Merco Cycling Classic

For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been in Santa Cruz, California since mid- January prepping for the race season. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone by, and how soon our team camp is. Santa Cruz is amazing, there are so many great group rides, and the riders here are so friendly and down to earth. Along with meeting great new people, right down the road from us are some familiar faces, Nic H and Rob B. We’re keeping the team spirit alive, by not only riding together, but by having some great barbeques too.

So I thought I’d let you all know a little bit about the racing development down here. One thing I can say is that Californians know how to start the season off right. With Snelling and Merco being my first races, they were fast and good openers for the legs. Team Tibco made Snelling, a grueling road race, dropping almost half the field within the first hour, and keeping the pace high by throwing down attack after attack. During the race I followed a number of early attacks, and missed the later move, which just happened to be the winning break. That being said I raced hard and came 12th.

 

Now for Merco Foothills Road Race, which brought up a lot of hype. Being the season opener for a number of professional teams, the starting list for this race was heavy, both on the men’s side and women’s. A team Columbia rider was quoted saying, "We wanted to make the race as tough as possible." It was a 72 mile race, filled with attempted break-aways, none of which stayed away. Being a solo rider once again, I tried to get into a number of breaks, but nothing panned out. Before the bunch sprint, I made a last ditch effort to get away, I slightly misjudged the finish, and realised my attack was too early. I rolled in at 30th.

As for men's races, I managed to watch the Merco Criterium, and our teammate Nic had a good one. He kept a solid position throughout the race, staying in the top 20, and even managing to win a field prime. The men’s field had Bissell riders, 10 United Healthcare riders, Bahati Foundation riders and many more. Pretty good for the first race of the year.

Finally for the men’s road race, Nic and I watched Will R sneak in a 3rd spot. We were happy and disappointed all at the same time. Turns out Nic crashed 2/3rds through the race, and couldn’t get back in there. He had quite bit of road rash, and without knowing, a mild concussion. He was pretty quiet on the drive home, and unusually out of it the next day. We (Will, Rob, and myself) all kept a bit of an eye on him, making sure nothing too weird happened. So far it’s been three nights and in Nic’s own words his "scrambled eggs feel a lot better!"

Stay tuned for the next update, and happy training and racing everyone! See you at camp!