Valley of the Sun Stage Race

Valley of the Sun was a great experience for me. I have never done a big stage race before and I learned how to work and communicate with my teammates so that we could dominate.
The race started off with a 14.2 mile time trial in Buckeye, Arizona (which happens to be in the middle of nowhere). The weather was perfect for a TT because there was not a lot of wind. Team Specialized dominated the entire TT podium with Eamon Lucas 1st, Andrew Lanier Jr. 2nd, and I 3rd. Daniel Farinha was only 6 seconds behind me so I knew that he would be aggressive in the road race and try to take 3rd place from me.
The next day we headed to Casa Grande, Arizona for the road race. The course was a 16.4 mile loop in the middle of the desert with a small climb. We raced 3.5 laps (about 57 miles) in the afternoon. There were many attacks during the road race. James Laberge put in an effective attack and stayed off the front for a while but eventually got caught. About 32 miles into the race, Andrew told me to attack so I went off the front and bridged up to a rider from SC Velo. I worked with him for a couple minutes and then he dropped off and went back to the peloton. I ended up riding 24 miles solo all the way to the finish! I would have never been able to accomplish this without the help of my great teammates. The time bonus for 1st place also helped to reinforce my spot on the podium for overall classification.
On Sunday, we went to Phoenix for the criterium. Our race was 30 minutes and the plan was to lead out James Laberge. With 5 laps to go in the crit, Specialized was all at the front keeping the pace high. With 1.25 laps to go, I started the leadout. Going through the chicane, I almost collided with a lapped rider who swerved right in front of me. I pulled off and Andrew lifted the speed up. The sprint began after the final corner and Eamon crossed the line first and James finished third!
Team Specialized dominated the whole podium for the overall classification in the 17-18 category and also won every stage. I’m looking forward to next stage race with the team!

-Torey Philipp