Day 2 at the Primavera

Sunday at Lago Vista ensured tired legs and no idea what I was going to do with the race. I wasn’t sure how my body would react after a tough race the day before and 3 weeks of very tough training, compliments of Source Endurance. Discussing tactics with my roommate (Jordan Nguyen of Team Hotel San Jose) just before the start, he jokingly said I should attack from the gun, just to see what happens. Well, I tried it, just to see what happened. After about a bout 2 laps with various breakaway partners the pack reeled me in. I tend to be a fan of high heart rates and copious amounts of lactic acid though. So after one laps rest and a sketchy encounter on the downhill, I decided to attack once again when the terrain tilted skyward. After dangling off the front for about a mile or 2, 8 people decided to make the bridge, including Erick Benz (my partner from the day before), some mutinously strong juniors including Will Rader and Michael Pincus from Metro and Danny Parks (GS Tenzing) Others in the break included riders from bike heaven, DNA racing, Velossimo and Wooly Mammoth. After some solid cranking for the next 2 laps we had a sustainable gap, but the break was too big and inexperienced to work well together. Too many guys wanted a free ride. Thankfully, Metro VW and Wooly riders controlled the pack enough to let the gap slowly grow to five minutes. During which time Mario Arroyave somehow jumped the pelaton and bridged the gap before it grew to large. He would later attack with about 10 miles left in the race and grab the win for Velossimo. His teammate, Arteaga, blocked in the break, but eventually let Bens off the front, followed later by Skohan and Pincus, who would take 2nd 3rd and 4th respectively. The remainder of the break would sprint for 5th. I would end up 7th.