OK. That was the hardest short race of the year! It kinda hurts not getting the results down on paper. But hell, that’s bike racing!

It was basically a sprint up the steep finish climb every lap (17 total laps!). I stayed right up front and made the split with five laps to go. I thought that would have been it as far as the top ten as there were all the so-called French heros with me. Moreau, Pineau, Voeckler, Fedrigo, Chavanel. But no one worked. So the last 45 km were spent jumping around with the climb gradually whittling down the group.

With 10 km to go, we were six and the guy who won attacked so I followed. My legs were empty for the last lap and I just rode flat out. I just lacked 10 meters at the top of the climb. Ten meters which cost me a sure top two, but there you go! I got caught right before the finish, which dented the morale a bit. Oh well.

At least I put on a show and learned a new race. Plus the form seems OK. So some hard training now before our hometown race, the Volta a Catalunya!

See you soon! Dan

Slipstream Results
1. David Le Lay 3:11′03″

19. Will Frischkorn
24. Huub Duyn
46. Dan Martin
60. Blake Caldwell
74. Steven Cozza

DS Johnny Weltz reports from Slipstream/Chipotle H3O’s team time trial training camp in Girona, Spain that is running through Monday, May 5.

The team time trial camp here in Girona is going very well. We have ten riders here and nine of them will be going to the Giro. We’ll make the final selection on Tuesday. The riders participating in the training include Magnus Backstedt, Julian Dean, Christian Vande Velde, David Millar, David Zabriskie, Chris Sutton, Danny Pate, Lucas Euser, Ryder Hesjedal and Pat McCarty.

The camp is being run by DS Matt White and Adrie van Diemen with Allen Lim flying in. They are doing intervals and tuning up the engines. Millar, Zabriskie, Christian and Maggy are all very strong. We’ll see how things finish up on Monday.

The rest of the riders and I fly up to Paris today to race the Trophée de Grimpeur tomorrow.

Part 2 of CycleTo’s features on Cozza includes his thoughts on his teammates and the secret to his trend-setting facial hair.

VMG/Felt U23 rider Danny Summerhill managed to hold his own during today’s challenging stage 2 Inner Loop road race to finish 3rd on the stage. He maintained his overall lead and has 26″ on second place.

Also racing alongside Danny in the senior men’s cat 2 race was Team 5280 Magazine’s Andrew Barker and Robin Eckmann. Both finished well today and Robin is currently 6th overall with Andrew in 14th place.

The “hilly” loop course covered 77.9 miles and included 5,854 feet of climbing before finishing at Ft. Bayard. The three-man squad is pulling in some impressive results considering Andrew and Robin are both first-year cat 2s!

Velonews.com talks to Canadian Ryder Hesjedal (left) about his hopes for his second run - and the team’s first - at the Giro d’Italia that starts May 10 with a team time trial.

Said Ryder: “The opening stage is a real goal for us. We have a great chance to win. From there, we’ll be trying to win some stages…I just want to have a productive Giro and be in position to be an option for the Tour. I hope I am coming out of the Giro better and have an option for July.”

Yesterday, VMG/Felt U23 rider Danny Summerhill (pictured left at Redlands) won stage 1 of the five-stage Tour of the Gila in the men’s category 2 race. His decision to race cat 2 is a tactical one because it allows him to better prepare for his upcoming trip to Europe, where he will be racing in events like the amateur Paris-Roubaix.

This is super important because a lot of young talent will upgrade too quickly, and then they are in over their heads. Instead, if they do an entire season as a cat 2, they learn how to win races. They are forced to make tactical decisions instead of just hanging on without doing any thinking in a cat 1 race.

Tour of the Gila Stage 1: Silver City - Mogollon Road Race
Mens cat 2 results

1. Danny Summerhill (USA) Vmg/Felt 4:29′41″
2. Bill Demong (USA) Aradd +2″

In his regular Velonews.com Fresk Korn column, Will Frischkorn (left) rediscovers the reason he ever started riding a bike during his break at home in Boulder, CO.

Said Frischkorn: “For somebody that does race their bike because I love the sport, the life, and all that it has to offer, I, like everybody, still sometimes arrive at the point where riding and racing becomes a job. It’s not often, but at the end of a long block of racing and when the body starts to get run down and in need of a break I couldn’t have imagined a better way to enjoy it.”

Race report from TJ Grove

Andrew Barker and Robin Eckmann raced men’s cat 2 and rode a very good race. Robin took one of the bonus sprints and finished 7th on the stage. They were pumped to see how well they will do for tomorrow’s two stage day.

Yannick Eckmann and Danny Hiller raced men’s cat 3 and rode a very smooth event and stayed out of trouble. Yannick came in 23rd, and Danny Hiller came in 57th.

Danielle Haulman raced pro women 1-2 and finished much better than last year and felt very good about that. She is excited about the race in general and wants to show how much she has improved.