VOS Stage 2

90 mile road race today, Stage 2 Valley of the Sun. We focused on the stage as a primary goal and the overall as an afterthought today as I was the highest on GC, 2:18 back from the lead. With small time bonuses and only 2 days remaining that seemed like a better plan. We had a lot of plans for the race, and a lot of thoughts on what would happen, but no one thought that 5 miles in, a break of 12 would put 3 minutes into the group in one lap, and continue to an eventual 9 minute lead on the pack. Well, that... just... happened.

Chad took some advantage of a clean run and got a group of about 6 up the road almost immediately into the race. Up the climb the first time chads group came back and 5 countered, Marcotte and Ariman bridged right past me, and I jumped as hard as i could to cover those two, knowing what marcotte has been up too (not loosing any races this year? yea hes alright), before we reached the top of the hill, another group with Chodroff showed up and that made it 12, and 5 miles in it was the race. Johnny and Stefano were in a chase group that sat 15 seconds back from my group but no one was missing a pull up front and it was all but over 85 miles from the finish.

Getting away from a group working that well together and with no wind or really any parts of the course to put anyone into difficulty was tough. A few attempts on the time bonus laps showed that any effort was going nowhere fast. I picked up a 1 second time bonus but that ended up not mattering. Coming up the hill the last time i found Marcotte's wheel but when he went, by the time i got on it, i was already learning how much better sprinter marcotte is that me. I ended up 7th finishing same time, and moved into 9th overall.

Chad rolled in a bit later with a 4 man group, he won the bunch and moved into 13th on GC. All in all, we would have liked another guy up in the break but when its that good a group, theres not much coming across.

The parrish family has shown me and the guys nothing but the best race weekend imaginable, and tonight their BBQ was nothing less. They deserve a ton of credit for taking us in and making sure we have been happy as clams all weekend. I love a good burger.

Tomorrow is the last day, a 70 minute crit and our last chance for what we came for: stage win. The GC is all but sorted out, so tomorrow will be about finding a way to beat marcotte and put the new red pin-stripes on top of the podium. One last note: Congrats to Aly Dudek!! She qualified 2nd in the 500m short track sprint tonight and is moving on to the finals on Wednesday. She still skates the 3000m relay tonight at 10 so wish her luck as she represents the USA. Its incredible, she did it!

Talk to you folks tomorrow.