Despite what others might say, I like Valley of the Sun. It's true, the traffic sucks, the courses aren't very interesting and it's a pretty long drive. But the race is usually very predictable and it's pretty easy to make it into a great training weekend. I got around 11hrs in between the afternoon we got there and the end of the
crit. Not bad when it's just about the only stage race in the region during
February. It is always a good measure of where you're at and where you need to go with your training. I was pleasantly surprised with my form. It looks like all those mornings on my skate skis payed off a little.
I've got some work to do to get down to race weight but I think I've got time for that. No real travel race this year so I've got until Lookout to shed some lbs.
One person who's on decent form is my wife. Dang, she's rolling and is just starting to get her training on track. She actually got a result at VOS (8th overall, 5th TT). That's pretty rare for a local CO person.
The local fun starts this weekend with a TT out by the old Buckeye RR course. I predict searing lung pain from the cold air. I'm hoping one of the guys who did the Tour of California shows up and shows how out of shape the local crew is now.
