Treasure Valley Cycling Club

I will be going this year. Time to get back into some sort of shape.

It would be a great experience for people to go do a stage race that is kind of hard with 100+ fields to see what its all about.

Let's get some conversation fired up in this thread? Is there still interest? Who and how many might we get going and interested? The races fill up every year before registration closes so it's probably not really that early to be thinking about it... what's the gameplan?

We still have Harris, Matt H, Brad, Rob, Eric and possibly Ladd on the list?

So is anybody else going to step up to the plate? This could be a really cool event as a crew...

I just signed up, hope I'm not racing by myself. :)

Well... I survived alone, but had some really bad luck! I'm counting on more Team Reel crew next year... start training now! :)

Stage 1 - 87 racers (75mile RR). After the neutral zone, the pace ramped up very quickly. We averaged just under 28mph for the first 45mins. The speed was actually good as it would keep the pack down to 2 or 3 wide vs. cramming all up 4-5+ in one lane when things would slow. Couple small rollers were attacked HARD and we were down to single file, but nobody wanted to let go this early and everyone hung on. We rode into a crazy serious rain storm at this point which completely drenched everyone to the bone. There were some twisty downhill sections that were insanely freaky since nobody could see and brakes didn't work. The pack stretched out again as the front people thought it would be a good time to put the hammer down. As we rolled into Union I remembered Brad's advice... get up front! Managed to eek my way up into a top 15-20 position (very tough to move around) as the real climb of the day started. The road grade started to gradually climb but wasn't bad at all, yet. Average speed from Union until steep climb started was 23.4... we were bookin' and everyone was amped to hit the real hill. When the steep section finally came, the fireworks started and boy was I glad to be up front. I saw a small group of 5ish pull off the front and everyone just started hammering. I held it over 350w for over 5mins straight but just kept drifting backwards through the pack and had to slow down even more as it was hitting me hard. The race was spread all over the place by now and I was drifting backwards way too quickly. Alex Phipps caught me about this time and said "lets go!"... I grabbed his wheel and it turned out to be my savior as the pace was perfect balance of speed/effort. As we crested the top there were fractured riders everywhere in front of us and it was time to hit the gas hard to team up into a chase group. I immediately latched onto a 10+ rider group, but Alex drifted while he got wrapped up trying to grab a feed and get organized. Our group seemed strong... we were FLYING downhill and picking up new riders. I rotated to the front and did a strong 30sec pull and moved into the slow line, rider in front of me pulled and then moved over as well but just then my rear tire FLATTED. I raised a hand and yelled flat just as the rider behind me barreled into my bike at full speed. Somehow I grabbed the bars and held the bike upright as I heard his expensive bike parts hitting the pavement behind me. The rest of our little chase group cleared the carnage fine and were immediately gone. I saw the guy behind me sliding across the asphalt superman style before he came skidding to a stop. He admitted he had been looking down and didn't see me flat... whoops. Both his tires were also flat and we both needed wheels now. We waited... and waited... and WAITED for the dang wheel car. George Knight pulled up and we chatted for a while... still waiting. All three of us were shivering and freezing. Being soaking wet and standing around for so long was not fun. We borrowed some extra gear from a couple stopped cars while we stood there picking our noses. Apparently there was a crash back down the road that the wheel car was attending to. It was over 10mins, maybe even 15 before we finally saw the flashing light. Wheels were passed out quickly and me, "crash" and one of crash's teammates who stuck around rode off together. We traded pulls but it was tough to get back into the groove and warmed up. About 10miles to go I was pulling up a long roller when I looked back to find I was all alone. What the?? (Found out afterwards one of them flatted again and the stopped) So I rode the last 10miles alone. I caught a couple guys off the 1,2 field... but not because I was trying... they were chilling and just chatting it up. Rode on their wheel for the last mile and was finally done. Ended up 80th place. I'd like to think I would've easily been 20+ spots higher without the flat mess.

Stage 2 - time trial (11 mile) Rode what I felt like was a solid ride... never really pushing it crazy hard, but still rode it hard. VERY windy on the return leg though that slowed me down like nothing else. No aero gear or bars definitely hurt with the headwind. 78th place.

Stage 3 - Criterium OK, it's go time! I needed to shake off the bad luck and have some fun. Weather was nice and course looked great. Nothing spectacular happened during the race but I held perfect position entire time (10-15 from the front). Things got sketchy at times, especially when the pace slowed. 10 laps to go and Tim Doelman was suddenly right at my side fighting for my lines. He stole my line into one corner... and I stole it back a few later. 3 laps to go and the pace was nice and fast. 2 laps to go and I was 5th wheel... locked and loaded! 1 lap to go and the GC leader took off on the straightaway... another rider chased and I was on his wheel. GC leader came around final corner with a couple bike lengths of gap and then the chaser with me as 3rd spot. Things were perfect but as I unloaded the sprint I just didn't quite have the punch I needed... 100ft from the line and I started to see wheels coming up from the sides... including Tim with some serious speed. One last push into the pain cave and all I could manage to hold was 5th spot. Not bad!! Considering I was 3rd wheel out of the corner I was a little bummed though. Tim ended up 2nd I think... and Mr GC held the win.

Stage 4 - the weather, uhg. Woke up to pouring rain and was NOT excited to do 100+ miles in it. Rode over to the start and was already soaking wet. Turns out that the race officials had decided to shorten the race to only 25 miles (big change!). I guess it was snowing/slushing up on the high sections of the course and they were worried about hypothermia, etc. We were to ride out of town and straight up Dooley Mountain. Talk about a drag race... oh boy. So we roll out of town and the whole pack is extremely jittery and felt un-safe. Forded 8+ inches of standing water in places as we rode thru the city on our way out of town. Constant gas/brake/gas/brake in the downpour was very sketchy. As we approached the climb EVERYONE was jockeying for the front and it was all but impossible to move up. I was 3/4ths of the way back into the field when I saw an entire bike shoot up into the air directly in front of me about 3 riders up. Uh oh!. Everyone yells CRASH and hits the brakes hard but there were people on the ground all in front of me. I went over the bars and landed in a pile of people and bikes. This was less than a mile before the climb started so everyone immediately jumped to get moving. My bike was tangled in another guy's wheel and we wrestled with the mess for what seemed like forever and finally got things sorted out and rolling (actually was only 28 seconds according to my ride file). The chase group rocketed off (GC leader had also gone down and was leading the charge) leaving me and the few stragglers literally at the very back of the race again. I tried to chase for a bit but it was hopeless. I put it into steady climb mode and just powered from there on at a steady pace. Gears were skipping around a bit as my hanger obviously got bent in the crash. Ended up passing a couple guys, but not many. Temperature at the top was in the 30's and my feet were literally ice cubes. I couldn't feel my toes as the crossed the line. What a weekend. :) A lukewarm shower at the highschool afterwards felt awesome and we were on the road headed home early.