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Team TIAA-CREF - 2005
Team Journal Entry - May 5, 2005, by Timmy Duggan
Tour of Puerto Rico
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Aah, our trip to the UCI 2.2 Tour of Puerto Rico. We figured we were in for an adventure, and this race definitely did not disappoint. It was a great race to check our form with the Tour de Georgia looming, and things were looking good. All we wanted to do was gain a little fitness and not crash on the pothole-ridden streets. I started the race with a win in the Stage 1 time trial and hung on to fourth place overall at the end of the week.
Ian rode incredibly well, riding on the front for me and getting in nearly every important break of the race. He blew me away with his ability to make things happen no matter how much it hurts. Impressive, let me tell you. Our team as a whole rode really well, winning the team competition at the end of the week.
Luckily we have a mellow, laid back group of guys, because this race was one fiasco after another. Here's the gist of it...
We got there a day early and managed a brief ride, dodging traffic for two hours, and we even got to stay in a huge resort hotel. I had to keep reminding myself I wasn't on vacation, which turned into an EZY thing to do once the race started.
I didn't get a warm up for the TT - too much traffic. Fortunately the heat and humidity warmed me up enough! The TT was like a video game; you had to dodge traffic and groups of school girls in the road. Ian and David had to actually come to a complete stop! Chad Hartley and myself got first and second in this first stage.
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Stage 2 started on the side of an interstate highway. During the race we never knew how far we had to go or if there were hills or not. As we were racing along at the end, we thought the finish was like 10km away, but then suddenly we passed this guy on the road waving a checkered flag. D'oh! That night we crammed all seven of us into a Toyota Corolla to scope out the next morning's mountain stage. We headed off into the jungle squealing tires around the tight corners with stray dogs and jungle animals leaping out of the way.
We then went back to our 'luxurious' beach front accommodations for that night, complete with no towels, no sheets, no pillows, no soap, no hot water, and no toilet paper. Apparently, the place didn't even know we were coming. After the race meal of a truckload of Domino's cheese pizza, Ian and I went to sleep on the same mattress with only a layer of plastic on it, and huddled under a pile of cycling clothing with dirty clothes for a pillow.
Woke up the next morning at 5am to get ready for the double stage day. The race breakfast consisted of a banana, a special k bar, and Kool-aid. I think there were a total of like 300 calories, Yum! The first stage was a really cool mountain stage; it was like an uphill criterium through the jungle. We were extremely lucky that no one got hurt or even crashed. We drove the race as hard as we could from the gun and ended up with five guys in the front group of 14; however, it wasn't enough to prevent race winner Wendy Cruz from escaping on the day's big climb.
We were supposed to start the afternoon stage where we finished. Instead, we sat around in the hot sun for a while, went to some gym for lunch, and after finding out the stage was changed to a circuit 1.5 hours away, we crammed half the racers into a school bus with no air conditioning for a sweaty 30 mile/h drive complete with police escort to the start, again on the side of the interstate. When we got there it was 97 degrees with 90% humidity!
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After the race, we all rode back to the hotel on this crazy interstate with another police escort.
On the final day we had no idea what kind of race we were doing. At 7am we loaded up a town bus and started driving. After a 40 minute drive we stopped next to a Dunkin Donuts. Apparently this is where the race was going to start. Even with the race preparing to leave we were still trying to figure out what the race was, and most importantly how far.
As soon as we finished what turned out to be a two hour circuit race on a flat road with a 25km neutral start, we were once again forced to ride (and find) our way back to the hotel; a fitting end to the Tour of Puerto Rico.
It was then onto the tour of Georgia! A 180 degree turn, having everything already planned and being overly pampered with staff! Check out Ian's diary on cyclingnews.com for a rundown on Georgia, and www.JustGoHarder.com for regular updates.
Thanks for reading,
Timmy
