I could write a book on the Vuelta Mexico, but ill try to keep this reasonable. I didn’t know what to expect going into the race, aside from the fact that its all at elevation and covered nearly 700 miles in 6 days. Ill highlight each day.
Ill skip the travel days, but tell you that we just followed our director and brains behind the operation, Jason Kriel through airports and sketchy van rides all the way to the hotel. Guy knows what hes doing.
Ill do a quick introduction to our staff so you know who I am talking about throughout the post:
Jason Kriel: Director, just follow him you’ll get there
Phil Cortes: Director, life chooser (ill explain later)
Jerome- Mechanic, can fix anything in under a minute
Abii- Soigner, they don’t get much better
Monday- Day off. We literally did nothing all day until the team presentation that evening. Funny story about that… After the team presentation, our van AND team car broke down on the way back to the hotel. The riders hitched a ride with the Chile National Team. I don’t know how Jason, Abii, Phil, and Jerome got back. I think they all just followed Jason, I would. We ended up with a new van and car, so it worked out.
Team Presentation
Hitching a ride! Thanks Chile
Stage 1: Not knowing what to expect, and knowing we were outnumbered, we decided to just sit in and watch for splits. Mexican riders love to attack, in the field, in the break, in the grupetto, everywhere. After an hour of attacks, a break finally went. We did not have a rider in it. Out of nowhere I see Jimmy fly out the front of the peloton solo, getting a massive gap. After awhile, he was brought back. I countered, dragging one guy with me. After a few minutes of rotating, we were out of sight of the peloton. We were half way across the 4 min gap to the breakaway on a long highway. We could see them, but my breakaway companion stopped helping me. I was left to try to drag us across by myself. I was making ground but not quickly. Luckily, a big split was barreling down on us from the main group. I hopped on and was escorted across the remaining gap to the leaders. once we had a gap, our team car came up to give me bottles and food. Phil yelled at me to do nothing at all, just sit in. After an hour, Evan appeared out of nowhere. How he crossed that gap at that speed still has my head spinning. We both held on to the last 10k, where I got dropped, then fought my way back to try to lead Evan into the finish. We did what we could but were simply outnumbered.
Stage 2: Ill keep this stage brief. Cold, rain, long. It started on a 15k climb, hard but we all held on. Every one of us was shivering for 5 hours, counting down the kilometers. Coming into the finish, we were going to try to lead Evan out for a high placing. All but two of us crashed in the crazy last 3k. Downhill wet cobbles, roundabouts on brick, grates and speed-bumbs. Phil has this code he lives by: basically, you have to go for it, but choose life. You don’t want to die or end up in a Mexican hospital. The Vuelta Mexico was not choosing life that day. Evan, Mike O, and Nick Jowsey all crashed. Everyone was fine.
Still shivering, and seeing double, I was sought out by the UCI for an anti-doping control test. I had just peed after the race, so this was going to take awhile. Chugging water for around 45 min, I got it done and rode back with Phil and Jerome.
Freezing.
Stage 3: The longest Stage of the race. 208k. It started on a 12k climb again, this time on cobbles and rock. The field was blown to pieces, I ended up in a group with Evan, and eventually Jimmy after a flat. We chased hard for 2 hours, eventually catching the now small main field. As soon as contact was made, we hit a steep, 25% grade cobbled climb. I was in bad position and was detached again from the group.
Cobbled Climb. Way worse than European cobbles.
I chased for what seemed like days. I rode with a group before eventually going solo for 100k on long exposed cross-windy, hot, Mexican roads. With 5k to go, a large group of riders caught up to me. I hopped on and rode in with them. This was the hardest day I have ever spent on a bike. Evan ended up placing 10th after a killer lead-out from Jimmy and Mike O!! He’s on fire.
Stage 4: Another long 187k. This stage was mostly rolling with a few climbs, all five of us sat in while the leader, Oscar Sevilla and his team controlled the race. Coming into the last climb, we all tried to get in position. The field was single file, on a highway climb. All of our riders were within 10 seconds of the charging peloton ahead. Evan was our only rider within striking distance of the overall, so we had to get him back up there. I drove it as hard as I could with Jowsey and Mike O. to give Evan a launch pad to get back to the group. Mike got him close and Evan made the bridge. Eventually Mike O made it back as well, then immediately flatted. We all rolled in, feeling the week so far.
Stage 5: The hardest stage on paper, and our best day as a team. The stage finished on a climb to the top of the world, at 11,000 feet. We all had a good vibe that day, and wanted to race our bikes. I flatted around 100k in on a cobbled road. Shimano changed it, but it was shifting horribly. I made it back through the caravan and called for service to changed to one of our wheels, after the change I called for bottles. (Jerome changes wheels so fast I barley had to stop) Jason told me that he wanted one of our guys in the break today, he wasn’t playing around.
After delivering bottles, I went straight off the front in an effort to bridge to the break. 4 or 5 guys went with me and we were gone. We made it to the break, and quickly gained 4 minutes. I called for our car to come up. Jason and Phil told me to conserve to the climb. I rolled through doing minimal work. Coming up to a sprint section, the road turned again to cobbles. My front tire blew. Shimano changed it, and left me in no mans land. I called for the car again to ask what to do. Jason and Phil told me to go back to the field and not waste energy trying to get back across.
When I got back, Jimmy and Mike O attacked together, getting a huge gap and creating a new break. From what I heard, Jason told Mike not to pull these guys around in the last 20k, either sit on or drop them. Anyone that knows Mike O knows what he decided. He was solo in around 5 minutes, headed into the final climb. He was caught with only a few k’s to go. Almost. Evan Suffered up with the peloton to hold on the some GC, while everyone else survived.
Mike made his decision
Evan finishing the climb
Stage 6: The last stage was a circuit around a town called Toluca. We were all exhausted, but were going to fight it out until the end. Jimmy and Evan had been sick the night before. More sick than the rest of us. I lasted one lap, had nothing over the cobbled streets, climbs, and soccer ball sized traffic balls in the road. Jimmy came off with me. Then the rest. Mike was the last to go, old man strength is a real thing.
Summary: I really enjoyed this race. Our staff was amazing, everything that goes on behind the scenes is what makes it possible. Thank you guys. Without them we wouldn’t have even made it to stage 2.
I could have made this longer by adding details of all the crazy stuff that went on behind the scenes, but ill leave it with some stuff that was memorable:
– Hotels were great, buffet every night. Couldn’t eat any fruit or water or red meat. Choose life.
– Abii- She was on top of things, always had ride food ready, schedules up, massages. She made the time in Mexico easy. Not to mention, she communicated for us.
– Mexican Roads- Cobbles, Road furniture, stray dogs, cross winds, police with m-16’s protecting the race, Massive climbs, all at elevation, Rain, potholes that swallow bikes and more.
We raced on this stuff
– My teammates- couldn’t ask for a better group of guy to travel to crazy places and race with.
Check out the week on strava: https://www.strava.com/pros/296449#interval?interval=201518&interval_type=week&chart_type=miles&year_offset=0
I hope enjoyed following along!
Mike.
here are some more pictures,
Mexican Rockstar
Before Stage 6.