Stage racing on the road is a pretty cool experience. Granted I haven’t done a whole lot of stage races, but there’s something nice about racing recovering and doing absolutely nothing else for several consecutive days. On Friday Kyle, Chloe and I made the two hour drive to Bisbee, arriving with plenty of time to register and get set for the evening prologue. Not just any prologue, this one sent us uphill for 2.8 miles starting at the bottom of main street and finishing way up at the divide. The first half wasn’t too steep, but the second half more than made up for any lack of suffrage as grade was relentless. I raced the Team Machine with my ‘training wheels’ on while most other racers used super tricked out carbon wheelsets. I was there to train, and that I did. The prologue went pretty well as I saved just enough in the first half so that I could do the steeper stuff with max intensity. I probably finished somewhere in the middle to back of the 60-some rider field. Chloe dominated the pro women’s race, taking the win and the leader’s jersey for Day two.
Saturday was a 80 mile road race in the morning. We road out of town and did two laps before coming back into Bisbee. Team Tecos had the leaders jersey so they more or less did a team time trial at the front, controlling the race from start to finish. It was an average speed of 26.5 with an average output of 165 watts. It was sorta boring out there… The afternoon TT was flat and fast and without any gear, I pretty much got smoked by the rocketship bikes that guys were riding. I finished towards the bottom and lost some time in the GC, but put in a decent effort. Maybe I’d be into a flat TT bike if I had the gear. Who knows?
Finally Day three came around and we got to do the hardest stage yet, 89 miles with some serious winds and climbs. The winds were the biggest factor early in the race while the climbs sorted things out closer to the finish. The group shattered into bits and pieces as Tecos again took control. I was with a small group for the bulk of the stage before we joined up with others who had fallen off from the small lead group. Towards the end we did the six mile climb up Mule pass, descended all the way down the other side, only to do a U turn and come back up the climb again. All of this after 75 miles of rotating in the wind… It was pretty sweet and I ended up getting around a bunch of guys in the final mile or so as we approached the finish. A top 30 on the stage moved me up in the overall a bit.
Whatever the result was I was happy to have ridden strong, especially on the hardest final stage. Chloe did awesome and would have likely won the GC with some aero bars in the TT. Next time perhaps we’ll both come a bit more prepared. Bisbee is a super cool town with a lot of steep and narrow streets nestled into the hillside. It was nice to have some cooler weather (in the low 70s for highs) as Tucson is getting hot these days and some peace and quiet which made for some relaxing down time. The bike racing was pretty cool too. It seems that Bisbee would be a perfect place to go and train – quiet roads, good climbs, elevation, good weather, and a relaxed pace of life. A lot of racers went on to do Gila, which starts up today, and I might just have to do that next year. Instead I’ll be getting my wisdom teeth yanked soon. From all the stories I’ve gathered it should be a wonderful experience.
-TJ
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