April 30-May 3rd, 2010

Riders:  Alister Ratcliff, Shannon Morgan

Written by: Alister Ratcliff

Shannon Morgan 7^th overall G.C 2^nd place Stage 5

Alister Ratcliff 46^th G.C

      The Tour of the Gila is a very unique bicycle race in the United States of America.  The Last couple years have been even more interesting than most.  I’ll just say that a certain someone makes racing at this race even more enjoyable and also brings out the best in the level of competition.  This race this year was one of the hardest and also one of the most fun times I have had on a bike. 

      The first couple days were certainly not the greatest for myself.  I was in the select group on the final climb the last day when I completely cracked and started zigzagging up the finishing climb.  I was happy with myself that I pushed myself to this limit rather than dropping myself and riding up to 50^th place finish.  Shannon had a great day on this stage in the Cat 2 race.  He was the first guy out of the field to summit the finishing climb putting him in a good spot for the G.C for the rest of the week.

      The second day was one of the unluckiest days I have had this year.   I attacked super early on in the day and on this stage that was the worst idea ever.  The field was put into echelons about 5 miles into the stage.  So I spent the first 1.5 hours just chasing in the caravan to make it into the front group.  As soon as we descended the Gila monster, I flatted and the sram motorcycle took forever changing my wheel saying that my breaks were going to rub!  When I finally got going, luckily someone driving in the caravan recognized me and waited to pace me back into the front of the race.  As we rolled into the finish, there were 60 mph gusts and I knew things were going to get fast.  I hung on as long as I could and rolled across as high up there as I could for a day that a lot of needless energy was exerted. 

      The third day I put in a decent Time Trial for myself.  I cracked the top 50 for the first time all week.  Shannon was 12^th in the Cat 2 race keeping himself up there in the G. C. for the week.

      The town of Silver City was packed for this criterium but I would have to say for this race it was probably pretty boring to watch as it was hard to get away and almost impossibly to get dropped.  It just wasn’t selective at all. 

      The last day is always the most interesting stage at the Tour of the Gila.  I told myself before the start that today would probably be a great day for myself to make the break not only because I wasn’t placed well on G.C but because every team in the U.S was at this race.  I was successful at making the break but looking back upon the race I am extremely disappointed in myself at the same time.  I’m sure you’ve heard the bike racing is a lot a mental sport.  This day, I told myself on the climb out of the cliff dwellings that Lance Armstrong, Levi leipheimer, Dave Zabriskie, Tom Danielson, etc were all behind me and that I didn’t stand a chance.    I dropped myself from the break and thought my best chance of surviving the day was to get into a rythym.   I also made a big mistake of not fueling myself for this stage.  An easy task to accomplish as the last 30 miles are practically all uphill but if I accomplished these two things, I’m confident I would have been in the break the entire day as the break eventually won the stage and Lance, nor Levi caught them. 

      In the Cat 2 race, Shannon left the field on a bold move by himself halfway through the race.  He went solo for about 50 miles until hitting the finishing climb.  He was only passed by one person, giving him 2^nd place on the day and 7^th place on the G. C for the week.  A great result to kick off  a long summer of racing.