Missingsaddle catches up with our on the spot race reports; Ben King (Trek-LiveStrong), Jon Baker (KFAN Composite Team) and Vince Owens (Z Team).
PROLOGUE
BEN KING:
Since the beginning of the season, I’ve been aiming at one goal. I was optimistic about my broken collarbone in Redlands, because it meant a stronger second half of the season when USA Cycling selects six U23 riders for L’Avenir (the most prestigious U23 stage race) and the World Championships. Yesterday they sent out the preselection of eleven. All eleven could and should compete, so it all comes down to Survivor Utah.
Prologue: 2.8 miles
Geesh, 6 PM race starts make for a slow day. Breakfast, ride, movie, movie, movie… and no internet! So I’ll update as often as possible. As one of the last riders off, I watched rider after rider come across the finish looking like they just got strangled in a sauna. It was going to hurt. “I’m tasting blood,” Bjorn said after his ride. The course was out and backs, winding up and down a gradual hill. The effort was violent and over before I knew it. I’ve had a nagging cough for the past few hours. It could be the dry air, but I think I’m just allergic to prologues. Of the 160 starters:
1st Bookwalter
2nd Zabriskie
3rd McKissick
8th Sergent
11th Bewley
37th Me
Time for the real racing to begin.
JON BAKER
Tuesday evening saw the 4.5 K prologue, which was run on a pretty demanding course adjacent to the State Capitol. Right from the start ramp, we did a 50m climb, which of course you had to sprint up in your big ring. Things continued with a false flat uphill to the turnaround, and then a 55 x 11 speed run back to the finish, where you also had to squeeze through a very tight chicane at about 300m to go. At least one guy crashed there at high speed. I was able to complete the course without incident, and put in a respectable time, 20 seconds off the winner, Brent Bookwalter, and good for 33rd place.
VINCE OWENS:
The Prologue was a 2.8-mile technical course with a slight uphill on the way out and very fast on the way back. I rode a 6:50, which was 38 seconds behind Brent Bookwalter who won. I am not sure what place that is because the results aren’t up, but it’s probably somewhere in the middle of the field. Not a great result, but it was kind of expected. I’m not a great time trailer and the short one’s are even worse for me! I feel pretty good, so that is the most important. Tomorrow has 2 hard climbs with a flatter finish, so I am sure it will be hard!
STAGE 1: 140 KM
BEN KING
There are races with courses that intimidate everyone. When hardened pros that have raced the grand tours go on about the difficulty, you know it’s no joke. Tour of Utah is one of those. Today we faced two steep 10 km climbs. I wanted to avoid preemptive attacks and try to make the selection on the climbs, but before the first climb I found myself off the front with two other riders for 5 or 10 minutes. I thought they would let us go, but for whatever reason it came back. The majority of the field stayed together on the first climb, but on the other side there was a lot of attacking. I got excited and wasted energy attacking and closing gaps. Trying to watch Chris Jones, who notoriously makes the breaks, I often found myself in promising groups, but nothing would stick. Finally, Sam took off with an Ouch rider, and built up a 3:30 gap. BMC rode tempo to the base of the last climb. I battled to ride at the front but everyone was so bunched together that there was no space to move up. Every time someone tapped their brakes, I slipped back.
Sevilla and Mancebo (two Rock Racing riders) attacked 5 km from the summit, and the field stretched as riders dropped off the back. As we approached 7500 ft elevation it was too much effort to jump around the groups of dropped riders. When TT specialist, Tom Zirbel, opened a gap in front of us, I had nothing left to close it, and we settled into a chase group. Sam held off the catch until the top of the climb, and wound up in the front group along with Bjorn and Julian. Tomorrow I’ll try to make some better luck for myself. Overall, the team is doing great, but I need to step it up if possible.
JON BAKER
Today, Wednesday, was the first of 3 heavy climbing days. This course was a modified version of stage 2 from last years’ event, removing the big climb at the very beginning, which shattered the field last year. The pace was fast from the get go, as riders tried to form the early breakaway. Nothing was sticking, and we hit the climb after 30k as a big group. My teammate for this race, Aaron Olson, attacked at the base, and would stay away for the entire climb, claiming the KOM points. The pace in the field was pretty moderate, and things stayed together over the top, and through the long run across the valley before the final climb of the day, appropriately named “Big Mountain”. Again, things stayed pretty mellow for most of the climb, until about 4k to the summit, when first Chadwick of Rock Racing, and then his teammates Oscar Sevilla and Francisco Mancebo attacked. Over the KOM, these 2 had a 20 second advantage on the next group of about 35, which I was a part of. For the remaining 20k of descending, interrupted by a small bump in the middle, these 2 held their advantage despite some pretty high speeds from my group, with guys like Dave Zabriskie putting big pulls. I was gearing up for the sprint for 3rd place, when I flatted with about 2k to go. Despite losing a chance at a placing on the stage, I was able to take advantage of the 3K rule, and received the same time as the chase group, 25 seconds down on 1st (Mancebo) and 2nd (Sevilla).
VINCE OWENS
Today was a very difficult stage! The course had 2 pretty tough climbs with about 18 miles of descending and a flat finish. The Z team had a rough day. Our team leader Nate English had really bad cramps and had to drop out of the front group. He still finished but pretty far down. I had some bad luck and flatted 4 kilometers from the top of the 2nd climb, didn’t have a great wheel change and never saw the group again. I finished with a group of 8 guys but like 10 minutes down! I am not sure if I could have got over the climb with the group, but I would have died trying! A little disappointing of a day, but that’s bike racing! Tomorrow ends with a 20-mile mountain top finish, so it should be really tough! Hopefully it goes a little bit better then today, because I don’t think it can get much worse!
Check back for more stage reports!
