2013 Valley of the Sun wrap up

Sunday, February 17th ended the 21st edition of the Valley of the Sun.  Racing for three days in and around Phoenix, AZ is costly in time, resources and energy,  but its many benefits far outweigh the costs.  Benefits such as getting all nine junior teammates together to bond as one and to race together.  To dust off and practice race routines like warming-up, hydration, recovery, nutrition and stretching.  Oh, and we  also enjoy the warmth of Arizona, and to test oneself against some top notch competition.  For these reasons this was our 4th consecutive trip to VOS.  Here's some highlights from the 2013 racing:

- historically the final general classification of this 3-day stage race is set after the stage one time trial.  Owen placed 3rd in the 17-18's, Gage was sitting 5th in the 15-16's.  The winning times (Seth Veenbaas - MRI at 28.4mph for 14 miles and Ethan Reynolds - Hot Tubes at 28.1mph) put gaps on our teammates that we could not bring back.
- coaches opinion - generally, on any given day a racer can do 95% of their best time.  Our teams goal has and always will be Road Nationals in July.  We'll be looking for 100% of their best on that day, as we were not expecting 28mph rides in February.
- Matt and Owen contested the 17-18's stage race.  Owen was taken down in the criterium on Sunday and ended up 5th on GC.  Matt sacrificed his race and did a lead-out for Owen's sprint.  Matt finished 21st on GC
- seven Team Specialized Juniors contested the 15-16's race.  We sat 5th, 6th, and 8th after the stage one time trial.  The attacking paid off in the stage two road race where Jack won and Sean was 2nd.  Jason was 5th, Nick was 6th and Gage was 8th helping Jason to move up to 3rd, Gage to 4th and Nick to 6th.  Jules and Grant played an influential role in the road race.  Great racing as we were looking for "contrast" in the racing and the team delivered!
- going into the final stage in the downtown criterium we had a plan to a) control the beginning of the race so that the juniors could experience the smoothness of the teamwork, the "chase" as riders went off the front and to warm-up together.  That was supposed to last three laps, then over to the b) finish the race with an attempted lead-out.  Well, the seven teammates had so much fun controlling the race and setting tempo at the front that they forgot to save some energy for the finish.  As most know and have experienced, the end of a criterium is fast and furious.  Our lead-out should improve the next time we get together.
- final 15-16 GC - Jason 3rd, Gage 4th, Nick 6th, Sean 7th, Grant 11th, Jack 15th and Jules 20th.
- HUGE amounts of teamwork on and off the bike. A special thanks to Mike Valencia and Norm McElroy for their coordination and hard-work (they re-packed the trailer and cleaned the van when we went on our 3-hour ride on Monday; to the Castellano's for their hosting the juniors; to Brooke Gillott, our new Facebook photo-journalist (check out the Facebook updates) and for the juniors for racing their hearts out!

Picture - 2013 Valley of the Sun stage three downtown Phoenix criterium and the Red Thread of Team Specialized 15-16's Juniors