Madera Stage Race

(Posted By Matt Willinger)

BPG: Elliot Jarimillo,, Matt Tamel, Matt Willinger, Steele Willinger

Field: Started 51 riders

Willinger 3rd place in GC

I came into this race unsure about my fitness and nervous in general but in the week leading up to it EJ and I had some good workouts behind the scooter and it made all the difference. The field at Madera was relatively large this year and had a couple pros and Mattis and Moore from CalGiant just coming off good rides at Redlands so I knew it would be harder than years past. The first two stages of the race are both 10 mile time trials, weird but ok. I got 4Th and 5Th and ended up 3rd overall going into the crit. Mattis was in first by about 2 minutes Moore was in second somewhere in the middle and Scott Zwizanski from Bissell was just 12 seconds behind me (oh yeah, and with absolutely zero aero equipment and me in full on space monkey getup). Good ole Christian Kearney slotted into 5Th.
The crit was fairly uneventful, Elliot and Matt T pretty much covered the danger guys and I somehow rolled off the front for a 0:05 time bonus which proved totally inconsequential in the end. One of the race officials offered me 10$ instead which I briefly considered.
I knew tactics would be important in the road race. It being basically flat I had nowhere to really gain the time I would need to get in front of Moore and Mattis was to far ahead to touch baring a complete meltdown which I didn't see happening in Madera. Better to control the race together and defend our podium spot. The fact was if Zwizanski won the road race with the field together he would jump me in GC with the 0:20 time bonus and after covering a couple of his attacks in the crit I could see it happening. So a break of four took off on the first lap. It had no GC guys in it except Vincent Owens from Sierra Pacific. It was excellent for us, if they succeeded they would soak up the time bonuses and everything would be cool. This is where Elliot and Matt T rode like they were on a damn pro team. They rode smart with CalGiant tapping out the miles to keep attacks at bay and the break close but just out of reach. It's a sensitive business keeping the break right where you want it and I couldn't have asked for better team work. Meanwhile I was focusing on staying fresh to cover Zwizanski when the time came. He put in a few hard ones but not the monster attack that I was fearing.
In the end it all worked out. Elliot and Matt both flatted 15 meters after the finish which was awesome. Thanks for reading my long ass race report if you made it this far! (but it was 3 days of racing) See you at Sea Otter.

Special Thanks to The Man 'o' Steele for the support. We couldn't do it with out you.

Matt