WIN

Madera Stage Race was my first stage of the season. My main purpose of this race was to see where my fitness was in preparation for San Dimas, and also to gain stage race experience in general. The first stage was the ITT. It was basically a 10 mile flat loop.  I unfortunately did not have a TT bike, but I was thankful enough to get clip on bars, and barrow an 808 and helmet from my teammate. For the first half of the TT, I kept my cadence high and went at a comfortable pass. When I got to the 3rd stretch with 5 miles to go, I went beyond limits especially into the final kilo. I ended up 2nd 2.8 seconds the leader.

That afternoon was the criterium. It was a typical 4 corner flat crit. Before the start I went over to the All Sport- Team Swift van to basically beg for their help to protect my GC position/ possibly take a time bonus for the overall.  Lucky for me, being some of the most generous people in the peleton, they offered to do whatever they could to help me. During the crit, Tyler Williams did an awesome lead out for me for the first prime(5 second time bonus.) Due to the fact that I havent made sprinting my strength yet, a rider was able to come around our lead out to take the prime. But it was ok cause he didn't have GC contentions. For the second prime Tyler wasnt able to lead me out, but Joey Nygaard got me into position behind a team that had intentions of getting the second prime.  Once again I was out sprinted to take 2nd.  After that I drifted to the back to recover for the final sprint. The top 3 would get time bonuses(20,10,5.) The last 5 laps were chaos as crits usually are in the end. I found that position was a little harder to get in this crit then others. Going into the final turn I new I wasn't going to be able to get a time bonus, but I didnt see anyone in the top 5 on GC going for the sprint so nothing had changed on GC for the top 7 riders.

The third and final stage was the road race. It was also my last opportunity to take the overall. It was a mainly flat 18 mile loop. The 3's were doing 4 laps, so 68 miles. When I got to the start rumors were being bounced around that the GC leader dropped out of the race. I drifted my eyes around the peleton and confirmed the rumor. That meant I was first overall. So it meant if a break was going to go former teammates Tyler Williams and Joey Nygaard would be helping me bring back a break. The first lap was filled with little attacks that didn't go anywhere. It wasn't until the second lap that a break was able to form and create a reasonable gap of a little over a minute. Joey was able to do a ton of work to help bring the break back before flatting out. It was down to me and Tyler to chase. We both were putting in massive efforts to bring it back and we did just that. The break was caught towards the beginning of the final lap. There were a few minor attacks on the last lap but no one wanted another break to go, so it was going down the sprint. My goal for the day was to at least get 3rd place to take a time bonus to confirm my lead. Going into the sprint I was positioned behind the rider who was 2 seconds behind me. He opened up the sprint way too early and blew himself up in the wind. I had no problem coming around him to take 3rd to get my 5 second time bonus and win the Madera Stage Race Cat 3's. Tyler and Joey were amazing, and couldn't have kept my GC without them. Going into the race I thought I would be alone, but I ended up getting everything I could have  asked for from All Sport- Team Swift. Thanks for reading.