Race Report: Tucson Bicycle Classic Mens 2/3

Race: Tucson Bicycle Classic, Mens 2/3

Date: 2/21/2025-2/23/2025

AVRT racers: Leo Minami

Top Result: Leo Minami: 13/87 Stage 2 Road race, 22/97 Omnium GC

Course: 

Stage 1a TT: Straight TT with squiggle in the middle Started early in the morning into a strong headwind. Sent the turns hard and accidentally pedal striked. Not great at putting down power in aero position but still managed decent power and good pacing 30/87

Stage 2a Crit: Stuck behind a crash right after the gun. Group got strung out and I was having trouble moving up. Having to sprint out of the stupid U turn every lap was not helping. Pulled halfway through. I need to work on crit racing

Stage 3 Road race: Mostly flat with some rollers. Best result of the weekend. Plan was to mark the top GC riders to see if I could steal a leadout. The end of the race was very chaotic but I was able to take advantage of this to move to the front. Rolled in for 13th. Was shoulder to shoulder and wasn’t really able to go around anyone during the sprint

Stage 4: Same basic plan as the road race. Moved up a lot in the last 2 laps. Unfortunately I chose the slow line going into the last corner and a bunch of people passed me. Had to fight to move up on the final climb. Got into my old teammate's wheel and moved up about 10 positions but got muscled out into the wind. Was able to find some wheels to follow but they were fading and I had to start my sprint super early. Ended up getting passed by a lot of people in the last 100 m 28/80

Nutrition: Fuelled with formula 369 mix and supplemented with carbs fuel gels. Aimed for approx. 100g carbs per hour. Road race was short enough that I was able to bring all of the fluids I needed to the start