Race Report: Valley of the Sun Stage Race - Cat 2 Race Report
Race: Valley of the Sun Stage Race - Cat 2
Date: Feb 16th-18th, 2024
AVRT racers: Andrea Cloarec, Flo Costa, Jack Liu, Grant Miller, Jon Wells,
Top Result: Andrea 11/51 TT, Grant 8/51 RR, Flo 8/45 Crit, Grant 12/51 Overall
Time Trial - Feb 16th
Course: 10 mile out and back TT with 120 feet of climbing. Slight tail/crosswind on the way out.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10775238596
The time-trial day was pretty straightforward. Just got out - ride as hard as you could for about 21 minutes (less than 20 if you are really fast!) and try to be as aero as possible. While warming up for the TT, I got a flat tire and had to flag down someone to get me back to our van. With about 15 minutes to spare I had to swap wheels and do an abbreviated warmup before rolling over to the start.
After getting all that out of the way I managed to arrive at the start on time and ready to go. Despite only having 120 feet of climbing, you definitely felt the slight rise on the way out on the TT. I ended up doing a slight negative split on the TT with my power increasing as the effort went on. That probably wasn’t the best strategy as it felt like the way out was significantly slower than the way back - so you would benefit from putting out slightly more power earlier. I caught my 30s man few minutes into the TT and settled into my pace. After the turnaround I tried to start increasing my pace but just felt like I couldn’t push more. A few minutes later I saw the 5k to go sign and tried again but it just felt like I was locked in. I crossed the line with 21:22 for 13th and Andrea finished a few minutes after with 21:19 for 11th. Both were good times but we were still more than a minute back on the leader.
Road Race - Feb 17th
Course: Triangle course with around 500 feet of climbing. Headwind on the climb into tail/crosswind on the other two sides.
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10783089258
In the road race our plan was to have Flo, Jack, and Jon cover and initiate moves while Andrea and I sat in. Our plan went perfectly as Jon got into an early break which slowly gained a minute advantage on the field. Flo also managed to bridge across at a perfect moment when Jon punctured and had to abandon the race. On the second lap the GC leader had to burn a bunch of matches to bring back the break. We started to close in on them on the climb and made the catch right as the pitch increased. A few people attacked but nothing stuck as we started the third lap. As we were descending Andrea also punctured and had to abandon the race.
In the third lap no threatening moves went away and we all entered the climb together. I stayed positioned towards the front to try and follow any attacks. There were a few attacks and the pace was higher but again nothing went away on the climb. When we started descending a few people started rolling off the front one by one. I had plenty of opportunities to go with them but since I didn’t feel like it’d been that hard so far (because I’d been sitting in, doing nothing) I didn’t think the break would stick. On the descent a break of four formed up the road and they quickly gained 30 seconds on the field. I was hoping the field would start working together to chase and we’d get a free ride, but it quickly became apparent that there was no coordination. I asked Jack and Flo to join the rotation and they helped to manage the gap into the climb.
On the last climb I expected the pace to go ballistic but other than one soft attack it was easier than the previous climbs. In hindsight this is exactly when I should’ve attacked - the break was 30s up the road and not coming back. My best chance to close the gap and secure a result would’ve been a long range attack on the modest 4-5% gradients where it was hard to follow. Instead I tried to stay buried in the field and save energy for the sprint. With about 500 to go, Jack found me and realized we were boxed in. A few seconds later he saw a gap and shot through it and I followed him. He gave a solid lead out but we still had more than 200 to go so I didn’t immediately commit. A second later another attack launched on the left side and I tried to follow but couldn’t get into their slipstream. I rolled across for 8th overall, and 5th from the field sprint.
Crit - Feb 18th
Course: 7 Corner Crit with a tailwind finish
Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/10790753503
Our goals in the crit were to set up Jack for the sprint finish. Given that the GC was completely out of reach, we were looking for a good team result on the day. The race started off pretty well and I managed to jump across to an early break which stayed away for about 10 minutes. After the break got caught I tried to stay towards the front to jump on any dangerous moves but nothing really coalesced. The race averaged 29mph which made it hard to generate separation and keep a breakaway rotating.
With 2 to go, I found Jack and tried to move him up through the start-finish straight. We made it into the top 10 wheels and I started to slow, but this led to us getting swarmed in the first corner. In hindsight I should’ve kept the power down and went all the way to the front to get a clean line. When we got swarmed I grabbed brakes and this killed our momentum. We managed to slot back in and I tried again to move up on the back straight but couldn’t find a gap into the last two turns. Jack shot past me, had someone crash into him, and still managed to find an inside line through the turns, but at this point we were too far back to contest the sprint. Through all of this Flo had positioned really well in the top 10 wheels and had a decent run at the finish, ending up 8th on the day.