The Lazy Neo-Pro Diaries: Wes Hartman

Posted Feb 20, 2005
8,532

Pages from the team playbook at Valley of the Sun

Iowa's Wes Hartman updates us from Valley of the Sun, Endeavor's first stage race of the season. Pics and writeup are at www.cyclingnews.com.

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I really forgot how much fun racing is - it's soooo much nicer this year! (Nothing against my previous teams, but when you have a full complement of the some of the nation's best riders, it makes everyones life a touch easier!)

Okay on with Friday's race report. The weather was, well... rainy. It was a beautiful drive from Tucson to Phoenix, incredibly green, everyone that I have talked to from here says it has never been this green. So we get out and warmed up and right before my start time it starts to rain, 28 minutes later it stops.

The TT went great...well for the team, at least. One of our riders, Brian Sheedy, smoked it at close to 31 MPH over a relativly flat course and came in with the winning time of 23:21 over 22k. It was amazing!

I on the other hand, finished at 26:30. Ouch. I must say Brian did have the full on TT setup, while I just had the clip on aerobars. But still, that kid flew!

I met one of my sponsors, the owner of The Advantage Benefits Group, Bob Hughes. He came down and spent some time with us over our first race weekend. Bob is hilarious, loves to ride and is great about helping the riders on the team out as much as he can. Thanks, Bob!

Saturday's RR, on the other hand, didn't go as well as we had hoped. Again rainy, and just like yesterday the rain started as soon as we got going and ended just after we finished. No bueno.

The course looks like a triangle, one headwind stretch slightly uphill, one tailwind stretch with a medium sized hill, and a gradual downhill, then a slightly downhill crosswind stretch. The hill starts out at just a few percent and goes for around a couple miles before it pitches up to 4 percent for a mile or so until the finish line.We did 5.5 laps around the 16 mile course. 90 miles total.

The hill and I did not get along the first three times up. It was the only part of the course that I did not feel comfortable on. We didn't go hard either, I just was psyching myself out.

The fourth time up was a KOM sprint. I decided to give it a go and for the few miles leading into the hill I psyched myself up and the hill wasn't bad at all. I ended up coming across 4th, one place out of the bonuses. But, I was happy because then hill didn't hurt anymore after that.

After the slight descent a break of 4-6 guys got away, they made it about a minute up the road before I got word that we were going to set tempo up front.

This was my coolest team experience racing ever. We lined it up and for the next 25 miles (out of the 25.5 remaining) and held the break about the same distance. We had 5 guys in the race, 3 of us were rotating up front, and one of us was watching after our GC guy.

Little did I know, our GC guy was in all sorts of pain. Brian is a smaller guy, so because he wasn't doing any work and it was raining cats and dogs, his body had to work overtime to keep warm. We were down to Garrett and I working, with Nick watching over Brian when we reach the last turn and start heading uphill. Garrett and I get word to hit it, so we do, and Brian shoots back instantly. We didn't see this, or hear anything. It's halfway up the steeper part before we blow and look back to see no teammates left. No bueno.

Brian ends up finishing 29 seconds behind the winnner, which just so happened to be his lead over second GC.

What was upsetting, is most stage races whomever has the most first places gets the jersey when there is a tie for GC. If both have equal first place finishes they go to 2nd, and so on. Well, not at Valley. Whoever had the best finishing in the last stage gets the jersey. So because Ryan Blickem (Healthnet) placed better at the RR stage he gets the jersey. So all we have to do at the Crit is get Brian to finish in front of Blickem.

Out of the 100 starters two days ago, 60 something started Sunday. The weather was great, 65ish and mostly sun ~ finally sun! The stage is a 70 minute crit with 7 corners and one curve. The course looks alot like Rock Island, but instead of a 90 degree turn for corner number 2 its a gradual bend.

It was a real fun race, we all rode well. But in the end didn't pull off the GC win. We had the lead out train (ed: Photo at www.cyclingnews.com)going, but it ran out of go juice a half lap too soon. We will have to work on that one. Brian ended up getting 9th which was behind our mark. Ah well, there is always next time.

I ended up losing time on both the RR and crit, I dont know my personal overall finish(ed: 36th ;O), but its not something I was concerned about whatsoever. It felt really great to give it up for a teammate.

All in all it was a great weekend. Our team rode incredibly well together. Even more so being our first race together. As soon as we get a few more races under our belt, I think we will be a threat to any team in the country.

Thats all for now, hope it wasn't too long. Next is Mexico, 6 days, 6 stages. Starts this Tuesday and ends Sunday.

I'm sure you will hear from me again Monday or so.

Talk to ya then,

Wes