things started to shatter with Zach and myself  getting stack behind one of the first splits.  Zach chased hard and eventually rode away with a chase pack  and managed to get across to main group, where I settled into my own pace and rode up 9 minutes behind the leaders nearly collapsing at the summit from the lack of oxygen. Jamie and Evan finished right behind me soon after, also suffering from the high altitude.

After Stage 1, trying to recollect what happened

Before start of Stage 2

Stage 2 – 128km A Roller-coaster of Emotions

That was one of the gnarliest races I have ever experienced. The course is packed with two back-to-back category 3 climbs early in the race, long valley stretch, another cat.3 climb and descending stretch to the finish. It’s known to be a sprinters stage, with field sticking together to the end… that is if you survive the first hour of absolutely nonsensical tailwind hammerfest up the mountains.

As predicted the race started off aggressive with every team trying to put pressure on United Healthcare team that was defending the yellow jersey. You can imagine the pace when top Pro-Domestic and various national teams go on attack …on the tailwind endless climbs. I hang on bleeding out of my eyes to 400m to go of first KOM, and got dropped. From here on I summed my whole race to the team-mates post finish as a rollercoaster of emotions, who burst out laughing as I was describing it. “Oh god I’m dropped, its over,…oh I’m catching on, ah I’m dropped again, ah I’m never gonna make the time cut, oh I’m catching the the caravan again, I’m almost there…oh God it rode away from me again, @#$%, oh  free pity boost by one of the team cars, almost there….ah @#$%…I’m not gonna make the time cut…oh wait…the miracle cop car out of no where that motor paced me for a bit” …and so on.

In short, that’s the summary of my ride. Skip to the next paragraph if you not interested in details of this most ridiculous road race I have ever experienced. So after being dropped on first KOM, I hit the high speed tight and twisty descend with few other riders, that wasn’t much of recovery at all due to all the acceleration from the corners. As we started to ascend through the mountain forest  again, lead by some stronger climbers than I am putting me back into hurt box, we managed to catch a glimpse of the peloton around the corner. To my disbelieve a few strong riders, including United Healthcare jumped us once we got within 100m, after sitting on and got across. That’s nice. I continued to suffer and got dropped by the chase pack that was shattering anyway, eventually rejoining a few after short descend. Unfortunately here came the second big climb, that went on forever up along the creek of the mountain, lead by Jamis Sutter rider of my small chase were I sat at my threshold counting minutes until I blow up again. Eventually another small pack came by with Jamie and they all left me as the grade got steeper. I was left with one other rider, riding up at more manageable pace in disappointment. The chase group went out of sight immediately and I thought my race was over right there. However as soon as we crossed  the KOM mark, very typical of me, my legs came out of no where and I started drilling on the flats and slight downhills, nearly dropping my companion. Then came the super tight 180 downhill switchbacks where you nearly had to stop to make the corner, but I kept on jamming with the hope that maybe the pack will slow at the base… also loving every moment of that stretch. Once we came out to the valley, the road was still  twisty but I got a glimpse of the ambulance car (which is a last car of the caravan), and got excited. Started pounding on the pedals and caught a rider that just had a wheel change and was about to get paced by the team car, I jumped on it as hard as I could but it accelerated to over 60km/h and I could only manage these accelerations for maybe 20s,  given the fact that I was redlining for a while just to get to them. In the process I dropped my chasing companion and was on a solo mission, cursing myself for waiting for him on the downhill instead of shaving another 30-60s that would have gotten me back in the pack if I known it was that close. I looked up and I was 100m away from ambulance again (apparently the peloton was on a quick pee break, allowing me to get in sight again). I redlined again, and caught the caravan, unfortunately for not to0 long as it was on a short climb and they all sped away as soon as I got to them. From here on I kept the caravan insight for about 15-20 minutes but couldn’t quite close the gap. However miraculously one of the team cars was pulled over and was gracious enough to give me a “power-bottle” boost to within 200m of the caravan, so not to get caught by officials. I red-lined again, and caught the ambulance car, but it hit the brakes so I sling shot to next car which sprinted away from me and I was stack alone AGAIN with no help of  the vehicles, as Ambulance car set behind me to direction of commissar and blew by me when it got a chance. Oh for @#$% sakes! I caught the caravan twice but it sprinted away from me again, this time for good, even after another 10 minute chase within its sight. My power was dropping and I was losing hope in making the time cut…then there was a miracle and a race cop car pulled in behind with another rider and it let us draft until the last climb, understanding that we just wanted to make the time cut to fight another day. From there two of us worked together for another 30km and rolled in to finish line 16 minutes back. Longest tempo workout of my life, from the gun, going in and out of threshold for entire 126km. I’d say the fact I was able to stay insight of UCI pro peloton alone for nearly an hour still confirms I’m in good enough shape to race in, maybe just not the mountian stages… Sigh.

Zach and Jamie were doing well until the last climb, and rolled in 5 and 8 minutes, respectively, behind the pack. The exciting news came in the evening after waiting  in anticipation all day to see whether Evan made the time cut or not after finishing with in a margin of seconds.  He in fact did. High five’s were given all round applauding his effort of chasing his guts out from climb one to the finish as well.

So the team is still all together hanging  by the skin of our teeth, to start another day. Next two days will be short with a time trial tomorrow, and 85 minute criterium on Saturday. Short but not necessarily easy though. Making the time cut will be an effort an a half for sure, as the top time trialists, some of them nearly World Cup contenders will be decked out in full TT equipment  setting a blistering pace that we hopefully will stay within 30% of on our road bikes, spinning out on the downhills with the lack of bigger gearing.

All for now.

This Afternoon was the final stage. A 85 minute crit on an insanely tough course. I was on mechanic duty with our guest rider Zach after not completing the stage yesterday so I spent the race watching from the pit. According to Jamie and Anton the stage started out surprisingly slow until about 4 laps in where attacks started flying off the front. After this the pace was fast all day with constant attacks flying off of the front. Both Jamie and Anton were eventually pulled late in the race but were given a pro-rated time so they made it on the general classification. So all in all it was a great day.

After a really really tough 4 days of racing we fly off to El Paso Texas tomorrow afternoon where our Super Human Director will meet us after making the 16 hour drive from Fayetteville. We will then drive up to Silver City New Mexico where we start The Tour of the Gila on Wednesday.

Stay Tuned

One doesn’t often meet guys like Bryan, a guy who has absolutely no reason to be helping us out, and yet as I type is driving the van to Arkansas. While we relax on the plane after Joe Martin, Bryan will be tearing across the Midwest making a beeline for New Mexico. One of the best guys you could ever hope to meet, I can’t help but give him a huge pre-emptive thank you for this trip. Actually everyone deserves a huge thank you, Randell, John, Heidi, Rico, Heath and everyone else has been flat out. Organizing logistics, equipment and a bunch of bike racers is no easy task, and only adds to my motivation to make the best of this opportunity.

Next time from Arkansas!

The race course goes through the hilly New York state 100km loop around the Batten Kill river with nearly half of it being on gravel and dirt roads, of which we were to do twice. Throw some of the Pro Continental teams from Europe in the mix of the best Domestic Pro teams of North America and you’ve got a fight to remember. After pre-riding some parts of the course as a team and seeing how rough and lose some gravel sections are with only one or two ride-able lanes available, we all agreed that being near the front will be key to surviving this race, as it will be the race of attrition and splits. …and that it was. No one from our team has finished the race, with each having own story to tell. I will quickly summarize how it went down for all of us.

The race started off pretty aggressive right of the start with everyone fighting for position approaching  legendary covered bridge early in the race, from what I heard sometime a key point in the race as the pack ‘bottle-necks’ going into it and starts to splinter with front guys sprinting out of it at full force. The field strung out at that point but everyone was still together. It wasn’t until first dirt sections and a steep climb on Juniper road that things got heated up. Riding up the climb i quickly realized the value of being at the front, as guys directly infont were opening gaps already and I was forced to sprint over the crescent to bridge to the tail-end infront of me. The pace hasn’t slowed and we were flying, just flying in the clouds of dust, gravel stones spewing at our carbon frames and wheels making sounds of true battlefield. Pew-pew, Puphhh… guys raising hands in defeat left and right. It wasn’t long before I was the one raising a hand too, even my brand new ‘bomb proof’ GatorSkin tire didn’t survive The wheel change was slow, with some spacer issue and my chain off, but Andrew Randell was a true teammate racing to help us young guns in this race, waited for me to pace me back in. That was the hardest 5 minutes of the race for me. Let me tell you guys, what ever Andrew might say about his retirement fitness, he’s still got legs! It was such a fight to hold his wheel, he nearly dropped me in the process. If it wasn’t for him my race could have been over right there. With one match burned, I started moving up through the pack on my second life. Once we hit new sections of gravel the pack started to thin into two single file strings on the only somewhat smooth tire-track lanes, then came the rougher gravel sections… and yet again pew-pew- puphhh! dozens of guys stopping on the sides of the road… I’m flying 50km an hour on downhill section and noticed that bike felt extra rough on the gravel, looked down and I was riding on the rim yet again… This time around, with pack-splintering pace in the hills there were no chance of catching up. I gave’r my best, redlining, trying to jump on caravan cars that would just speed away on tough hills without leaving even a chance. I formed a small chase with all of the dropee’s and misfortunee’s working hard with slight hope of slowing in the main group. End up leaving the group behind on the final climb of the lap and drilled away on thin hopes with one other dude, but to no avail, we were all pulled off at the line.

Jamie had a similar story, with a flat somewhere in the same stretch, but with wheel support vehicles having their hands full stopping every 10 meters, took him nearly 7 minutes to get a wheel change, ending his race right there.

Andrew and Joe were riding strong still in the main bunch, but got caught up in mishap on the gravel hammerfest hill stretch with guys in-front fighting for inches in the single ride-able lane, bumping into each other in the process and thus splitting the remaining 60 guys and into two. Andrew and Joe had to run up the hill to get on the bike, but the damage was done. Joe was able to nearly catch the tail end of the main pack working together with Garneau guys until one of them got a ‘power bottle’ from team car for their leader, leaving everyone else behind. If you like to hear some cursing, ask Joe about this story.

All in all, for all of us, the tough race terrain and field strength played the part in our misfortunes. Battenkill was unforgiving to all of us, and the other 70% of the field that didn’t finish the race. This is why the Battenkill is legendary. Mark my word though, one day I will conquer it!

If you like to read a race review of the more fortunate team, on how it played out for the winners, I recommend Canadian legend’s, Gord Fraser’s take on it:

http://proteam.competitivecyclist.com/race-article/mancebo-wins-battenkill-beyer-and-cold-in-top-20/

On Friday we all showed up early raring to go, only to find out the race would be delayed. Unfortunately their was a fatal car accident on the course, so the race had to rerouted. I don’t know what it is about the Good Friday Road, but it seems to be cursed. Every year something seems to happen that delays the race for hours. Its a great event with a great course and I really hope their run of bad luck ends sometime soon.

Anyway, onto the race. Our strategy for the race was to watch all of the moves early and make sure we had one or two guys in every move. We had a list of riders we would keep an eye out for and mark. Early on Jamie, and Andrew got in the first big move with almost every team represented so that left Joe, Anton, and I to cover moves from behind. On the third lap Anton and Joe bridged up to the break giving us 4 guys in the move! Now im not quite sure how it went down but on the last lap Anton ended up in a 2 man move with Derrek Ivey where he attacked him before the last corner and road in solo for the win. What a great start!

On Sunday was the 4th annual Hell of the North. It consisted of a hilly 125km loop which included some gravel road, mountain bike trail, and rail trail. Joe and I opted for cross bike while Anton and Andrew road their road bikes. The race was super fast from the get go. After the gravel road section about 5 km in there were only 20 riders left because of the furious pace. Unfortunately a short while later I suffered a flat tire so my time in that group was done. Again I wasn’t up their to see the action but from what i hear, and what i see in the photos from the race, Anton put on a clinic. He attacked and attacked, and attacked again until eventually he was away with one other rider. Again like Friday, Anton attacked his breakaway companion in the last corner to win the race. A very impressive ride.

So its safe to say the team is off a rolling. Next Sunday is our first UCI race of the season, The Tour of the Battenkill. Check this space next week to see how it went!

Cheers