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The Phoenix area has been holding the Valley of the Sun Stage Race for as long as I can remember, or at least as long as I have been suiting up in Lycra to ride every day. However, this would be the first time that I pinned the numbers on to attend the first stage race in Arizona. With the National Racing Calendar beginning in just over a month, the VOS stage race is a perfect opportunity to gauge where your fitness is in relation to your competition and teammates going into the more rigorous racing. With a borrowed van from the local bike shop, Neil Shirley, Cody Stevenson, and I charged up early Friday morning on some coffee from the local brew shop Cosmos. Still half awake, we headed out to Phoenix to meet our new teammate Ben Kneller and race!

The races over the weekend proved to be challenging, but getting to the actual start of the race was more stressful for Neil, Cody and I than the time trial itself. We left from San Diego the morning of the time trial. It is just a short drive over the mountains, through the Sahara desert into the Saguaro cacti and sagebrush outside of Buckeye, Arizona for the time trial. Our stress levels increased ten fold when we got stuck in traffic on “the 8” or for non-Californians, Interstate 8 just 25 miles from where we left. An unexpected snowstorm had blown in and covered the road with a few inches of snow. In Colorado this is a daily ritual for driving conditions and no problem. In California, it is a Federal Emergency where everything shuts down. Luckily we were just a few miles from an alternate route that would easily take us around the first blockade and put us in front of the 4,000 waiting cars. We decided to travel up and over the Viejas Grade which is a dirt road pass that we have trained on regularly. Soon we had made it up and over and around the blockade and in route to Phoenix, only an hour and a half later.

Cody was first off and averaged 80mph! That is because he was still in the van when he was scheduled to start. Already in full kit, Neil and I had a few minutes to get out of the van, put on aero wheels, register, and get to the start. I made it with about 3 minutes till my start. Hey at least we made it.

Neil and I were both stale from the stressful van ride and had sub par rides. I ended up 20th and Neil 24th. Cody was already so late that he decided to save his legs and cruise the time trial. Newbie to the team, Ben Kneller was a bit humble after his ride but soon found out that he had won the time trial and had a 5 second lead over second place! I was bragging about pushing a big gear on the way back and Ben says, “I was pretty much in my 56 x 11 the whole time” What? We were off to a great start for the weekend. It wasn’t ideal as we all wanted to be in the top 10 so that we would have some more cards to play in the road race.

Saturday we rolled out for the 95 mile road race with Ben in the leader’s jersey and the rest of us knowing that we had our work cut out for us. With only a 5 second lead over the next place and so much bonus time it was difficult. On the second lap after the climb it came apart. Ben did a great job of marking the 2nd place rider, but wasn’t able to get him in the sprint and took 2nd. This left the race in a tie on paper, but Ben would still have the jersey if we could keep him from losing more time. Shortly after the sprint guys kept sneaking off the front and we missed the break that formed with 16 riders. Soon the gap was up to 2 minutes and Neil and Cody took over.

The gap to the break would increase to almost three minutes. Cody and Neil took control and rotated along with a few random riders to bring the break back with one lap to go. They were working hard and motoring, keeping the group motivated and bringing the break back patiently. I sat on the couch basically behind the rotation and with Ben making sure he was out of trouble and there to help him chase down threats and try to get him to the finish with the other GC leaders up the last climb. With less than a half lap to go one of the GC threats snuck away on the downhill and I was forced to work hard with Neil and Cody to bring him back. We caught the two riders on the last climb and as Neil and Cody pulled off attacks started coming left and right. I stayed with Ben as long as I could to keep him at the front and close to the 2nd placed rider. Coming into the finish Ben got boxed in and was unable to follow the wheels and would end up losing the jersey because the 2nd place rider came in 3rd on the day earning another 5 seconds. A tough day for us, but that is bike racing and everyone did their part to hang onto the jersey that so many wanted.

Going into the final criterium on Sunday, our goal was to be aggressive and try to get Ben up the road into a break and gain back those 5 seconds. The crit started furiously and soon we were flying along. Ben rode aggressively all race and made it into a couple moves that were promising, but would be brought back by the motivated swarm of riders.

With five laps to go it the crit was winding down and Neil was preparing to get Cody into position for a go at the sprint when we heard the sounds of brakes squealing, tires exploding and bikes and bodies twisting on the pavement. I looked over to see Cody and Neil had made it through but where was Ben? The next lap around I looked at the pits and still Ben was not there. We came around to the crash and saw Ben sitting on the curb hunkered over holding his arm. Neil looked after Cody and got him up there to give it a go and Cody ran 6th in the complete chaos of the stage.

We quickly road over to our teammate Ben to check his condition and make sure he was o.k. The bad news was that he had broken his collarbone that would require surgery. A weekend of great racing for the team quickly came to a demoralizing end with a fallen teammate. The race organizers would give Ben a pack finish because the mishap happened within five laps to go which made sense.

With the weekend of racing wrapped up, Ben in good hands with the King family, we headed back to San Diego. Reflecting on the race we had an awesome weekend. Ben destroyed the time trial and the rest of us rode awesome considering our late arrival on the first day which had us catching up. With just four of us we were able to control most of the race. As we cruised back on “the 8” in the dark reflecting on a difficult weekend of racing and planning a few off days, the van blew a tire. After what we had been through already that weekend, it came as no surprise and just another bump in the road. As a team we set out to tackle the tire change, on the side of the interstate in total darkness, and no idea where the jack and wrenches were located. Not only are we coming into good early season form, our tire changing skills are perfected. We pulled it off and will race another day.

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