Tour of Virginia April 24-29

Stage 1:

Stage one in the tour of Virginia was a short prologue that consisted of 4.1 km slightly undulating terrain. It was a pure power mans course. The person who could push the most watts would for sure win the stage. I was the second guy to go off and so I would only have one man in front of me to chase. I was gaining on my 30 second man quickly from the start and did not look back once for fear that my 30 second man would be gaining on me. I ended up catching me man with about 2 minutes of racing left. I caught him on the way back up and over the last rise and he looked totally demoralized. Sorry dude.

My teammate Winston David kicked ass on the stage and ended up third. He was so happy that he proved himself finally. Way to go buddy!

Stage 2:

Stage two was a short Criterium that lasted about an hour. There was a sharp steep ascent and a sharp steep descent in the course making it quite interesting indeed. The descent was scary fast and dropped into a left hand corner that guys were taking full speed. The nerves of the riders could be felt as every one shot down the hill into the straight away and up the climb for another chance be in a crash on the descent. I was lucky however and stayed out of trouble. Some of my friend from the Team Type I race crashed and would be feeling it the rest of the race. My buddy Scottie Weiss was up front most of the day and even laid down the gauntlet Scottie style with some vicious attacks. Too bad he was feeling sick; the peloton would have felt his wrath for sure. The stage finished uneventfully though the next two would be epic in nature.

Stage 3:

Some of the lads who have raced over in Europe said that this stage was a lot like the Ardennes region of France. The roads were never flat and the race wound along some country roads, some of which may have never seen bikers in the proportions that we came through in. Some of the residents along the course were probably thinking, “what are all these city folks doin’ out in my part of the woods, in their tight fancy dance clothes and all?” We were definitely in hick country.

The race split apart about 70-80 km in and I was in the right place at the right time and made the split. I had my teammate Prokic with me and he was feeling good. We were rolling along, every one taking turns up front and I was doing what I could for Prokic. He sat on all day while I tried to keep the group rolling. The course had a large Category 1 climb towards the end and it would be epic in proportions. Far more epic than I would have imagined. We hit the base and I pulled until Prokic took off with a small group of about five. I didn’t see him the rest of the day. Upon getting over the climb I railed the descent hoping to catch some guys but it was far less steep than I thought it would be and didn’t really need to use my breaks at all. I got to the bottom and it was just 20 km to go. I was shot and was riding into a head wind so I just pedaled away knowing that some other guys would be catching me. Sure enough they caught me and we all started working. However Mark the Collegiate National Boy thought that it would be a good idea to try and drop me because I sat on for a few pulls to recover. He was crushing it over these small rises putting every one into difficulty not thinking that he was burning his own chances of moving up on the GC. Not a very bright rider when it comes to tactics. We rode into the finish and I was about two minutes don on GC at the finish and we had a huge day the next stage.

Stage 4:

Today was even more epic that stage one. My legs were totaled from the day before and I knew that I would be hurting today. We had a major Category 1 climb then another Category 3, and then another Category 1. Scottie was tired, Winston was in the U23 Jersey and Prokic was our GC man. Todd and I were just going to do what we could to help the other guys. As we approached the first Cat. 1 every thing was together and Scottie was toast. He put in a great effort but just did not have the legs. The first surges went and I held on but was gradually dropping back. I found my pace and then just tried to maintain the rest of the way up the climb. I survived the first climb along with a group of about 20 guys. We railed the descent and made up some time on the front group, however the official decide to to bring the caravan of cars through our group up to the leading group. We eventually caught onto the caravan right in the feed zone and that was probably the most chaos I have ever seen in a bike race. Far more crazy than in Italy. We bridged up the the lead group and I just sat in knowing that the next two climbs would tear my legs apart. They did. As soon as the slope went up I lost contact from the group again but was able to regain before the final climb. Again at the base of the final climb I lost contact and was off the back just trying to hang on and suffer to the finish. Never have I been on climbs that were so steep thought. I was having trouble keeping my legs turning over. Some of the smaller team cars had to come to a complete stop, rev the engine and drop the clutch just so that they could keep moving their way forward. It was crazy. I made it up and over and just grouped up with some people to ride into the finish. Epic day two was out f the way.

Stage 5:

Stage five was a pretty uneventful and finished in a group sprint. There really is not too much to tell about today except that the country that we went through was beautiful. It is fun to think that the Civil War was fought on the same grounds that we were fighting it out on our bikes.

Stage 6:

Crit. This crit was good because it was not too technical and there was fans lining the start finish area. By this point in the race it was just Todd, Prokic, and I in the race. The idea was to try and get Todd into the front because he probably had the best sprint of all of us. That’s exactly what we did and he just got boxed out in the last 50 meters of what was a very sketchy finish. The winner, Kale, actually was stripped of his win because the race officials thought that he didn’t hold his line and was dangerous. Oh well, I thought that it was fine and that he actually did win the race.

Stage 7:

Yes, just one more day of racing. It would be hard though and my legs were tired from the last stages and it took them forever to get going. Before they began to feel good about 50km had gone by. A break was up the road and was established. It would hold out to the finish of the race. The crazy part of the day came after the race though when a fight broke out between Mark Hardeman (National Boy) and Jame Carney. This is how it went down:

We finished the race on three circuits. We came through and the final lap bell was ringing. Yes! Almost done. We came into the straight and guys were sprinting for like 7^th or something because the break finished up the road already. Then they called out that we had to do another lap. What? Yes another lap. It was ridiculous and it just showed the level of organization that the Tour had all week. So, the group all pretty much sat up and just rode a temp the last lap. It was not officially neutral but we all rode it like it was with the exception of Mark. He came out of nowhere and began attacking the field. What the hell is up with that? He did not get away of course because he was sucking it up that day and just finished with the pack. Apparently on the way through Jame smacked him up side the head for attacking. Later Mark found Jame who was riding through the start finish venue and ghost road his bike into Jame taking him out. Jame got up and a whole fight broke out. A manager in civilian clothes came running in the dropped Marks super hard to the ground. It had to hurt, I saw him wince when he hit. Meanwhile Jame picked up Marks bike and was tossing it around like it was a cheap wall-mart huffy. It was a crazy scene and all I could do was sit back and watch. I guess all who were involved received suspensions from USA cycling. It was a real shit show. What a way to finish a week of good racing.