The Primavera at Lago Vista

The Primavera at Lago Vista is heaven for some…hell for others. The course features a stair stepping 3 mile climb followed by a brutally fast 3 mile descent. Going into the race, I knew the course favored my strengths, pain, pain, speed, and a little more pain, but not being able to shift out of the big ring is a different story. Just after the race started I realized my bike wouldn’t shift under load. You know it’s going to be a long day when you’re stuck in the 53’ with over 4000 ft of climbing in front of you…So I decided to make the most of it and force everyone else to hurt just as bad as me. After 1.5 laps (10 miles) sitting in the pack of nearly 100 riders, I decided to attack at the false flat about half way up the climb. After gaining a small margin, Erick Benz (AT&T) and Patrick Newell bridged up and we started to really motor. Topping out at 50+ miles per hour on the decent we gained about 25 seconds on the field. In the third lap Mario Arroyave (Velossimo) and another rider bridged to the break. A few moments later we were nearly brought back to the field by team San Jose, but after some vicious pulls by Erick and Mario we managed to sneak away again, losing Patrick and the other rider to the mercilessness of the field. For the rest of the race (~50 miles) the three of us managed to maintain a stressful margin of about 40 seconds on the field. We were never able to relax, as a group of three is much less efficient on a fast downhill than the peloton. We would lose nearly 20 seconds at the bottom of the course every lap, and gain it back on the climb. The entire race I was uncomfortable with chasing peloton nipping at our heels, painfully turning over the cranks with my breakaway companions, barely able to fuel, barely able to breath. Going into the last lap we had a margin of only 35 seconds over the group. No cat-and-mouse tactics could be played, everyone had to give it their all to stay away. At the top of the climb I put in a dig to try and stretch the gap a little before the descent. Unfortunately Mario fell off the break and it was up to Erick Benz and myself to motor to the finish ahead of the malicious peloton. I attacked Erick with about 2 km to go but he was able to cover, spitefully pinning me in front of him as punishment. Coming into the finish I tried to keep the pace high and pin him in the gutter, unable to overtake me. The tactics paid off and Toyota GCCA got their first win of 2010! Erick Benz came in hot on my heels and Mario was able to barley hold off the peloton by less than 1 second for 3rd.