Short's Report: Tour of Belize Stage 2

Tour of Belize: Stage 2 - 90 miles

Today started out a little stressful. Sheffield (one of the guy’s helping us out here) car broke down on the way to the race. John, Joe, and I got there and didn’t have any bikes or clothes. Luckily the guys where able to catch a passing bus, throw all of the equipment on and get to the start. They made it in plenty of time. Once they got there we got dressed, signed in and started over to the start. You’ll never guess what happened next. It started to rain. Now the roads are really slick again.

The race started neutralized because of the slick conditions. As soon as we got to the edge of town the rain was gone and we started racing. Today the racing started like everyone was shot out of a cannon. Unfortunately, Boyd flatted right away and got to motor pace at 40mph for about 3 miles. I got word that Boyd was back on and it was time to go to work. The first points sprint was about 20 miles into the race and with me sitting 8th in GC I could benefit from the 3 sec. time bonus. Mike got away in a small break and it really put the pressure on the other teams to chase. Once we caught them the team was back at it again on the front. We had 5 guys lined out on the front with Frank Travesio (AEG-Aerospace) on their wheel, me on his and the race leader glued to mine. We were flying!! 200m out from the sprint we still had 4 guys on the front. We would have had 5 but Chris flatted. At this point I had to go. I left Frank like he threw an anchor out. The race leader came around me but it was a long, slightly uphill, into a head wind sprint. I took a 2 sec break on his wheel, came back around and got him on the line.

After the points sprint people started attacking like crazy. We covered as many as we could but we didn’t want to drive it anymore since we knew that Chris was trying to chase back on after his flat. A fairly large group got away again and I went across with a couple of other guys. Of course when we got there nobody wanted to work since the Americans made the break. So we go caught. What happened next was amazing. We made a right hand turn and John (aka Cool Hand Luke) attacked. He then spent the 20 miles solo off the front. Later we found out that this was the longest solo break in the history of the Tour of Belize. A group came up to him with several American riders and they where gone!! Joe, Boyd, Chris and I sat near the front to discourage any organized chase. Mike was doing an awesome job keeping us filled up with water. These roads were wide open and incredibly windy. The group spent most of the time strung out single file in the gutter. Teams would go to the front and try to chase but they would wind it up to 35+ mph for a while and then blow up. I got away with two riders and we got about 45 sec on the pack. I wasn’t willing to work since I had John off the front. Besides these guys haven’t been willing to work with us so far and even if (BIG “IF”) we got there I would have been totally useless from exhaustion. So they got frustrated and went back to the pack.

It felt like we had been riding for 2 days non-stop. Things that happened early on in the stage were beginning to feel like they happened yesterday. My computer wasn’t working so I asked Joe how far we had to go because I was beginning to crack. 25 MILES!!! Please tell me that’s not right. Then it started to rain again. The roads got really slick but it felt really good. This was just what I needed. Now I feel good again.
As we started to reach the finish Joe got away with a group that gained some time on the pack. The best part about this was that took all the sprint points for the finish (in the final sprint top 15 get points). As we came to town I made sure that Chris and Boyd knew to just stay out of trouble until we crossed the line. No need to sprint for no reason.

Today was a great day for the team. So far each day we have stepped it up a notch and every single person is pulling their own weight, plus some. We can’t wait until the Team TT tomorrow.

John finished 5th on the stage and Joe 12th. One comment the tv announcer said after the stage was “It seems that Alliance Environmental really turned up the heat today”. John also got an incredible amount of radio time during the race. Our follow car said that they were going crazy. They couldn’t believe that John was holding off the entire pack by himself. Honestly, I couldn’t either.

Tomorrow: Team Time Trial 6am start