Three of us from Ten Speed Drive, P.B. BH Bicycles came to Phoenix AZ over the weekend to race the 2009 edition of Valley of the Sun. Adam Carr and Justin Maka will write their respective reports so without getting into too much detail it was a good crew to have. Justin is a Cat. 2 and pro mountain biker on the team. Adam is one of our new East Coast additions from Vermont. He’d been down here for two weeks training and staying with me and this was a good cap to a training block for him.

The Time Trial

I had a good warm up, but found out later I drank a little bit too much while sitting on the trainer. Getting to the start line, things were different from last year the wind was coming from the south if at all and it was sunny. The minimal wind would make the slight false flat out a moot point as it wouldn’t be too much faster on the way back. The way out for me was good and I was meeting my power goals. Right at the turn around I realized my mistake with my liquids. My stomach started to cramp and I was feeling the aero tuck. I was dropping power hopping to not cramp to the point of ruining my ride. At the end I crossed the line a little bit slower than hoped (but isn’t that always the case), but made my somewhat modest power goal.

My leasons learned were that I need to accept the fact the amount of water I drink the day before the TT will have more of a positive effect on my race than the ammount I drink 20 minutes before the race. Also the result confirmed that although on the right track I need to keep stretching and working on getting my upper body lower. Still 19th on the day is good for me.

Road Race

The Valley of the Sun road race is a little bit bland. There is one big ring hill and other than that it’s a lot of pack sitting. Ouch was working on the front to keep John Chodroff’s 45 second lead. Cresting the climb for the first time of the day just as the pack was picking up speed into a very slight head cross wind I flatted. The wheel van did not have spare wheels organized so after helping find the right wheel for me, that I was forced to put on myself, I took of very unceremoniously, without a push, towards the pack I could barely see. After chasing for almost 8 minutes in full TT mode I was safely on J Alian Ferry’s and Adam’s wheels who both saved my life by dropping back to pull me to the pack.

The only other point worth mentioning is the fact that the entire stage was for not as it was completely neutralized with 1k and no results counted at all. I hope that leaves you flat as it did me.

Training Ride

On Saturday after the road race, I was chatting with our host mother and figured out that where we were staying was right off one of my favorite Arizona road race courses. Figuring I’d like to ride it since the race is no more, I set my alarm clock early and got ready to go train. I went out for about 2 hours and had a great ride. Figuring it was early season and training is always good I let myself have fun on the climbs and got a really good workout in.

Criterium

Due to the NBA All-star game the Crit was moved from a very bumpy and dangerous course to a fun 6 corner single file ride. After sitting in all day, and watching fairly impressive power spikes in my watt meter as we went up the hill I finished safely in the pack. It seems the Crit had taken it’s toll on some and 3 of the riders in front of me had been pulled. So over all I landed in a personally very solid 16th place for the weekend.

Thanks

I’d like to thank our host family for the weekend, Mike and Kathy, who made things a lot easier on the three of us and who insisted (much to my delight) that we eat some good food with them in the evenings that made the racing a lot easier. Hopefully next year they’ll have the time to come watch us race.