Conquer the Canyons Stage Race - April 22-23, 2006
By Dan Vinson

The first annual Conquer the Canyons Stage Race consisted of three stages including: 1) a short, mostly uphill time trial, 2) a fairly flat circuit race, and 3) a challenging road race. The two day, three stage event was held in beautiful Malibu, Westlake Village, and Agoura Hills. The weather, for the most part, was cloudy with temperatures in the low to mid 50's for each stage. A few days prior to the event I developed some type of chest cold, but didn't want to waste my entry, and figured I would give it a go - taking it one stage at a time. In fact, this morning I went to the M.D. and was given a load of antibiotics for bronchitis. Ugh. Approximately 70 riders were contesting the Pro 1, 2 competition.

Registration was interesting. I went to pick up my number "18" per the time trial start times. I gave them my release and the young registration lady couldn't find my number. "Well, I'm going to give you 69," she said. "But I'm 18," I responded. Don't worry, 18 is old enough," my teammate added. Are you sure you can't find it - I'm on the time trial start list," I questioned. She checked and came back, "Ah, I found it". "So I'm not getting 69," I asked. "No, I can't," she answered. "Tease," my teammate exclaimed as we walked away with my number 18. Alright, that's the prologue. Now, the time trial!

Stage 1 - Malibu Time Trial (4 miles): The course started off with a steep ramp in which the "holder" wasn't holding me very straight. In fact, when I took off I went diagonally off the right side and almost did a nose dive straight into the pavement. I stayed up and then got up to speed. Doh - there goes a few seconds. Having never rode the course before, I opted, like most, to use my road bike without clip-ons. The first mile was a gradual incline but continued to get steeper. It was fast enough for the big ring, but it definitely hurt. Then there was a quick descent. I sped down the best I could although it was a little longer than I thought, and probably lost a little time here. Next, the road kicked up again - another gradual incline that led to another short descent and semi-flat section.

Finally, it kicked up one last time, a little steeper than the rest of the course. Thinking that the climb was longer and steeper than it actually turned out to be, I dropped it down to the small ring for the first time in the ride. With less than a kilometer to go, we went up a sweeping switchback. I looked across and saw Dan Ramsey, who started 30 seconds behind be, charging up the climb - maybe 10 seconds behind me - crap! I pushed it one last time and passed my 30 second and 60 second man on the final climb and sprinted to the finish. Jake Erker (Symmetrics) won the race with a scorching time of 11:40. Dan Ramsey (Successfuliving.com) placed second in 12:06. Christian Valenzuela (Monex) was third in 12:13. Marco Rios (Kahala LaGrange) was 4th in 12:15. I ended up 14th place with a time of 12:29 - 16 seconds out of third. It was a great time trial course and hopefully it will be used in the future.

Stage 2 - Westlake Village Circuit Race (60 minutes): Just a few hours after the time trial we had the circuit race. The course was 2.4 mile tight, flat, and fast with three single lane right hand turns followed by an gradual uphill right hand sweeper that led to the flat finish. To make it more interesting, in addition to cones lining the course, there were diamond shaped metal street signs sticking out into the single lane course. So, you could easily be inside the skinny course, but still hit the sharp end of a metal sign. Maybe they should have put running chainsaws on the signs just to make it more interesting. More than a few people had run-ins with those things. Without the obstacles, however, the course was pretty cool.

The race started out fast with a sprint off the line from Frank Sarate (SoCalCycling.com). We hit 32 miles per hour and it really didn't slow the rest of the race. One reason was it was a pretty short race - 60 minutes for the Pro 1, 2's, whereas a course like this should have been more like 90 to 120 minutes. To make the race more exciting and competitive (which it was) there were three intermediate time bonuses of 5 seconds each. Being only 5 seconds out of ninth on the G.C., one of those juicy time bonuses would be nice. There were many attacks and counter attacks during the race. At one point a group of about eight riders got away, but without any Successfuliving.com riders, so it was quickly chased down. Adam Livingston (Successfuliving.com) took the first two bonuses which was moving him up on G.C. The racing was pretty aggressive.

Before we knew it, they called five laps to go and Ryan Yee (Successfuliving.com) attacked and got a gap over the field. A couple of us bridged across, and with the accelerations, a few seconds later there were only two of us - Brandon Gritters (Hi-Tech Bikes) and myself. We punched it and opened up a gap of about 15 seconds or so. With four laps to go the final time bonus prime was called and we rode at over 30 mph most of the lap and increased our gap to a maximum of about 18-20 seconds. Gritters and I sprinted it out - coming to a throw of the bikes. The photo finish showed that I got the 5 bonus seconds. . .whew! We gasped to recover, saw that we still had a gap, and continued our stint off the front. The speed of the peleton was too fast however, and we were brought back with two laps to go.

I recovered for a lap and then tried to move up in the finale, but Steve Ferretti (SoCalCycling.com) and Nate Deibler (SoCalCycling.com) were on the front hammering, setting it up for their sprinters. Ferretti pulled off and then Deibler nailed it towards the line with teammates Gilbert Correa and Chris Demarchi on his wheel. Just behind was Adam Livingston (Successfuliving.com) and Jake Erker (Symmetrics). Correa and DeMarchi went for it but gave a perfect leadout to Livingston, an apparent climber turned sprinter, who won the stage. Erker came around for 2nd place. DeMarchi and Correa sprinted to 3rd and 4th place, respectively. I rolled in 38th. The average speed of the race was nearly 30 mph.

The G.C. after two stages: 1st - Jake Erker, Symmetrics; 2nd - Adam Livingston, Successfuliving.com (24 seconds back); 3rd - Christian Valenzuela, Monex (39 seconds back). Dan Ramsey (Successfuliving.com) received a pesky time penalty which moved him to 8th G.C. (47 seconds back) and I was 9th G.C. (48 seconds back).

Stage 3 - Agoura Hills Road Race (65 miles): The ride started with a neutral section which brought us onto the course a few miles from the finish line. From that point we would do eight tough 7.5 mile laps. The course started with a few tough rollers that brought us through the feed zone. From there was a descent, a few rollers and a short flat section that lead to the climb. The climb was about a mile long, starting off relatively steep - maybe 7-8% and then leveling off towards the end at 4-6% gradient. Next, we had a real fast descent and then another short flat section. Finally, we had a few more tough rollers that brought us to a fast right and then sharp left hand turn leading into about 150 meters of flat road to the finish.

The course was nice and scenic, but I doubt anybody noticed once we hit the climb for the first time. We went hard - real hard and several riders were shot off the back. We flew down the descent and many riders caught back on. Christian Valenzuela (Monex) went off the front by himself and had a 30-40 second gap on the field as we passed through with 7 laps to go. Lap 2 was similar to the first except a breakaway of about 8 or so riders got away, and began to pull away. About every team was represented except LaGrange. So, I went to the front and drilled it for a few miles, bringing it back to about 15 seconds. Then, my teammate Tyler Ofsted went to the front and set a hard tempo to the foot of the climb to keep the break close. From there, I set tempo up the climb, slowly closing it down. I looked over my shoulder and saw Jake Erker (Symmetrics) over my shoulder and knew we were in for some pain - since he was going to attack and bridge to the break - which he did. On and after the descent, however, it was brought back together.

Lap 4 was similar, except legs were tiring and half way into the race we had about 45 riders left in the field. A solid group of about 9 guys got off the front and looked like a promising move. We had Marco Rios in the move and sat on, but the break slowed as the Hi-Tech team chased and it came back together again. Valenzuela, having been out there most of the day, was still solo off the front with over a minute lead on the group.

By lap 5, this relatively short race began to get long. It was fast and the hill hurt like usual. Erker would attack and put most riders in difficulty, breaking up the field, mostly to regroup a little later. During lap 6, Jorge Alvarado (IE Bikes/California Pools) and Dan Ramsey (Successfuliving.com) got a gap on the field and worked together to chase down Valenzuela. Ruben Meza was also off the front. Meanwhile, the sixth time up the climb, it broke up again and I found myself in a little chase a few seconds behind the field. When we came back together at the bottom and I attacked but everyone jumped on my wheel. Chris Walker (Labor Power) attacked and soon after Mark Fennell (Simply Fit) attacked, both getting a gap. I went again and bridged to Fennell. Together, for the entirety of lap 7 we chased Walker and Meza who were now together. We had a decent advantage over the field. With under two laps to go Ramsey and Alvarado had finally caught Valenzuela and formed a three man break on the front.

By lap 8 we were real close to Walker and Meza. On the final climb, right before catching them, Walker attacked. Fennell, Meza and I completed the climb together and then worked together to chase, although we weren't really chasing hard enough. Walker had about 15 seconds on us after the descent. We hit the rollers and passed the one kilometer to go sign. I attacked on a tough roller and opened up a gap - closing in on Walker. Meanwhile, Alvarado and Valenzuela were attacking Ramsey, but Ramsey was able to power himself to the stage victory. Alvarado placed 2nd and Valenzuela came in 3rd. Walker finished 4th and I placed 5th on the stage - nine seconds behind Walker. All in all, a real tough stage! And as a whole, a pretty good stage race.

The final G.C.: 1st - Christian Valenzuela, Monex; 2nd - Dan Ramsey, Successfuliving.com (1 second back); 3rd - Jorge Alvarado, IE Bikes/California Pools (14 seconds back); 4th - Jake Erker, Symmetrics (1 minute, 36 seconds back); 5th - Chris Walker, Labor Power (1 minute, 51 seconds back); 6th - Dan Vinson, Kahala LaGrange (1 minute 56 seconds back). Alright, that's all folks. Until the next race. . .