A nail biter in the Valley of the Sun

For the first time in years I headed to Arizona for the Valley of the Sun Stage Race. I did this race back in my collegiate racing days many moons ago and was looking forward to getting back. While the DET guys were tearing it up with the Juniors, Andrew mixing it up with the pros and Roger and Troy fighting for the cat 3's, I was the sole Swami in the 4's.
The race is made up of three stages, TT, Road Race and Crit. With some the time trial being the most unfamiliar to me, I got some tips from Troy Huerta who specializes in this discipline. Troy, my roomie for a night had me go over some crucial things that could make me suffer with style and efficiency. With a borrowed Helmet from the clothing czar and some borrowed aero bars, I did the best I could and finished mid pack in 38th.

The road race the next day was a little weird. An itchy 4's field mixed with some crazy head and cross winds kept most people in the peloton. A stacked field filled with Trek Landis guys had one of their guys go off the front with over a lap to go. Thinking he was going to get caught, the field sat up. For reasons still unknown to me the peloton was neutralized by the officials and we were crawling at about 10mph for 5 miles or so. While that was happening the Landis guy had minutes on us and there was no way we were going to catch him.
By the last lap on the big ring hill, I tried to stay near the leaders. It was a tight group of about 20 and as we crested the hill, you could throw a blanket on us. In the last K it got a little strung out and I lost about 20 seconds to the lead group finishing in 23rd.
After staying at my Kristen's cousins house (a genius and champion foosball player) I moved toward where the crit would be, my last chance of leaving Arizona not empty handed. After a thorough massage, I went to the "try too hard to be cool" neighborhood of Scottsdale and got some serious food at a place called Culinary Dropout where I feasted on pickled beets, veggies and some sliced rib eye.
On Sunday, I watched just about every Swami in races before me crash in the crit. It was nerve wracking to say the least. I did my usual pre race warm up and headed to the line. I decided to not be tempted by any primes and focus on the win.
For the first half of the race, the attacks came thick and fast. The speed was bearable but there were a few near misses by a number of crashes (go figure) that seemed to come on every corner. With three laps to go I started to weave through the group and towards the front to safety. Since I had no teammates I knew I could race for myself but also had to piggy back on other teams. I leapfrogged to the front and waited to see if anyone was going to set up a leadout train. A team from Vegas called Le Rois Cycling did and I jumped on it. I picked the biggest muscle bound dude I could find and stuck on his wheel not letting anyone on. With a lap to go I was glued and not going to budge. In the last corner I was in third. I jumped out of the saddle and overtook the lead out man and started to gain on the big dude but ran out of road to pass him. Second in the stage with a six second time bonus didn't to much for the GC but showed my fitness and skills are slowly improving.

The team wasn't angry I used their train but I had to race semi smart and stay out of the wind. A great weekend with some upgrade points to boot. I can't wait for the next big couple of races as well as some more weather like we had in Arizona. A big shout out to the DET Swamis and Troy as well as Quintin Kirby's mom for looking out for me during the road race. Hopefully I won't have to wait another decade to do this race again. Next big one is Tour De Murrietta and San Dimas Stage race. Glad results are coming but didn't think it would be this soon. Racing next week and hopefully I can prove this wasn't a fluke.