For Saturdays Stage 3 Road race the forecast the night before was calling cloudy but a dry day of racing in high teens. However it seems like the weather-man confused the days with a day before, as we woke up to pouring rain and mixture forecasts that called for 50% chance of rain, but the radar looked clear (50%!! – that’s a first time I saw that, I thought the rule of thumb for the weather-man is to choose either 40% or 60% if they absolutely clueless in prediction…). A confusing day if you a cyclist trying to dress up for a 5 hour race day! We arrived to the staging water filled parking lot and a drizzling rain, with the wind giving me shivers more than usual. So I figured it’s better to be warm and take layers off rather than freeze. I put on a base layer, jersey and a vest with full leg- and arm-warmers. Five minutes into a roll out I’ve realized I made a mistake, I felt entire body to heat up. 10 minutes into the race I found myself unzipping everything, and we haven’t even hit the climb! I guess I should have taken Yuri’s words serious when he said he saw in forecast 14C but feels like 20C! Huh, what???
Attacks were firing as usual trying to establish early break, I followed a few moves to quickly realize I need to take layers off before the climb if don’t want to explode in overheating. (I’ve learned the lesson hard way at Tucson’s Shoot-out already when it was the only time I got dropped out of the breakaway there with steam coming out of my ears). So slowly dropped back to the peloton trying to unzip my leggings, of course like the luck would have it the zipper was stack! I kept on trying and trying, getting gapped by the peloton (because you can’t pedal as you playing with your zipper on your leg), sprinting to the back of it and trying again. So that went on for solid 10 minutes with eventually me just force pulling in anger the whole legging of my foot. Must have been quite a scene, I’m sure the commissar in the car behind had a good laugh. Perfect timing as we were about to hit the ~30km circuit’s first climb, which we were to do 4 times before we head back in town for the finish line. While I was busy practising my circus tricks, some 8 man breakway managed to escape the group. You know it’s a move of the day when you see entire Optum’s (GC leading team) train on the front.  With GC team buckled up in driving seat, that means for everyone else it’s time kick back and enjoy the ride. And that I did. We got over the crescent of the climb and to the open green fields of mist! We were all wet, but warm after climbing and the scene was nothing like I’ve raced before. It was so foggy you couldn’t see the front of the peloton as we zipped through snake-like roads at 50 km/h. I was really soaking up the beauty of this sport. (no pun intended).

View from the caravan

Climbing through the fog

Yuri cursing every bit of the race

I took the moment to go back to the car and grab some bottles for the teammates. Without going into much detail, it was another amateur scene for the Pro cars to have a laugh at. Just picture me holding to a bottle from Bryan and a 5 foot fountain stream coming out of it. Now that’s what you call a “power bottle” boost hahaha.

Second part of the circuit was mostly high speed and downhill, and being soaked and coasting half the time at 50-60km/h had me nearly shivering. What a weather! At this point I wasn’t going to play with arm-warmers and told myself to man up and wait till the climb to warm up. Second time up the climb we climbed in a bunch taking up the whole road and definitely not like how I remembered it last year staring at the wheel in front in single file hammer-fest. I was starting to get disappointed that it will be another lame stage with only racing in first and last 10km.

However the God’s heard my prayers (ie. Mancebo and Co.) and third time up it was lit up on fire. Apparently 5-Hour Energy decided to test how Optum is feeling after chasing for 80km. And they probably didn’t feel so great, considering they had their hands full as 8 man break was no joke with all top Pro teams represented in it, including some strong men like Luis Amaran. That man can out-ride a peloton alone if he puts a head down. The climb up the circuit is quite a tricky one. It starts off with a steep +12%  grade punch, plateaus through the feed zone, fast short descend, and undulating uphill stretches for few more kilometers. So being 185lb I don’t make for the greatest climber and try minimize the beating on the legs when climbing steep pitches by slowly drifting back through the pack as everyone stomps on the pedals by me, then catch 2^nd half of the group over the crescent and use my mass to sling shot back to the front on the downhill. However this strategy nearly back fired on me as I didn’t realize the Hammer was down at the front, and when I got over steep part and I noticed the group thinning extremely fast, with gaps forming all over the place. Oh- oh. As I hit the downhill I glanced forward to see the front group already some 300m away hitting the next hill. Luckily I saw some pro-team riders at the front of my split closing gaps and I didn’t panic too much, you know those guys not interested in getting dropped either. Next few km’s I was masochistically happy to rediscover the pain cave again – ah that’s what hard racing feels like! Guys were exploding left and right forming gaps, but I held on to the train and even was satisfied to be able to close a few myself.  My train at one point overtook another one dropping back that included Travis, but I couldn’t even gasp out “jump on!” and had to hope he’d figure and have the legs to do it himself. Unfortunately that’s the last I saw of him. The man has discovered the NRC hammer. I’m sure he has learned a few lessons out of it, that’s what we are here for. Yuri also, very unlike him, was struggling all week. Jumping on brand new equipment before the big race is giving him problems with legs pains and such. So after the fireworks were over it was only two Jetfueler’s left in significantly shrunk peloton: Luis and myself. Coming into 4^th and last time up the climb now I knew what to expect and didn’t let them catch me off-guard. I stomped on the pedals as hard as I could on the first steep part going by riders and latching on the ever accelerating tailwhip of riders thru feedzone crecent into downhill just to find the lead group with a gap up 300m on next climb already!! How the #$%@ did they make it up there already??? We only climbed for a couple of minutes! This time there were no big pro team riders bringing it back, and I actually dug deep and joined the rotation to reel it back in. Luckily the front group must have been playing games as it momentarily bunched up giving us just enough time to latch on it. Few more km’s in the pain cave up the climb and it was all over. I tell you there is no better feeling getting over to the top in that magical mist realizing you made it… full deep breath…whew. I looked around, the peloton was even smaller and this time no Luis in sight. I was a lone soldier making toward the finish line for what I thought would be a field sprint for sure, as the 8 man break was nearly insight by now. It’s a mostly downhill stretch toward the finish, and looking at previous year’s results, it’s always been a bunch sprint. That’s what I was waiting for all season, I didn’t try to make any moves or attacks unlike last year and just preserved all energy for that finish. However, the thing with this damn sport, it’s always unpredictable! I’ve made a big mistake in not staying near the front and keeping an eye on the GC leaders. As soon as the break was caught on the last 10km the counter attacks went flying with GC contenders, I’m assuming Mancebo trying to make up those 5s to get back in the GC lead. The group of 10-15 riders split off and dangled 10s ahead entire time, they weren’t moving extremely fast, but neither did the peloton. I still stayed optimistic that they will be swallowed on the gallop to the line, but losing majority of Jamis riders on the side of the road to some flats or small crash didn’t help the chase. Champion System’s team tried to organize their riders to the front as their 3^rd GC placing rider was stack behind the split, but also couldn’t manage anything out of it. With final 3km to the finish line the group was in chaos with no organized lead out trains and we arrived 20s behind the lead group. Disappointment is understatement, as my legs felt great for a sprint but there was even nothing to contest!…lesson learned: don’t go on assumptions and pay attention to GC leaders.

All in all it was an amazing race, and the rest of Jetfuelers made it back in chase groups within time cut to start another day. One of the hardest Criterium circuits in North America is up ahead of us. So stay tuned to hear about it tomorrow! Cheers!