2018 Tour of the Gila, Day 3
Race Report: Matt Zimmer
Today the guys took on the Tyrone Individual Time Trial. The course was 26km (16.16 mi) with two categorized climbs totaling 362 meters (1,188) of climbing. Today, the wind was the biggest challenge. With south/southwest winds gusting up to 50 kph, it was a grueling uphill headwind start. Sean Gardner had a great ride covering the course in 36:59 earning himself 27th place on the day with Brett Wachtendorf close behind with a 37:10 for 29th place. Sean moved up a place in GC to 22nd overall. Tomorrow Gateway Harley-Davidson Trek Development Team will take on the Downtown Silver City Criterium where they will look to set up the teams Colombia Crit master Don Dennis Ramirez.
Yesterday's race recap by Lionel Mawditt, Day 2
If you ever needed a reminder that teamwork is essential in cycling, today provides the prime example. With all of the rest of the team competing in the UCI race, I was left 1 out against a number of teams of multiple riders. With that in mind, my plan for the stage was to allow a break of non-GC threats up the road so that the riders in GC contention would limit the damage the break could do. After being hit with a barrage of attacks (something difficult enough to deal with, without your cleat unclipping each time you sprint – a problem that arose about 30 minutes in), a Lux rider (the team with the largest numbers) who was multiple minutes back on GC got in the break with a few other riders. From here I allowed the individual rider in 3rd GC to join him with the expectation that Lux would now have to ride the front to ensure they didn't lose their own GC ambitions, then planned to bring the time back on the final climb of the day. Instead, the rest of the peloton proceeded to continue to attack me at every opportunity, then refused to lead once they got closed down. After half a race of this I slotted myself in behind the highest GC position Lux rider and told them it was their race to lose as the gap was now too large for any rider to bridge and they being the only team with the riders to bring it back. The result was the break winning by about 6 minutes, essentially killing GC for the tour for both myself and the Lux team. Sometimes you have to play the numbers, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.