Race Report: Wild West Racing - Valley of the Sun Stage Race
By: Lucas Binder, SKLZ pb Pista Palace

2/16/11 - Valley of the Sun is a three day stage race in Arizona made up of a flat 14 mile time trial, a 90 mile road race with a long big-ring 500ft climb, and ending with a flat 70 minute criterium around the Phoenix Capitol building. The race attracts a lot of amateur riders from all over the southwest, with 70 riders on the start list for the Pro1 field. The teams that seemed to be best represented included my team, SKLZ/Pista Palace, the Landis Cyclery team, Ride Clean, Rio Grande, Monster Media, and Mike Olheiser's Juwi Solar team, all of which had between 4 and 7 riders. Some other big names included NRC Champion Luis Amaran of Colavita/Jamis, and a few Kenda Geargrinder riders.

Buckeye Time Trial (14.2 miles)
Our squad had some big ambitions for the flat Time Trial and ended up having 3 in the top 15, but with none in the top 5 it was a little less than what we wanted. Mike Olheiser, the current (as well as past) Elite Road Race and TT National Champion, won the TT in a time somewhere under 30 minutes, with Mike Mathis and Luis Amaran also making the podium. Our best placed man was James Gunn in 8th, followed by Stevie Cullinan in 9th, and Eric Marcotte in 12th (I had a mediocre TT and placed around 2 minutes down in 38th). A little disappointing, but with a long road race the next day we would at least have something to work with.

Casa Grande Road Race (89 miles, 3 000 ft climbing total)
We were a team without a top GC man, but we were a team with a lot of threats and a plan. Our plan was to use Eric Marcotte, who always rides with a target on his back, as the GC bait. Knowing that the main GC would not give Eric any leash, we planned on launching him and draw out Olheiser and Amaran and then counter attack with James or Stevie.

Historically the GC of VOS does not change significantly after the Time Trial, but with a strong team and some wind to make the race hard, things would change a lot.

We started off easy enough with no one crazy enough to try to go off the front on the slight downhill into a headwind, but after a few miles we hit the first right turn where the headwind became a crosswind and the crap hit the fan. The field picked it up a little but before the turn, knowing that positioning after the turn would be the difference between getting a draft or getting put into the gutter. Immediately after the turn I put in an attack and stayed to the right as much as I could to put anyone trying to come with me into gutter. I was caught soon after and the field was strung out in an echelon. Logan Loader (Verizon U25 team) put in a strong solo counter and got a good gap. But he was being chased and also came back after a few minutes. Shawn VanGassen was also at the front and it stayed strung out. Just before we reached the next right turn that started the climb I gave it another go, riding like the race was 10 miles long instead of 90. About 5 others came with me as the we turned right and the crosswind turned into a tailwind. We rotated, extending our gap over the base of the climb. I gave one last hard pull before the climb really started to go up and I started to go backwards. I looked behind to see Eric Marcotte coming up the road by himself and I forced myself to stay with the break until he was there too. He flew past just as I lost contact with the break. Soon after a hard charging field lead by the GC contenders zoomed by me, hot on Eric's heals. The break was caught before the top of the climb and before everyone could catch their breath and look around Anthony Aker kept up the pace, with James and Stevie on his wheel. He lead them to the top before they attacked on their own, taking about 15 others with them, but none of the top GC contenders.

I wasn't able to watch any of this as I continued to go backwards in the field and was shot out the back. For a while there I thought my race was over and was imagining riding the next 5 laps by myself, but fortunately a handful of other riders were also off the back with me and we were able ride through the caravan on the downhill and catch back on.

As we made the 3rd right turn back towards the start line I was able to recover enough to move up and try to see what was going on. Up the road I could see a large group of riders in a line. Coming through the feed zone someone yelled that they had 40 seconds on us. In the field, Mike Olheiser's team was on the front chasing. Olheiser, Amaran, and Mathis, the top 3 in GC, had all missed the break, and both of our GC guys, James and Stevie, were in it. The highest placed GC in the break was Paul Thomas of Ride Clean. The GC leader's team continued to chase going into the second lap. Sometime during the crosswind section there was fighting for position or crossing of wheels and a few guys got tangled up and went into the dirt. Eric was right behind it and had to unclip but was able to catch back on quickly as we approached the climb for the second time. I was still hurting after my effort on the first lap and nearly lost contact with the field again as Luis Amaran gave a hard attack up the climb, but everything came back together after we crested. Going into the 3rd lap we were told that the gap was 2:30 and there were 15 riders left up the road.

Coming into the crosswind section the GC leader's team really put the pressure on, knowing it was now or never if they were to bring it back. However very few of the other teams helped in the chase and it wasn't long before Mike Ohlheiser was taking some pulls himself to defend his jersey. The gap came down to around 2:20, where it hovered, before the chase was finally exhausted and the gap inflated to 4 minutes as we went up the climb for the 4th time. Eric took advantage of the lull in the speed and went off the front, bridging up to a Kenda rider. They would stay away and get over 5 minutes on the field but still finish way behind the lead group.

Meanwhile the peloton of less than 30 riders became a laughing group as no one took anymore real pulls at the front and everyone began chatting or looking at the scenery. I thought the penultimate climb would be easy but for whatever reason(it certainly wasn't to get a result) Mike Olheiser put in a hard dig half way up the climb and split the group in two. However we still weren't ready to ride a whole lap off the back so we chased on the downhill and it came back together as we began the final lap and went back to laughing and taking it easy. Halfway through the final lap we caught Stevie, who had cracked hard in the break. It was unfortunate because he would have been way up in the GC, but he was also one of the reasons the break was able to stay away in the first place. I think our group ended up finishing something like 8 minutes after the lead group (and managed to get passed by the Cat 3 field on the final climb).

After the race I learned that James had had a really good race, getting some time bonuses and finishing 3rd on the stage, moving up into 2nd in the GC, just 17 seconds behind Paul Thomas of Ride Clean who finished 4th on the stage and moved into the leader's jersey. The young Alfredo Cruz of Garmin's development team climbed the quickest on the finishing climb and took the stage win.

State Capitol Criterium
Going into the final day we wanted to get the GC win, but knew getting 17 seconds in a flat crit would be harder than getting 6 minutes in a 90 mile road race. Our plan was to use Eric to get James up the road, hopefully taking some other strong riders with him. Basically anyone but Paul Thomas, since all the other GC contenders were more than a minute down.

The Ride Clean team set a tempo on the front from the gun but after the first lap attacks were already going up the road. Either Luis Amaran or Mike Olheiser seemed to be in a move, going for primes or the stage win. After half an hour of racing I found myself in a break with Amaran, Olheiser, Kayle Leogrande (Monster Media) and a Rio Grande rider. We all traded pulls and got a large gap on the field. Coming into the finish line we heard what we were all waiting for: “one hundred dollar prime for the winner of the next lap!”. We all kept taking pulls but there was a subtle change in the way that we did it as each of us considered where we wanted to be coming into the final straightaway. Coming into the final turn I pulled off and looked to the others, as Kayle took a false pull. With 200 meters to go Kayle began winding it up. Amaran came around on the right but I was on his wheel and came around in the last 20 meters to beat him on the line with a track throw.

I wanted us to all come back together, but the Rio Grande rider was pretty far back. Eventually 4 of us were trading pulls again, but after the acceleration of the prime sprint and the ensuing deceleration, the field had reduced our gap. On the back stretch Eric Marcotte jumped away from the field with James Gunn on his wheel and buried himself to get him up to the break. Once they caught on I went as hard as I could for the next half lap to try to keep this ideal break away, but everyone else was unable to take a pull or unwilling and soon after the finish line it all came back together.

Soon after all this the lap cards were pulled out showing 5 laps to go, which meant giving up on trying to get James up the road and instead focusing on getting the stage win. Shawn went to the front and kept the speed high for the next few laps, allowing Eric to get a good position and rest a little. However, with a lap and a half to go there was no clear person leading it out and the speed began to slow. I jumped on the right side before anyone else decided to do the same thing and tried to force some of the other teams to chase me and keep the speed a little higher for Eric. I was caught soon after we were given the bell. Eric had a position near the front but no one to trust as a leadout. Coming into the final stretch he was in the top 5, but there still wasn't anyone committed to a full sprint yet. Finally in the last 250 meters he was able to commit and won the sprint over Logan Loader (Verizon U25) and Kayle Leogrande.

We didn't get the overall GC win but we definitely made the Ride Clean team work for it until the end, and Paul Thomas certainly deserved it. And with getting James on the GC podium in dramatic fashion and Eric taking the final stage it was a good weekend of racing.