Gila--Day 5 Gila Monster Road Race

There was a little nervousness coming into this last stage, as the top ten or so guys were still all very close together. Hamilton was unofficially in the lead, as the guy who had been wearing the leader's jersey since after the second day was not going to race because of family and religious beliefs. We, as a team, knew we had to defend the jersey, and not let any groups get away. This was followed as planned, as Steve, Alex, and Kris spent a lot of time at the front of the peloton, keeping the pace high and chasing down attacks. Before the race, we talked to a couple of other riders that we know from Colorado, and did some bargaining for some extra help. This seemed to help out as we kept a tight leash all the way to the base of the final climb.
At this point in the race, it was Hamilton's and my time to shine. I immediately went to the front and accelerated hard. Being that we had more than 15 miles left to go, I almost went too hard during that initial effort. For a little while, I was dangling at the back of a six man lead group, very close to getting dropped. I dug deep, and hung on until the course flattened out a bit. Since both Hamilton and I were in this front group, we were able to sit in a little. At one point, Hamilton asked me to attack the group for him, so that the other guys would have to chase me down, and he could sit on their wheels. This I did, and for a while, the group let me go, and I opened a decent gap. After about 5 minutes, the group finally reeled me in, and I found out that some other guys had caught on to the back of the group. The group size was now up to 12 guys, but after some uphill rollers and fast descents, we shed a few of those guys again. At three miles to go, Walker accelerated off the front, and opened a gap. No one tried to chase, and so the gap started to grow. Because of the fast pace, and my previous efforts, I didn't have much to help chase, so I told Hamilton to not let Walker get any farther down the road, and I would sit on the rest of the group. He attacked, and I rested a little until we caught back up to him. By this time, Walker was starting to fade, so we sat with the group through the final kilometer. At the 500 meters to go sign, the course jumps upward to about a 12% grade, and I saw an opportunity, and attacked. I was still alone at 200 meters to go and was catching Walker, but then I heard a rider coming up behind me. Looking back, I was relieved to see it was Hamilton, and to also see that we had a good gap on the other guys. I apparently jumped at the right time. When Hamilton caught me, I yelled at him to sprint so he could gain as much time on Walker. As Hamilton and I crossed the line 2nd and 3rd, I pumped my fist, and had a big grin on my face. When our other teammates crossed the line, we exchanged hugs and high fives, as this was the culmination of a great 5 days of racing. On the final podium, Hamilton stood atop the center stand, and donned the pink leader's jersey. We had successfully defended the lead, and I moved back into the fifth position in the overall placings. In the final stage, I put almost a minute on the 4th place guy, but it wasn't quite enough to steal 4th from him.
Check back in a couple days, as I will be putting up some pictures from the race. My next race will be in two weeks. It'll be a mountain bike race in Angel Fire, NM, and it will be the team debute for Free Agent Racing.

Gila--Day 4 Silver City Downtown Criterium

A few mistakes made, a few lessons learned. Lack of communication was today's mistake.
Early on, a break of 2 went up the road, and Cole was one of the guys. I know that everyone on the team was aware that Cole was up there, and we sat in the group, expecting the win. Where we went wrong was when two more guys jumped, we just let them go. Some of our guys didn't even know who had jumped, and it turns out that Walker (team 5280) was one of the guys, and he is a serious threat in the GC. A couple of us knew (including me) that Walker was up the road, but a couple of us didn't. The ones of us who knew, assumed that the rest knew, and failed to talk. Several of us where at the front of the group, but never made any formal chase, thinking we were ok with Cole up the road. Seeing that we were not gaining on the guys off the front, I was planning on jumping off the front at the start of the last lap. I was sitting about 5th wheel, and about 2 corners before the start of the last lap, my chain jumped off my chainring. The roads are very rough everywhere in Silver City, and my only explanation is that the chain jumped when I hit one of the many bumps on one of the slight downhills. This put me from the front to the back of the group, which was incredibly dissapointing. Steve, Kris, and Alex made sure I didn't get dropped, which was once again a great show of teamwork (despite our other mistakes). We all finished in the main group, and Cole ended up placing third. It turns out, however, that Cole had missed the lap counter, and had not realized that it was the last lap, and did not sprint for the finish. Bummer. Walker ended up winning the race, giving him the 15 sec time bonus, plus however much time he made on the group. I've yet to see the final results so I don't know the amount of damage he did. I do know that he will be ahead of me in the GC now, as he was only 3 sec behind me after yesterday's race. It will be tough to make up time tomorrow, but it is still possible. The most important thing will be to uphold Hamilton's lead, which is a lot smaller now.

Gila--Day 3 Inner Loop Road Race

As predicted, today was a key day. I feel that this stage is the hardest one, not only because it is the longest (approx 80 miles), but because there is climbing for most of the day, not just at the end.
The day started off with Colavita driving the pace up the initial climb in the first 20 miles of the race. Despite being early in the stage, this fractured the group somewhat, and on the following descent, the group was probably down less than 50 riders. After the first feed zone, we once again were at the front driving the pace, and spitting riders out the back. This time, we kept the heat on the descent, and strung the group out big time. Big props to Cole and Iles (and probably Hamilton--I was towards the back) for some extreme downhill speed, in fact so exteme, that the group was further fractured by the bottom. For a short while I found myself having to sit on some wheels to catch back on. This last descent was pretty narrow and twisty, and inevitably, a guy over-cooked a corner and went down in a blaze of glory. The race organizers planned well, and had an ambulance a few feet down the road, so I'm sure the guy got taken care of quickly. Because of this crash, I watched as the next guy behind me in the overall almost go off a cliff, but he managed to hold it together and only fall over his bike after coming to almost a complete stop.
The pace was pretty high through some small rollers in the valley, and while I wasn't having any problem riding with the group, I was feeling a little funny. Eating and drinking seemed to take care of this, and when Iles came beside me and say that we were going to counter the inevitable sprint for the intermediate bonus, I was ready. The spint never came because the signage for the sprint line had blown over, and no one realized where it was until we were basically on top of it. However, true to our word, Iles and Hamilton jumped, and only a Century Tel rider was able to respond. Cole, Jones, and I immediately sat on the wheel of anyone trying to bridge up, and guys quickly found out that there wasn't much help for a chase. This allowed the group of three to quickly gain a minute advantage, which then grew to 1min 48 sec. Us three in the chase group had an easy job sitting on wheels, as all attemps to attack by other riders where all kind of half-assed, and didn't really do much to up the pace. Alex, who had made it with us through the toughest climb and descent of the stage, unfortunately lost contact with the group sometime in the valley, and ended up bonking pretty badly. He said he rode by himself for nearly 45 min before the next group caught him.
The final 17 miles of the stage had rolling hills, which under normal circumstances wouldn't have been considered major climbs, but after the efforts of the past 70 miles, seemed to be pretty brutal. On one of these hills, Iles finally had enough of the pace that Hamilton was setting, and dropped off the lead group. Despite being down to two riders, the gap was up to 2 min 30 sec within a couple miles of the finish. After being caught by our group, Iles still had some legs, and stayed with us to the finish.
In some last ditch efforts to gain some time back from the the leaders, there were some serious attacks off the front of our group. Cole, being the stud that he is, was right up front, jumping on every wheel that tried to get away. Jones and I were up front too, but were doing more drafting than jumping. I credit Cole with keeping control of the entire group, and allowing Jones and I to take it somewhat easy. What a teammate!
Coming into the last half mile, two guys jumped off the front, and opened a gap no one could close. I sat towards the back until the right time, and with some encouragment from Iles, accelerated through the group. Turns out that I could have went earlier, as no one had anything left, and I fairly easily won the group sprint for 5th place on the stage. Very shortly, we found out that Hamilton had won the stage, which put him into 2nd in GC (overall). Because he moved in front of me, I am now sitting in 6th. Jones moved into 11th, Cole is still in 15th, Iles moved into 16th, and Alex and Kris are a bit further back. This stage was total domination by Colavita, as we did what we said we would before the start, and we controlled the outcome of the race from the very beginning. Success!

Gila--Day 2 Mogollon Road Race

Today was the first day to sort out who are the big guns, and who are the pretenders. The race started off with Jones having a mechanical after the third turn of the neutral start. Some of us waited back for him to make sure he got fixed, and he was able to get back to the group before we were de-neutralized. Things were a bit more laid back that last year, with no one trying to go off the front until the first intermediate sprint. Colavita missed that sprint entirely, but in preparation for the second one, I went to the front with Cole on my wheel to bring back some guys who had went up the road. I got Cole into position, but didn't have enough for a proper leadout. Cole went for the sprint, but crossed the line in second, which unfortunately got him nothing (first is $50 and -10 sec from your overall time).
Things were pretty uneventful until 2 guys went off the front just before the feed zone, and aparantly drilled it. By the turn for the final climb (6 miles to go), they had about 4 minutes on the group. Because of a lot of scetchy riding in the group (one instance resulting in a guy crashing), I found myself stuck pretty far back in the group coming up to the climb. Being so far back, I knew I was in danger of losing contact with the fast guys in front, so I kicked up the speed as the group started to shatter on the first part of the final climb. Coming into the second (and more difficult) section, I was probably in about 30th place, and was still a little nervous. However, my legs were doing great, and I kept a steady pace. I slowly picked off guys one by one, and was getting close to the front by the 1 mile to go marker. That last mile seemed more like 2, but I kept pace and caught (and dropped) a few more riders, and came within a few seconds of catching two more at the finish. All this time, Hamilton was a hundred yards or so up the road, and I watched as he also picked off riders in front of him. Hamilton finished the stage in fifth place, and I finished in 10th. The rest of the team was not too far back (including some guys who claim they can't climb), so overall it was a successful day for Colavita. If tomorrow is anything like last year's stage, it will be a decisive stage, and we will have to work together well to defend our GC placings.
After today's stage, I moved into 5th overall, Hamilton moved into 9th, Jones is in 12th, Cole is in 15th, and Iles is sitting in 17th. All of us are within 1 min 40 sec of each other, so if one of us has a breakout day, they could potentially move up many spots in the overall. Not a bad situation to be in.

Gila--Day 1 Time Trial

Overall, a good day of the team. I placed 6th (39:47) and am 1:30 down on time. Other times for the team are:
Jones: 4th (38.59)
Cole: 9th (39:59)
Hamilton: 15th (40.30)
Iles: 17th (40:38)
Alex: 46th (43:17)
Kris: 52nd (43:58)

There were 84 starters, and 82 finishers. I had my best time trial ever, and was able to catch 5 guys (less than 2 seconds from a sixth). More importantly, I rode a good pace the entire course, stayed aero the entire time, and stayed focused.
Alex and Kris were the two guys on the team who didn't have aero equipment other than clip-on bars, so their times were nothing to be ashamed of. I heard second hand that Hamilton dropped his chain off his front chainring twice, and had to stop at least once to fix it. Given this, he had a excellent ride to place 15th! Now the climbing starts.
Yesterday was kind of crazy with stuff to do before today's stage, so sorry for not much info. I should have better race descriptions of the other stages, so keep checking back.