Team Slipstream diary

Throughout the year, Cyclingnews will feature a regular Team Journal from Team Slipstream/Chipotle, with entries from various members of the squad, who will share their experiences and feelings of competing in North America and Europe. Cyclingnews is proud to be a supporting sponsor of Team Slipstream/Chipotle, providing some of North America's most promising cyclists with a great opportunity to develop as riders, racing among some of the world's top racers in professional events.

Index to all entries

May 7, 2007

Tour of the Gila

By Lucas Euser

After a disappointing day of waiting for things to happen on the second stage of the Gila, Team Slipstream decided to take matters into their own hands today. A plan was concocted the night before Stage 3 and we executed the plan flawlessly and to perfection come race day. The plan was to take the race into our own hands and not rely on anyone else to help us.

Team Slipstream came to the front right from the gun today.
Photo ©: Jon Devich

We waited for the first bonus sprint to take place about five miles into the race and once that went down the entire team went to the front to put the hurt on everyone. The wind was cross/tail and worked to our benefit. For the next hour and a half we continued to ride on the front, and after the notoriously hilly Pinos Altos area we had 18 guys, four of us (Timmy Duggan, Mike Creed, Tom Peterson, and Lucas Euser), and a solid gap on the chasers.

From there the plan continued: attack until we get someone off the front. After a few attacks Tom Peterson picked the most opportune time of the day to ride off the front with three other guys. Tom rode his heart out today and finished off the fine teamwork that Team Slipstream had been displaying all day with a solid win ahead of his three breakaway companions (Ivan Stevic, Nick Reistad, and David Soloman) and just seconds ahead of a charging fields.

My hat goes off to how hard Tom worked today, he was the strongest guy out there by a large margin - he drove the break and still held them off at the finish. Oh yeah, did I mention he rode the last 2km with about 30 psi in his rear tire? Today was a real bike race, congrats to the entire team for a fine display of teamwork and cohesiveness. There will be much more of it to come.