SoCalCycling.com

[tippytoe]

First, kudos to the promoter, volunteers and Az police for an impressive stage race. I was only a spectator, and must say, the Masters racers are HOT. The pros not so bad either.....
Valley of the Sun hardly seemed to live up it's name from the start. Cloudy, cold and rain for the TT.
I was supporting a team for the Masters 40+ category, which I was told was the most contested field. 63 racers and the TT top ten separated by only 1:41 with Cynergy in the top spot. Two teams, Paul Tracy from Vegas, GST from Az, had the field loaded. There were alot of great racers which made it fun to watch, as well as hear (you don't want to know) with the podium places being battled by Cynergy, Paul Tracy and GST. Cynergy only had two racers.

More clouds and cold for the Road race.
The road race seemed to favor the big, power riders, short hill - not very long, and from what I could tell, the field split into only two groups. There was some pesky Cynergy rider who was not letting anything breakaway. But only 41 miles??? the 30+ got to race for 57miles, as well as the pro women...are 40+'ers really the old geezers of the categories? NOT. I think it took less than 1:45 to complete the race, 16 mile loop, 470 something ft of climbing and a cow grate on one of the turns. I think they might have caught and pased some Cat 3's. There were time bonuses for KOM to keep it interesting.

And the crit was only 30 mins? Some guys could probably sprint the whole time. There was a three man break and the peloton just seemed to sit and wait. 7 corners in a ONE mile loop with lane dots and frost heaves in the road to boot. Thank goodness the rain kept away as some racers seemed to have some issues with the "raised" corners. Scary. I didn't know some racers could bellow such a deep range of octaves.

Congrats to Paul Tracy for the 1-2 win and Cynergy for the third podium spot. I had a great time watching and supporting our local heroes. Who needs the ATOC, this is where the action is.