Dean Haas Bosque
Special race report from 5280 Magazine rider Dean Haas

Okay so here’s how it went at the Vuelta a Bosque down in New Mexico for the Junior Men 13-14. The time trial was out by the Albuquerque airport. We did 7 miles and we were the youngest group to do that much. All the younger kids did only 3.5 miles.

So I had the first time trial start. I went out fast and didn’t slow down. The first 3.5 miles (what the other young kids did) was pretty flat. But the other 3.5 miles were hard. You went down a hill and back up another hill and turned around. The first hill you went down you had to go back up. The hill was 7% grade and was not easy to do on a TT bike. Then you finished. That was probably the most exciting race because no one really knew who was going to do well or who was in the lead, because no one was until it was over. But I ended up beating the kid in second by over two minutes.

There isn’t as much to say about the 36 mile road race. After the first turn out of the wind, I broke away by myself from the 4-man pack. There were only 5 kids in my age category and one didn’t even finish. That was just after mile 4. I knew that as soon I got out of the wind, I would break off because I could go a lot harder. I was ahead the whole race after that. I ended up passing the whole women’s open field, who were also doing the 36 mile race. I ended up coming in 24 minutes ahead of the kid in second. After the road race, I was 26 minutes ahead of second. So at that point, there was no way I wouldn’t win the event.

Then I think you can guess what happened in the criterium on Sunday. I sprinted ahead at the end and was ahead the whole race and won the race by almost a whole lap. I think I should have raced up to the Junior Men 15-16 because I had absolutely no competition. It was almost, I would like to say, too easy.

So that is about all for the Vuelta A Bosque (which is the name of the race).

- Dean