Race Report: 2026 Valley of the Sun Stage Race - Men’s Cat 2

Races: 

Stage 1 - TT

Stage 2 - Road Race

Stage 3 - Crit

Date: February 13-15, 2026

AVRT racers: Paul Levy

Results: out of 46 starters

TT - 15th (-1:28 from stage winner)

Road Race - 8th (-0:46 from stage winner)

Crit - 37th (pack finish, same time as stage winner)

Overall GC - 14th (-1:41 from GC winner)

Course: 

TT - 10 mile out and back with a right turn, u-turn, and a left turn.

Road Race - 4.8 laps of  a 16 mile loop consisting of 3 very straight road, 3 right hand corners, and 470 ft of climbing per lap. The finish is at the top of the climb.

Crit - 40 minutes on a flat, figure eight shaped 1.6 km (1 mile) course. It is traversed in a clockwise direction. The finish is approximately 250 meters after the last corner.   

Strava: 

VOS Stage 1 - TT | Ride | Strava

VOS Stage 2 - Road Race | Ride | Strava

VOS Stage 3 - Crit | Ride | Strava

Nutrition: 

TT and Crit - Juicy Burst pouches throughout the warm up and a caffeinated GU 15 minutes before my start time.

Road Race - Two 750 ml bottles with ~100 grams of carbs, one 750 ml bottle of plain water. Carried one in a pocket and swapped mid-race to avoid needing anything from the neutral feed.  

Recap (written by Paul):

TT - Full TT bikes and TT equipment were allowed for this race. I don’t have a TT setup which put me at a major disadvantage, but I did my best to get aero on my road bike with bolt-on aero bars, aero water bottles, a Velotoze ribbed arm baselayer over my tightest fitting kit, and Velotoze aero socks and shoe covers. I did not invest in an aero helmet, but some of my friends from Sacramento who are TT nerds were also here and one let me borrow his aero helmet. 

I either got sick or hit with some extremely bad allergies on the drive to this race so I wasn’t feeling my best for the TT or road race. During the races I felt fine, but my sleep was terrible and I felt extremely tired as soon as I was cooled down. Even in good health, the extra dry desert air hitting the lungs stings a lot more than the moist NorCal winter air. 

I might have gone out slightly too hard, but overall pacing felt in the right ballpark. Although I hadn’t put a lot of practice in on the clip-on TT bars, I was able to stay in aero position most of the time, although I was extra careful and got out of position on the turns and over a few dips in the road because someone had fallen earlier and was getting taken away by an ambulance as I was rolling out. I finished 1:28 behind the winning time of 20:15 and 15th for the day which felt decent for the slapped together TT setup I was working with. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of what gear everyone was using and compare times between full TT bikes, aero clip-ons, and just standard road bikes.

Road Race - The course is along three fairly straight roads and the gradient is similarly consistent featuring a long steady downhill, a long flat, and a long steady uphill to the finish. The first lap (of 4.8 total) was fairly mellow with one or two attacks that the group wasn’t taking too seriously. 

On the second lap the action picked up with more people trying to get away. As more of a breakaway style rider myself, I tried to keep an eye on the moves and look for opportunities to get into a group with a gap without committing too much energy to a hard bridge effort. I ended up with a couple guys for the latter half of the second lap until we got caught on the long descent. Even though this break didn’t stick, I think it saved me energy on the climb by taking it more steadily in the small group.

Almost immediately attacks started going again and I pretty soon found myself in another break group of 4 or 5. Everyone was committed and worked together well and there wasn’t a lot to report on until we were caught by a chase group of 4 or 5 just after the first turn on the final lap. At this point we were a pretty large chunk of the whole group (having only 46 starters), so whether you call it a break or not at this point we did have a gap on the rest of the group and all seemed motivated to maintain it at least until the climb kicked up. I was at the back as we started the final climb. Besides not responding quickly enough myself, I was also behind a few riders getting dropped as the pace picked up. I passed these few riders right away but never caught the rest of the break group ahead. Then I got caught in the last 500 meters by someone from the larger group behind us and finished in 8th. One spot too low for any upgrade points in this field, but still happy to finish ahead of the main bunch.

Crit - This race felt fast from the gun. Several moves tried to go but the field seemed determined to keep them all in check. I tried to save my energy and go for a late flyer. I had neither the fitness nor the skill to stay away today and I finished near the back of the  group as the winners sprinted it out.

GC - To really be competitive at this, you need a TT setup and you need to know how to use it. The top 6 finishers at the TT were also the top 6 finishers overall with just a small amount of shuffling as two riders leap-frogged up a few spots finishing ahead of the pack at the road race. The crit didn’t affect anyone’s GC time.