Race Report: 2025 Tour de Bloom - Men’s P12

Race: Tour de Bloom 2025 - Men P12

Date: May 2-6 2025

Racers: Nathan Martin, Flo Costa, Devin Wilson

Stage 1: Waterville RR

Best Result: Nathan 5th/101

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14359158691

Waterville RR is a fun one every year. Usually there is lots of wind, sometimes even some inclement weather. This year was perfect temps and rather mild wind, but just enough for it to hurt.

We had wind coming from the southeast, so tailwind anytime we were heading west and that’s where the race would get hard.

First lap the fireworks started about ⅓ of the way through the lap on the long stretch at the top of the course heading west. Attacks were going and we were strung out into the headwind, then when the KOM point hit it really blew apart. I was in a group of 5 behind another group of 7 up the road and took turns pulling to make the bridge to them. Lots of strong riders in the bunch, pretty much every team represented, so I knew this had the chance of going the distance.

For the rest of lap 1 and all of lap 2, I basically just took turns with the group. We got a pretty healthy lead since we had all the teams represented and didn’t have to work too hard.

Lap 3 that would change, Project Echelon started throwing some attacks on the steep pitches on the course and the group really started going at each other. There would also be a small crash involving a Project Echelon rider on the top part of the course before the KOM, which will be important later.

In the latter half of lap 3, the gap would start to come down between us and a bridging group behind us. In the main group, Project Echelon had basically nuked it to try to bring up one of their riders since their favored person got crashed out on this lap.

The gap continued to shrink, and people started skipping pulls in the lead group. With about 3.6 miles to go, a POA rider would accelerate a bit off the front, and that was enough to blow up our group. I joined it along with 3 others, and there were 5 of us with a gap.

I would take some pulls, we had a bit of crosswind so I tried to gutter the group a bit. I found myself distanced a bit after a pull and had to chase, so when it came to the sprint I had nothing and had to settle for 5th out of our late break of 5.

Overall a hard first day of bloom, but excited to be in the mix.

Stage 2: Downtown Night Crit

Best Result: Flo 27/98

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14371050434

Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSd89kWArEA

This year the race organizers opted against making the fields race twice on a single day and instead reserved the entire day just for the crit. This meant that we could sleep in and have a chill all day until the crit, which was supposed to start at 9 pm. I went on a morning spin with Nathan to pre-ride the TT course for Stage 4. Thankfully, the downtown crit was only a couple miles away from the hotel we were staying at, which made it convenient to roll to the start and warm up.

The evening was quite cold and unfortunately the races were running a bit behind schedule. As a result the field, consisting of 100 skinny dudes, had to wait around after warmup for nearly 20 minutes in the 50 degree weather, not knowing when the race would start. This made for a pretty tough start, but finally we started ripping around the ½ mile laps in the dark.

The previous year it had rained all day before the crit, which made the field very apprehensive in the corners and subsequently strung out the peloton and ironically made the race safer. However, this year, there was a strong headwind on the backside which had been the most difficult section the prior year. Due to the headwind, the dry conditions, and the huge field, the course was much less attritional and it was a lot easier to sit in the wide bunch. Nevertheless, I focused on constantly moving up and staying out of trouble.

About 30 minutes in there was a huge pile-up ⅓ of the way down the field. About 20 riders went down, including Devin, with me and Nathan narrowly avoiding it. Thankfully it was in the uphill section, meaning the speeds were slightly less high. Devin unfortunately cracked his handlebars within the literal pile of bodies and bikes. To make things worse, the following lap the field came into the same corner at full speed, not expecting there to be motorcycles stopped in the middle of the road. A few more guys ran into the motorcycles and went down. Then the race was neutralized since the field only had about 30 riders left.

We then waited in the cold once again for another 15 minutes to let everyone get their bikes and bodies checked out. Personally, I think we should have just resumed the race with a reduced field and not take any time gaps. By this point it was past 10pm and less than 50 degrees out. I didn’t really feel like racing anymore.

Finally the race restarted and I was freezing. My body warmed up a bit in the next few laps but mentally I wasn’t locked in. It seemed like the field also became super twitchy. There was another small crash and more sketchy incidents with riders running into each other. I realized that I wasn’t focused anymore and consequently didn’t want to take unnecessary risks in the finale. I still tried to stay in good position, but was missing that extra edge and rolled it in for 27th. Kind of a weird crit with the field bunched up, the cold, and the crashes, but overall the atmosphere in downtown Wenatchee was great.

Stage 3: Plain RR 

Best Result: Nathan 7/95
Devin Result: 38/95

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14380260394

After scrambling to get a neutral bike to ride after breaking my bars in the crit, we lined up at this beautiful place called Plain, WA. Surrounded by towering trees with outstanding views, it was a really nice day for a bike race. This was quite a unique circuit too, finishing off with a 4-5 minute climb at about 7%. The circuit itself we only did 3 times, and it wasn’t too difficult. There wasn’t much climbing or technical aspects of the course, but it was definitely wicked fast in some sections.

The game plan for us was to stay safe and toward the front of the race, watching for any dangerous breakaways and keeping an eye on who was controlling things. Early on in the race a break of 3 went. Only one of the riders was dangerous for GC (Tim McBirney). But there were no Project Echelon or POA riders in that break, so there wasn’t much of a reason for us to chase. Things were relatively contained for the first 2 laps, but on the third lap things really ramped up. Because of the nature of the finish, positioning into that final climb was incredibly difficult and was quite the battle. Flo and I worked hard to make sure Nathan was protected and in a good position leading into the base of the climb. Though, I didn’t feel terribly confident riding in the field on the neutral bike, and it was difficult battling the wind and every other rider trying to get to the front. Everyone knew how the race was going to play out, so the trains organized very early. That said, the battle to get to the front was long, lasting for probably 15-20 minutes.

I would have liked to get Nathan up in those first 5 wheels into the base of the climb, but with all the shuffling going on it was no easy task. I’d say we got him up in the first 20 wheels or so. Not the greatest but better than being at the back. The finish for me wasn’t the best - I’d had spent myself trying to get up toward the front of the race and had nothing left for the climb. Flo came around me pretty quick and was a bit off the back of the main group but Nathan was sitting really well in there. Although we didn’t have him in the best place coming into it, he still managed to pull off a 7th place on the day. 

Stage 4: TT

Best Result: Nathan 4/90

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14389121092

This TT was a fun one, the longest TT  I’d ever done at 38 minutes. It was a tricky one too, slight downhill and tailwind on the way out and uphill and headwind on the way back, so you had to be very careful to go easy enough on the way out. You could really gas it on the way back, but not so easy that you’d lose time.

It was pretty fun, I had my dad in the follow car behind me with the team radio, so he was able to speak to me the whole time and give me updates on the terrain, whether he could see riders in front or behind me, etc.

Overall I feel I paced it really well. I targeted around 87-90% of my FTP going out, and really just did a 20 minute all out test on the way back. I stayed really aero as well. I could have gone a bit harder on some of the hills, but all is good.

Was in a solid 4th place on GC with only a few seconds to 3rd, it would all come down to the last day.

Stage 5: Farrar Queen Stage

Best Result: Nathan 4/81

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14397516041

What a beast of a stage this was. Only 56 miles, but 8,500 ft of climbing finishing with a hard 31 minute climb.

Right off the bat I had a poor start, my Di2 cable connecting my rear derailleur to the battery got unplugged, so I had to stop and plug it back in then chase back on through the caravan for about 10 minutes. Not ideal, but no race ever goes perfectly to plan.

After catching back on, my goal was to conserve energy on the little circuits as much as possible before the main climbs started. I tried to hold decent position, and didn’t follow any attacks.

The first time up Joe Miller was tough, I never felt super stressed but it was clear this would be a hard day. I stayed as close to the front as possible to minimize having to cover gaps as people dropped.

Feed zone went well, descent was smooth, and got ready for the second time up Joe Miller.

I thought this would be harder from the bottom, but the pace was pretty similar. Until Quinn attacked, then the pace noticeably went up as POA set a harder pace to make sure he didn’t get much of a gap.

He was caught before the feed zone, and pretty soon after Project Echelon had a rider attack. He would very quickly get a decent gap, and again POA were put on defense as they rode to slowly bring the gap down.

We hit the second biggest summit of the day, and began the descent to the final climb. I was near the back at this point and had to do a little work closing gaps on the descent, but not too bad.

As we started the final climb, in my mind my biggest priority was not blowing up. I had a target wattage in my head and knew I could not go over it for extended periods of time.

As attacks started, I stuck to my wattage, even as I dropped off the group. Soon though, I would be passing many people, and eventually there were only 3 riders in front of me.

The gap would start at about 25 seconds, and I kept clawing away at it all the way up the 30 minute climb. Unfortunately, as we crested the top before a quick descent to the gravel finish, I didn’t quite manage to make contact with them, and would finish just 4 seconds outside what I needed to move into 3rd place on the day.

Overall disappointed to not make it on the podium, but really couldn’t be too unhappy with how I did against some really strong riders. It was a super experience and can’t wait to go back.