Tour of the Gila
Silver City, NM
I will have to make this update quick, I leave for the stage 3 time trial in 30 minutes. Here we go; stage one was tough, really really tough. Being my first official road race of the year I couldn't expect a ton of power but you always hope for the best. It was a 94 mile stage with a 7 mile climb to the finish. I felt ok until about mile 60 when I found my self at the back of the pack and not sheltered from the 20mph winds. I went back to get team bottles from the car, and as I did the field surged up the road and that was the last I saw of them. I was SUD, (straight up dropped) no excuses. I tried to limit my losses and finish 25 minutes or so behind the winner after riding the last 30 miles alone, now really in the wind.
Stage two was much better. My legs felt opened up and I stayed with the front group until less than 1k from the top of the major climb early in the race. Luckily Henk Vogels and a few others were in the same boat and I did one of the most sketchy/fast/technical decents of my life following Vogels down the back side while weaving through the caravan of 10 team cars. We caught on at the base before they drilled it again. I rode smarter and stayed in the middle of the pack for the remainder of the day and was able to finish in the front group after 80 miles.
Now for the time trial. More updates to come later. Thanks for reading.
