Tour of the Depot (Stage Race in Tooele, UT)

This past weekend I did my first ever stage race on a road bike. It was pretty exciting to give it a try and I was really looking forward to the time trial. Until this weekend I had never even ridden a time trial bike but I was anxious to give it a try.

I was lucky enough to borrow a bike from a friend that fit me pretty well. I approached the race like a ski race, pacing and all. It only took a few minutes (like two) before I caught the guy 30 seconds ahead of me, another minute or two and I passed the guy who started 1 minute ahead of me and that trend continued. I passed 5 people over the 9 mile course and finished with plenty of power left. I really had no idea how i would stack up but I felt good about the effort. It turned out to be a decent one, I won the cat 4 race by a healthy 30 second margin and would have finished mid-pack in the 1/2's. I was satisfied and now I can't wait to go train a bit on a TT bike and try to do even better.

The second stage was a circuit race, 5 laps of a 5 mile course. The finish was a very fast (45+mph) gradual downhill, not exactly my strong point but I was ready to go. My first goal was to not concede any time in the overall, second goal was to win. I road conservatively for a few laps and figured out who the faster guys in the field were. Towards the end I put myself into good position to launch a sprint. As we came near my instinct told me to go and i went, i took off from the front with about 200m to go, only to realize that I had timed it wrong again and was passed by a few racers in the last 100m. Timing a sprint on a bike is much different than a ski race, it really takes patients, and after two botched sprints in 7 days (one earlier at the RMR Criterium on Tuesday) I vowed to not do that again... I maintained a 25 second lead in the GC going into Sunday.

Sunday was a 54 mile road race. It was pretty uneventful aside from the few racers close to me in the GC, who all happened to have teammates, trying to pin me in the corner and attack off the front. Not of them worked out so it came down to a field sprint. I sat patiently at the front and waited until 100m this time. When I when for it I was gone but there was one guy who came from the far side of the field with a lot of speed and about 40 lbs on me, good for another downhill finish. He nipped me at the line but I tied down second and grabbed the overall.

It was a great weekend and I am psyched to be able to race with the Cole Sport team. Another few months of racing and I should be a Cat 2, at which point I will actually be able to race WITH the team in the same races. I'm really looking forward to that.