George Ganoung wrote Power-Tap
Stage 1: Sulphur Springs Road Race, 79.3 miles and nearly 2400 feet of climbing
Place: Stage 16th@:07 GC 19th@1:42
A strong mexican pro team (Tecos) had several riders in the top 10 and they controlled the whole race. All of the climbing happens in the last 10k so I decided to sit in until late and conserve as much energy as possible. That proved to be a pretty good approach as nothing got more then 20 seconds up the road. About 15k to go, attacks started like crazy but I was patient until I found myself on the wheel of the race leader and he bridged up to two other riders (from another Mexican pro team) so I decided to follow. We had 4 up the road at 10k to go with the yellow jersey, good move, but at the base of climb with 3 guys who realistically were a little out of my league going up hill. So I just sat on (and hung on!) they punched it for about 2km and fortunately it wasn.t too steep, we had a decent gap, but they weren.t really cooperating so they sat up and we got caught. I tried my best to recover and got in good position going up the last 3k. At 1k to go I was about 8th wheel, perfect position, but it took some energy to get there and the earlier move had taken a bit out of me and all I could do was hold, the top 6 punched it and got a gap others surged around me but I was still able to hold in the group and rolled in for 16th. The field split in a few places so was good to be close to the front. Good position, good tactics, just not enough for the final punch so nothing really to show for it. ***