Race Report: 2025 Valley of the Sun Stage Race - Men's P1

Race: Valley of the Sun Stage Race 2025 - Men P1

Date: Feb 14-16, 2025

Written By: Flo Costa

Stage 1 - Time Trial

Course: 10 mile flat out and back TT

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13627997980

Result: 56/116

Race:

Contrary to popular belief, winter in California can get cold and wet. At least enough for me to get tired of. Fine, I’ll admit I’m soft. It’s all relative. Meanwhile, Arizona in February provides nice 60-70 degree weather. If the weather itself isn’t enough reason to make the trip, there’s always great turn out at the Valley of the Sun stage race which makes for some great racing after a long off season.

As tradition, the race kicks off with a flat 10 mile time trial which takes roughly 20 minutes. It’s a pretty simple effort with my strategy being to push as hard as I could for 20 minutes while staying as aero as possible. Unfortunately I had a pretty hectic week leading up to the race, which led to pretty subpar form. Nevertheless, I was ready to race and suffer.

The first half of the time trial went fairly well with me being able to push decent power at a decent speed. As soon as I turned around, I felt a significant headwind which hadn’t felt as strong earlier in the day. Shit. I kept pushing but my legs got heavier and heavier while my position on the TT bike started to break down. Over these last 10 minutes my power slowly declined - with my heart rate pinned - until I reached the finish, completely spent. I averaged about 20 watts less in this second half than the first half. The headwind on the way back only meant that this decline was even more costly in terms of time. I probably should have been more careful in moderating my effort at the start.

Stage 2 - Road Race

Course: 95 mile race over 6 laps featuring a gentle 5 min climb and a fast tailwind section 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13637356127

Result: 29/121

Race:

The second stage was the road race in the desert just south of Phoenix. I was pretty far back in GC which meant that I was free to do as much or little work as I wanted. My legs and body felt pretty bad and I didn’t have any teammates, so my plan was to race conservative and try my luck in the finale. Although the course features a 5 minute climb every lap, it’s not steep enough to break up the race and with such a large field it’s easy to make it over the climb in the wheels.

Committed to the race plan, I made it a game to spend as little energy as possible. An early break of 5-6 riders went off the front in the first lap, so the responsibility of controlling fell to the shoulders of the bigger teams with riders well placed in the GC. Meanwhile I stayed in the back half of the bunch, moving up to the front before the climb to sag climb it. Sag climbing is a specific strategy where you begin a climb at the front of a group and intentional drift back to conserve energy.

The race was straightforward with the breakaway established and the GC teams staying at the front. The wind was picking up though, and in the second to last lap echelons were forming in the crosswind up the climb. People were letting gaps open up and I spent a few bullets staying up in the front group. Going into the last lap, the original breakaway was still up the road and the peloton was getting nervous. People started launching fliers into the fast tailwind section. The group of 100+ riders was completely strung out in a single file line as a couple more riders managed to break away.

The gaps quickly expanded and the chase disintegrated. With the original break still out of sight, the main bunch would be sprinting for 8th place. The final climb up to the finish was pretty chaotic without a lead out train setting a tempo. People were constantly swarming and jostling for position. I made sure to stay on the protected side of the wind, but was constantly battling to move up only to get passed again. The group never strung out and I found myself completely boxed in with 500 meters to go. I was pretty stuck and never got to uncork a full sprint, but was still near the front to finish 29th. My attempts to save energy throughout the day had been successful, but I think I could’ve been more aggressive with positioning in the finish and even commit to spending more matches before the actual sprint to stay in front.

Stage 3 - Crit

Course: Wide and fast crit with 7 corners.

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/13647410543

Result: 66/116

Race:

The final day was a crit near downtown Phoenix. This course is on wide roads with good pavement, making it a really fast race. As usual, the crit started really hard with people sprinting out of every corner. The start/finish straight felt particularly difficult as everyone would put down crazy power to move up. My main focus in crits like these is to stay smooth and constantly move up. My goal was to stay in the top 20-30 wheels to find that sweet spot where the corners feel a bit smoother with less argy-bargy. I also typically make a small game out of finding the few spots on the course where I can move up every lap. For example in this course, by moving up on the outside of turn 1 you could carry a lot of speed into the inside of turn 2 which riders generally left pretty open. In a handful of seconds, you could advance 10 wheels without needing to burn a match.

The peloton was averaging close to 31 mph which meant it would be really difficult for anyone to break away. In all likelihood, it would come down to a bunch sprint. I was pretty locked in a good rhythm and maintained a solid position throughout the race. However, with around 10 laps to go, things start to get more nervous as more people try moving to the front. This means you have to start riding more aggressively and take more risks to stay in position. Wide courses like this can sometimes be scarier as the group fans out quite during the fight for every corner. In this course, the worst one was turn 6. We smashed the backside of the course at 36+ mph and proceeded to enter the corner 10 wide every time. This becomes a crazy game of chicken as each rider has to brake as late as possible and stick their handlebars in front of the others. It’s terrifying to think of, actually, so during the race you really need to keep a clear mind and flip a switch into race mode.

On this day, I must’ve been missing some of the racing edge because I started slipping back from 20th wheel with about 5 laps to go. On top of that, the lead out trains (mainly Legion) were doing a good job blocking up the turns, which prevented me from overtaking people on the insides. All of my “move-up” spots were getting stuffed which made positioning extra difficult. With 3 to go I clipped my pedal pretty bad in turn 3. This threw me off even more and I became more risk-aware. I lost focus and was no longer willing to be part of the fight, so I slowly drifted back. I didn’t get to contest the sprint and rolled it in for 66th.

This race, and the road race the day before, were good reminders of how crucial (but difficult) positioning is in these big races. Everyone has the same goal: to get to the front. Doing so requires you to be mentally and physically dialed, requires thousands of split-second decisions, and requires the confidence to seize every opportunity you can find. Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the outcomes, but was glad to bag some experience in these early season high level races.

Thanks for reading,

Flo