2013 Valley of the Sun - stage one summary

Buckeye, AZ - Friday, February 15th - 660 athletes started the stage one Valley of the Sun time trial today.  While there were a good number of winners over the many and varied categories, the competition was desert hot in a few of them.  For instance, Ethan Reynolds won the 15-16 year old 14-mile time trial at an average of 28.25mph!  That's smoking fast for any age and helps to set the tone for what our juniors are up against.  Our juniors saw the podium twice today, but not the top step so the next two days will be interesting.

- Sean McElroy (14) rode his brand new Specialized Tarmac because of new USA Cycling rules which only allow for under 14 year olds to be on "mass start bikes".  Sean rode duel Zipp 404 wheels.  Without aerobars he still averaged 24.69mph.  Sean also won our little "prediction" game as he was 18 seconds faster than he thought he would be.  Sean placed 22nd.
- Nicholas Castellano (16) rode his Specialized Transition with 808 Zipp front and Zipp disk rear.  He improved the most from last year with a whomping 2 minute, 13 second improvement.  Nick placed 8th.
- Jack Maddux (16) rode a Specialized Shiv with front Zipp 404 and rear Zipp disk. This is Jack's 4th consecutive trip to VOS. Unfortunately, Jack crashed in his time trial. He hit one of the cones that were being moved for the younger juniors. He received the slowest time and should start the road race. As Jack said "I was on fire" (before the crash)
- Matt Valencia (17) rode a Specialized Transition front Zipp 404 and rear Zipp disk.  This is Matt's 4th consecutive VOS.  Matt's rear disk slid into his seat post and slowed him way down.  He and Owen will go into the road race with a 55 second disadvantage to make up on 1st (Seth Veenbaas).  Matt placed 33rd of 50 starters.
-Jules Gilliam (14) also rode "Eddy Merckx" style without aerobars and placed 23rd.  He raced on his new Specialized Tarmac with two Specilized non-aero Roval wheels.  He averaged 23.88mph for this 14 mile effort.  Both Jules and Sean are racing with their older teammates for the experience and competition.
- Grant McElroy (15) rode a Specialized Transition with a front Roval wheel and a rear Zipp disk.  Unfortnately we didn't pack our hacksaw as Grant was on a newly fitted bike and the seat post was too long (he sat too high).  Even still Grant toughed out the course at 25.65mph for 14th place.
- Gage Hecht (15) rode a Specialized Shiv with a front Roval wheel and a rear disk.  Gage was a minute, 40 faster than his prediction, took out an average speed of 27.13mph and is sitting 5th on GC, 1:16 behind Ethan Reynolds.  We hope to shake up the GC in the road race, but it's short and not difficult so we shall see.  Gage came to VOS last year but did the short course so we can't compare times.
- Jason Saltzman (16) rode his Specialized Shiv with front 404 Zipp and rear Zipp disk.  While this is Jason's first trip to VOS he had a smoking fast time trial at 27.07mph.  He is sitting 6th on GC, so with 5th, 6th and 8th on GC we have plans to attack GC.
- Owen Gillott (18) rode a Specialized Transition with front HED tri spoke and rear Zipp disk. This is Owen's first time to VOS. Owen averaged 27.53mph for 3rd place.

- Craig Roemer 18th in the elite 2's @ 27.9mph
- Jeromy Cottell 27th in the elite 2's @ 27.14mph
- I was 6th in the 55's @ 26.19mph

Road Racing Saturday, Feb. 16th

Cheers, Larry Nolan, Team Specialized Junior Director