My first professional Stage Win!

Steven

Stage three was a rough one for me. I hung in there and finished but I definitely felt the burning in my legs up over every climb from the day before. I new I had it coming sometime and it finally hit me. I got the shits. Quite a few El Bano stops after the race today. I am hoping it will only make me lighter. I’m hoping tomorrow will be better. My team did great today so hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow.

For more info on the race check out Cycling News

Thanks for reading,

Steven

Stage two was a death march through the Mexican desert for me. It was nothing but crazy and just about a dead straight road with a small climb from time to time. At one point, in the first 20 kilometers, the police slowed the race down as we road past a car that had flipped over. I looked to my right and saw the old lady that had crashed. She was dead. For the rest of the race I felt sick to my stomach over it. We got past that and the attacks and small breaks just kept on coming but nothing really ever got more than 30 seconds before being brought back by the main peloton. A racer from one of the Mexican teams attacked and I reacted quickly to jump right on his wheel. We started to get a sweet gap so we started working together. We came to a slight climb of probably 1 kilometer in length so I thought it was just another roller. I was pulling pretty hard up it and starting to drop him until I heard him yelling so I waited. As soon as he road back up to me he attacked and I thought what the hell is he doing and then I realized he was going for the King of the Mountain points - the only one on the stage. This meant he won that jersey for the day so I was pretty pissed off to screw that one up. I totally would have smoked the fat little sprinter that I was with. I blew it big time. After messing that up I was so mad that I just didn’t even feel like pulling and working with him anymore. A few kilometers went by and then I thought well it only can get better so I started pulling again. Later down the road I learned that we only had a minute over the peloton so I was pretty depressed. I couldn’t decide whether to keep on going and try to stay away which was not going to happen at the clip that the peloton was traveling, or whether I should drop back and then just save it for the sprint. I looked back and saw a guy coming out of no-man’s land bridging up to us. We waited for him and formed a solid group of 3 now going straight into a pretty good headwind. It was hard and rough being on such a straight and boring road but we kept on trucking. I was really hoping that one of the two riders that I was with was doped up so that we could stay away. I figure only ride hard with the guys that are super human and totally on something because then there is no way the peloton is going to catch you. My plan was to have him pull me to the line and win, then I would get second and after he failed the drug testing, I would be bumped up to first. (Just kidding). We got another time split with like 50 kilometers to go and all of a sudden we had like 8 minutes. We were so shocked to find this out. We thought we were in the clear and definitely not going to get caught with such a short distance to go. With about 30 kilometers to go the break’s time split was down to about 5 minutes. We were a bit shocked again that they had brought back so much time. Then with 15 kilometers to go, it was at 3 minutes. I thought, “Oh man this is going to hurt.” With 10 kilometers to go I skipped a couple pulls to catch my breath. One of the guys in the break got mad and started dropping back bringing me with him so I just stuck on his wheel playing the stubborn card. When the other guy was now about 20 seconds up the road and solo I attacked the other guy and dropped him catching the guy in front. We were now at about 10 kilometers to go and the pack was well within the 2 - minute gap range. I attacked the Mexican at the 5 - kilometer marker and held a small gap but he reeled me back in and with 3 kilometers to go, the pack was only at about 40 seconds. I was thinking of anyway possible that I could beat this guy. He is a well know track sprinter so I was a bit on the underdog side with only 2 kilometers to go the guy started yelling, “How much will you pay me for the win?” I blew it off and kept going. With 1 kilometer to go we were only at like 20 seconds. I looked back and they were breathing down our necks. We each took a couple more pulls and then with 500 meters to go, he kept me right at his side not letting me go in front of him or behind. Total track rider style and he was smart to do it. He jumped me so fast and I just couldn’t muster that kind of strength at this point. I looked back one last time with 100 meters to go and shit - were they close. I just wanted to make it at this point so I hauled with all my might. I crossed the finish line and a foot after I passed it, the raging peloton came flying past me. So I ended up getting 2nd. It was a nice result but I was pretty bent on not being able to win against that guy. I tried all I could and raced the last 50 kilometers smart, so I have no regrets. Danny Pate, on our team, finished well in the sprint and took over the Leader’s Jersey for the start of Stage Three and Mountains Day that is going to be so hard. After the stage we got back to the cars to change. There were people everywhere yelling and cheering and going nuts. After I was all changed, I learned that I needed to go to drug testing. I started heading over there with my chaperone when I heard the podium guy announcing my name. I guess I had to go up there for 2nd (which I forgot) and ran back to the car to put on a jersey. I ran over to the podium while pulling my pants up and darted onto the stage in chaotic style. After kissing the podium girls I trekked back to the cars, put a normal shirt on, and then ran to doping. While waiting at doping control, I heard my name again and they said I needed to go back up on stage. So I did with my normal t-shirt and shorts on while the other guys up there were so professional. It was pretty funny how crazy it was. I went back to doping and then missed the jars and spilled my piss just about everywhere. Thankfully there still was enough left. After getting out of the doping control, I just made it to the race bus and we headed off to Parral where Stage 3 is to start. After driving for what seemed like forever through the desert, we finally made it to Parral. It is definitely the nicest town we have been to so far. Upon arrival, I got a massage, went to dinner, ate like five hundred churros and now it’s time for bed. Even though the 3rd stage is going to kick my butt, I look forward to it because Danny is in the Leader’s Jersey now so we have something to defend and because there will be lots of climbing all - over 6000 feet of elevation.

I’ll be back hopefully with even better news to come.

Thanks for reading,

Steven

Today’s stage was a great day for Team Slipstream. We were able to place three of our riders Timmy, Danny and Lucas into a split of 29 riders. They stayed away and put 3 minutes over the main field. This is so great for us because now we have the team lead along with 3 guys with a shot at winning the race. I lost my chance at the young rider’s jersey, which is the Under 23 inter-competition but there is plenty of climbing and racing to come. After the stage in Juarez we took a plane down to Chihuahua for the 2nd stage of the race. I am very excited for the up and coming stages because I hear we are going to cover some amazing land. We race into a canyon called the Copper Canyon that is supposed to be 4 times the size of the Grand Canyon. I am totally stoked to be racing in such an amazing place. The people here are amazing as well. They are so excited to have us race through their towns and land. All the little boys and girls run up to us for autographs and we are inspired to think that some day they may be racing just like us in their national colors. Today, on the plane, I sat by a local racer to the area and asked him where the best place to train was. He told me Toluca, Mexico was best. I had heard of this place before and had been thinking about going down there to train for the month of January or something like that. It’s at 8500 feet and surrounded by volcanos that you can just about ride up to the billing smoke above. He also told me Colombia was the best place to train in the world so I am not sure now on this guy’s advice. (Haha.) Well off to massage and bed I go.

Thanks guys,

Steven

Since the border town of Juarez is too dangerous for us racers to go out and do pre-race rides on our own, we had about 50 Mexican motorcycle police escort us. It was totally nuts. They pretty much closed down all the roads and led us out to the desert. I felt like we were doing a race they were going so hard. The whole time we were laughing and cracking so many jokes because it was probably the weirdest training ride on a bike I had ever done. We road by things such as women dancing the salsa on stage right next to the road side along with a horse that was cut in half on the side of the road. Never a dull moment in Mexico and then my front wheel broke on me. One of my spokes went flying and “oh shit” crossed my mind. I thought I was going to be left behind and lost in the drug cartel filled border town, but lucky for me there was even a follow car with spare wheels. A guy shouting out loud in Spanish flew to my side and changed my front wheel. I hauled butt just to catch back up to the race of riders. Finally we flipped a u-turn and started heading back. We were definitely in no hurry to get back for lunch. Surely we knew the food was going to suck just like the dinner the night before. The food has just been so awful at this race - like nothing I have ever seen or eaten before. One night we had sandwiches, bananas and crappy soup for dinner. I stuck with the soup and ate about 8 bowls filled with bread. This night, since it was the night before the first stage, we decided to head out to find a good restaurant and we did. It was so dang good we all got completely stuffed and had to roll home. I had a lengua (tongue dish) that was amazing and truly authentic to the area. I am going to try and cook that one for my girlfriend when I get home. Haha!

Thanks guys,

Steven

This report should have been up a long time ago. Somehow, I got totally distracted and lazy the last few months. Quite a bit has happened since my last update. From USPRO in South Carolina, I went home for a week and then headed out to Univest in Pennsylvania and then off to the Tour of Missouri. Univest was a sweet race that my teammate tore up and won. The next day, we all packed up and headed off to Kansas City where the Tour of Missouri kicked off. I was really excited about this race because I finally started to feel my form coming around, so that was really sweet. We had a strong team and we were going to tear it up in Missouri. From the second stage on, we were on fire. Mike Friedman, AKA Meatball and Will Frischkorn were both in the big break of the day that gained over 14 minutes never to be seen again. This was a very good situation for our team because now the race was only our two guys versus the other 10 that were in the break. A time trial was coming up on the 3rd stage and it was an epic one. I have never done a TT with so much climbing. All we needed to do was hope Mike and Will had a great TT beating the other guys that were in their break the day before. I also had to ride well so that I could take over the young rider’s jersey since I was only trailing by 3 seconds. I pre-drove most of the course the night before so that I would get a feel for how difficult it really was going to be. The trick to this TT was definitely not to self detonate out there but ride within yourself. The course was a perfect one for me and it showed. I came in 15th and took over the young rider’s jersey by more than 40 seconds. I was super stoked and knew I had a lot of work in the days ahead to defend that jersey. Will had a great TT as well and now was in 2nd overall behind George Hincapie. The 4th stage came and I was prepared to jump in any breaks that a young rider was trying to sneak away in. It was like there were two races going on because the U-25 guys were going crazy trying to get away. Finally, I attacked with Timmy Duggan and we went away with 8 other guys. We flew and gained over 3 minutes on the main field but it was never quite enough to stay away from the charging peloton which we learned later on was being driven buy 20 guys rotating through. Ten against 20 is no match in pulling into a head wind so we were caught with about 10 kilometers to go. I saved a bit right before they caught us so that I could hang in and help with leading out Brad Huff for the sprint. We had 4 guys rotating up there and we were looking pretty sweet. A slight rise in the road came and the attacks broke us up and that was the end of that lead out. Danny Pate was our guy for the 5th stage getting in an all-day break of 7 and staying away to win the stage. The last day was a circuit race and we just all wanted to play it safe and to help Brad out in the sprint. We did, but with like 100 meters to go I saw Huff flying through the air doing a flip and landing right on his butt and then sliding 100 feet. He ended up being okay but was super down that he wasn’t able to sprint. As the week ended, we were the Best Team Overall, had a 2nd and 5th place overall and I had the Best Young Rider’s Jersey . Our team had one of the best races of the year. We all worked so well together and it paid off.

Next up for me was to fly to the Tour of Bermuda. I was totally looking forward to this vacation. It’s not a serious race at all and most people go for the sun and the sand. I went for the fishing and had a great time out in the water catching huge Wahoo. My back started really killing me after stage one, where I think I pulled a muscle that started pushing on some nerves because I had all these shooting pains into my legs. I stopped racing after stage 2 and went fishing instead. On the first day of fishing, I went out with my two directors JV and Johnny Weltz along with our main money back Doug Ellis and CFO/organizer Beth Seliga. We caught loads of Wahoo - over 50 pounds per fish and even hooked into a 250 pound Marlin. Now that was a tough fish that fought for over an hour. The captain’s main hand, which was setting all the poles up and running the lower deck was around my age and his girlfriend who was from where I lived in Santa Cruz were all that were on board. Later that night, I ran into them downtown where the nightlife was. I talked to Jim about going fishing again and that I would help out on his commercial fishing boat for a day. He said that would be fine and took me out again the next day. So Jim, his girlfriend Jessica and I set out early into one of the coolest sun rises Jim says he has ever seen. We first caught our live bait called robins the size of a football. We then hooked them up and started trolling for some big ones. We got some hooked but only landed a couple - losing the other few. We came across a sea turtle the size of a Honda Civic. This thing was so big that I couldn’t believe my eyes as it swam right under the boat. We then started drift fishing and chumming for tuna. Jessica and I went in for a dip to see all the mid size fish go after the chum. The water was so clear in Bermuda that you can see hundreds of feet down. Looking up at the boat from a fish’s eye view was amazing. We went back to fishing, had lunch and then saw all this splashing going on in the water. I was driving the boat at the time and Jim told me there were dolphins and to head over to them so I did. They started surfing in our wake off the bow sides. Jim threw a rope in over the front of the boat so that we could drag from it into the water with goggles. I thought to myself, “What the heck, my back can suffer a little more because this is going to be sweet.” I lowered myself in and dragged along the pod of dolphins with goggles on. This was so amazing. I could hear them talking to each other. There were about 30 dolphins and I was side by side with them just feet away. I even waved to them under water. It was like watching an I-Max movie. It did feel real because it was so unbelievably cool. We got out of the water and were so stoked at what we had just done. This was one amazing day. We got back and went diving along his house for Lobster. We found a bunch but let them be. Bermuda was such a nice treat after such a long year of ups and downs. I was very lucky and grateful to be able to experience it.

Steven