Race Report: 2024 Tucson Bicycle Classic Stage Race - Men’s Cat 2/3
Date: Feburary 23-25, 2024
AVRT racers: Andrew, Andrea, Flo, Grant
Top Results: Grant 4/96 GC, Flo 3rd Road Race, Flo 5th Circuit Race
(Written by Andrea)
The idea was to aim for GC based on TT times for Grant, Andrew and Andrea. And Flo going for stages results.
Stage 1 - TT : Short TT of 5 miles, totally flat, around 10min.
Objective was for us to be in the top 10 or close to all be dangerous later in the stage races.
Grant got 5th, 12 seconds behind leader,
Andrew 7th, 4 sec behind, Andrea 11th 3sec behind Andrew.
And Flo not far 21st, just 10 seconds behind Andrea.
So we went to the road race with 4 potential threats to gc, with Grant very well placed.
Stage 2 - Road race:
Plan was trying to be aggressive and make the race hard to hope for a later move.
After 2 guys started off fast, Andrew did a big 10' solo effort to bridge to them. Before the final long stretch, Andrea bridged to this group of 3 with another guy. So we were 5 in the break, 3km before the finish of the 1st lap to go for bonus seconds. However the break sowed down, and peloton caught us.
Flo managed to get the 1 second bonus, arriving 3rd at the sprint.
After this, the race kept being quite fast with small attacks, but nothing hold.
So it finished as a sprint finish. And Flo did a very good job getting into position on the right side of the road, hidden from the wind, to start his sprint and finished 3rd on this stage!
Unfortunately Andrew was caught behind a crash with 4km to go, which made him lose 2min on the GC.
Stage 3 - Circuit race:
New day, new plan. Only hope to get gc was for Grant to be in a successful break. Which would be quite hard on this circuit and with the other guys that would hardly let him.
So second option was for Grant to chase the bonus seconds on lap 3 and 6 to move up GC, While Flo would be our sprinter for the finish line.Beginning of lap 3,Grant launched his move, a strong attack only one friendly rider followed. They worked very well together, while Flo, Andrew and Andrea where trying to slow down the peloton. We all went at the front of the peloton of 100 guys to disorganize the chase. Grant managed to grab 3 bonus seconds, moving him up to 4th place GC.Lap 6, Grant again launched his attack. This time the peloton and other leaders are very careful and won't let him go. Andrea quickly came to try to help him at the front with a small leadout. Grant managed to grab another bonus second.
Lap 7, last lap. Flo getting into position, with Andrew's big help keeping a high pace at the front, chasing a solo flyer ahead.
After Andrew's helped catching the solo guy, Flo fought for the position to stay in the top 5 at the kicker, avoiding the chaos and crashes behind. After a fast final corner, Flo sprinted to finish 5th on the day.Overall :
We finished this weekend with 4th for Grant and 9th Andrea on GC.
And Flo with two good results, 3rd and 5th.
Even if we all wanted a better outcome, we worked very well as a team, gave our best, kept communicating during the races, and still managed to have some good results.
Very nice experience, looking forward to experiencing it again at the next stage race.
Grant, Andrea, Andrew, Flo