C-Walk Rolls Back into Town

Just a quick update to my final paragraph from last week's Everest report. Recall that one C-Walker was stuck in Bishop with a dead car and no real plan as to how he'd get it functioning again for the drive back to SB. Well you gotta give him credit... He returned the battery he fried to K-Mart where they exchanged it no-questions-asked. He then got a new alternator and installed it himself. That all took a couple of days.

So, he could have returned to SB by mid-week...

But... he wanted to race the Buckeye Crit in Arizona on Saturday. He figured why waste the extra gas to head home and then turn right back around and drive east a few days later. Instead, he took a leisurely, multi-day drive on over there, all the while sleeping in his car at various-and-sundry campgrounds and under highway bridges along the way. No shower necessary--the Colorado River will do just fine. Quite economical! Between his $250 EC prize plus $50 bonus, and then primes and a 4th-place crit finish (out of a 4-man break) he pocketed another $300 bucks, for a total of $600 income. Remarkably enough, that means he made a bit of profit despite his eight-day odyssey in the desert with two bike races, major car repair, food and lodging. Amazing!! He is literally the only person I've ever known to make money--paltry as it may be--at regional-level bike racing.

[add/edit]...and just to be clear, that last bit was not meant as sarcasm or derision. Quite the opposite really... C-Walk's ability to live the lifestyle he has chosen is a real testament to financial discipline and anti-consumerism, two things I highly admire.

Training Week -- 9/24 - 9/30

Aaaahhh... Finally done with the racing season! Nice to skip some riding days and feel absolutely no guilt. Nice to do some other physical things and not worry about getting sore or strained muscles. And best of all, nice to eat some bad (good) food and not worry about fat content!

Number of rides: 4
Riding time: 8 hrs
Time in mid/high aerobic zone: 1 hr
Best ride of the week: Sat group ride to Casitas hills
Other: Ran once

Notes:
- Weight gain since Monday: 4 lbs
- Average leg hair length: 7 mm
- Number of pieces of Chocolate Cake eaten: 5
- Time of non-stop run before total leg seizure: 22 minutes
- Max number of push-ups at one time: 17
- Quadriceps circumference: 53 cm
(hopefully, some of these numbers will go up over the winter time and some of them will go down.)

24 Hours Later...

...I feel like Guido hit me in the knees with a baseball bat, sanded my crotch with some 50-grit paper, then repeatedly punched me in the quads with brass knuckles. So I'm not moving around much this afternoon and have some time to reflect...


When we arrived for the start of Everest Challenge Day 2, the sun was just rising over the White mountains beneath a thin layer of clouds to the east. That made for a beautiful splash of light on the middle slopes of the eastern Sierra. One thing's for sure about riding your bike in this region... there's never a shortage of spectacular scenery to enjoy!

But let's talk about the Everest Challenge...

29,000 feet of climbing in two days, at altitude, with difficult weather conditions.

Having now undertaken and completed this thing, my feeling is that it isn't really a bike race in any traditional sense. Most dimensions of bike racing don't apply here. This thing is more like a test, or a... well, a challenge. Of epic proportion.

It's a physiology test. To excel at this event, you need high hematocrit and good lungs. Oxygen is sparse on these climbs; blood is critical. I get a mediocre grade in physiology, with a HCT of 43%

It's also a multi-part intelligence test. Some would argue we all failed that one simply by attempting Everest. But I wouldn't agree. Rather, the test accounts for your preparation. Anybody who attempts EC without doing some extraordinary and focused training gets an F. Fortunately, I get a marginally passing grade because I did some significant hill training just for this. However, I get marked down because I didn't do enough hard back-to-back days (see the result below) and, honestly, once I got my upgrade, I no longer had the drive to train hard. Basically, I stopped training two weeks ago.

The second part of the intelligence test applies just to race day. If you don't eat and drink properly, you will fail spectacularly. Witness C-Walk's meltdown on Day 1. I get an A on eating and drinking. I've always been a good eater and drinker! But I get an F on the other aspect of race-day intelligence, namely, staying within your limits early on so that you can finish strong. Both days I rode the early hills too hard and paid the price on the final climbs. My overall intelligence grade: C-

(Note: I tried to argue for a higher IQ, but the teacher reminded me that I missed the start of day 1 which doesn't reflect too highly on my intelligence.)

But persistence is like the final exam. Even if you're weak in physiology and intelligence, you can pull out a decent grade with persistence. When I hit the final 6 kft climb yesterday, I was with the elite group... C-Walk, Jesse Moore, GaryAnn, and a couple other freak-o strong guys. (Lindsay was a few minutes ahead, but he doesn't count.) But then I cracked big time. Within minutes I was in my lowest gear, 39x25, even though the grade was quite moderate. Each pedal stroke was a chore. I did some math: at my speed, the climb would take me at least two hours! Completing it seemed inconceivable. Guys started passing me... 3's, 4/5's, Masters, one-legged blind women on cruiser bikes, you name it. Then J-Rop caught me. Instead of dropping my sorry self like he easily could have, he stuck with me. Although he was probably hurting too, his glass was half full, while my glass was not only empty but was an endless vacuum of despair slowly sucking the entire universe into a crushing black hole. I was not happy. We commiserated. We debated the intelligence of this event. Actually, there was no debate ...it's stupid. But we both persevered. Left, right, left, right... turning the pedals over. And then the finish line came into view. It was still a long ways off, but we knew it existed. That was an overwhelming relief because I was starting to think I had been damned to climb this mountain continually for all of eternity.

So we finished. Persistence grade: A+

A couple pictures thanks to Jon Eropkin's wife Jamie...

How many times do you have to pedal a 39x25 to climb 20 miles?

Good suffering loves good company!

Somebody saw fit to record times each day and add them together, which I think is usually refered to as the results.


Some more reflections...

* 12 hours of Garmin data tell the real story of my race...

Day 1: Missed my start by 5-6 minutes and rode easy with the Masters for 30 minutes or so, thinking I'd never see my field. Once we began climbing however, I saw remnants of the group in front and realized there might be a chance to catch some people so I started going harder. I was able to get my heart rate up nicely and climbed reasonably well on the first three climbs, catching people along the way. As it turned out, I might have over cooked it because I had a lot less power for the final climb. Avg. heart rate was 144 bpm and max was 166. Ride time was ~5:56.

Day 2: Started out better because I made the start on time. Lindsay took off solo on the first climb and we soon had a small chase group behind, all taking turns setting tempo. My heart rate would not get as high and my power was definitely below day 1. We stayed together all the way up and down both the first two climbs, but at the beginning of the third, my engine was not working on all cylinders and I could barely get my heart rate into the 140's. Avg. heart rate was 135 and max was 157. Ride time was ~5:51. On the final climb, I lost 20-30 minutes to the group I started it with!

* Thinking back on it, the training sessions leading up to the EC were really enjoyable, and it's doubly satisfying that we all finished. And my spies tell me that most of the others--Steve Weixel, Mark Be-Lukie, Jason co-Hammer, the Prof, and GaryAnn--are all doing fine today.

* Congrats to Gary for winning the 3's. He might have more upgrade points than anyone in USCF history. Glad he'll be a 2 next year, although the flirting and bickering between him and Bam-Bam Hammer during races will be a tad embarrassing.

* I left Bishop and Big Pine with two strange situations unresolved. First, after the finish, poor Jesse Moore descended the long final climb back to the start only to find his car missing. He speculated that the guy he came with didn't finish the race, hopped in the car, and went out looking for Jesse. They missed each other and had no way to get in contact. C-Walk and I took nearly an hour to clean up and get out of there, and the whole time Jesse was laying in the dirt in the desert in his cycling clothes. We gave him water and wished him luck. But C-Walk had his own crisis to deal with as his car was dead in back of a Bishop gas station. Nobody could work on it until Monday, and even then they might have to wait a few more days for parts. Being the frugal type, CW decided to sleep in the back of his car in back of the gas station. The weather report said it would dip into the 20's at night.

Training Week -- 9/17 - 9/23

It is said that once a rider does a three-week Grand Tour (TdF, Giro, or the Vuelta), his body will never be the same. It kicks it up a level and there will always be some "muscle memory" from the experience. Let's hope Everest Challenge is similar.

Number of rides: 6
Riding time: 16 hours
Time in mid/high aerobic zone: 10 hrs
Best ride of the week: How to choose?? EC Day 1 or 2...
Other: None this week, but that will change from now on.
Notes:
- Legs are totally wrecked after Everest

Too Wrecked...

...to write coherent sentences, but I'll do you a quickie.

Everest Challenge Day 1. We had just a bit of everything weather wise... rain, hail, snow, and wind, but it wasn't bad at all. Most everyone dressed expecting the worst, and it turned out to be just right. The promoter altered the course a bit so we wouldn't run into the snow, but we still did 94 miles of racing with nearly 15 kft vertical.

Before I continue with this report, I'll give you a little quiz: which option sounds more believable...

A. I decided, to be fair, I would spot C-Walk and Lindsay, et. al., a nice 5-6 minute cushion at the start

or,

B. I chose today to be the first time in 30 years of racing to actually miss my start.

Yep, B is the correct answer. Not sure how it happened as I was parked about 50 feet from the start, but sure enough, when I rolled over there, I discovered the p/1/2 field had departed 5 minutes prior. Idiot! So I jumped in with the 35+ field and chit-chatted for the first 30 minutes before the climbs started. But then it was gloves off and the suffering began. I think I picked off half the field but don't really know. I'm somewhere between 5th and 10th.

Up front, C-Walk dropped everyone on the first descent and then rode solo for the next 3 hours getting a several minute lead. Only one problem... he didn't eat. Not a single thing! Sheesh! So you know what happened. Big bonk. Huge. Paper boy up the last climb. Lindsay, Jesse Moore, and Joe Wiley rode a good tempo behind him until Lindsay ramped it up on the final climb, dropped Jesse, caught and passed CW, and put 40 seconds or so into Wiley. Strong advertisement for the altitude tent! CW held on for 3rd, maybe five minutes back, and Jesse got 4th.

In the threes, Gary rode really strong and is in 2nd by less than a minute. Jason and Steve the Prof rode intelligently and finished strong. We don't know any placings. Mark Luke and Steve Weixel also rode well and are looking comfortable for tomorrow.

Some Proman woman just crushed it today. Not sure who she is, but she was incredibly strong.

That's all I know about the races.

Other stuff...

* Huge thank you to Jon and Jamie Eropkin for the ride back to the start in the warm car. Life saver!

* Poor CW. I got back to the room expecting him to be crashed on the bed snoozing, but he wasn't here. Two hours go by and I started really worrying, but then he showed up STILL IN CYCLING CLOTHES. Turns out his car died (alternator probably) and he pushed it to a gas station. PUSHED IT ...after bonking and riding 110 miles today (he rode back to the start). Now he's probably gotta stay in Bishop for a couple days next week to deal with that. Bummer.

That is all for now.

Why?

Pros:	Cons:
	Long miles
	Outrageous climbing
	Extreme altitude
	Too-fit competition
	Thunder and lightning
	Snow and sleet
	Cold wind
	I'm getting sick

So, why then?

You know the answer...

Because it's there!

(cough-cough)


The word epic is tossed around too casually. I'm as guilty as anyone. 100 mile fast group ride with some wind? Not epic. Figueroa loop? Pu-leaze! 80 miles at Devil's Punchbowl? No ...well, maybe if it's 100 degrees, you'd be approaching junior epic.

But consider this...

Day-1 Everest Challenge profile:


Day-2 Everest Challenge profile:


And, as if that wasn't enough material to construct a truly epic race weekend, consider this dandy weather forecast we have for the climbs! Going uphill might be almost tolerable. But riding down? If the cold doesn't kill us, the icy roads will.

So where does this leave me? I am going for sure. Promised J-Rop I would. Plus I can't yet have my new teammates discover what a wimp I really am. But I'm still flip-flopping on which race to do. P/1/2 will have Crispy Walker, Lindsay, Jesse Moore, Jon Eropkin, and Joe Wiley. All gnarly dudes who eat glass for breakfast, floss with a chainsaw, then go out and snap the legs off prissies like me. Hey, I got my 1 already ...now I don't need to ride with those monsters anymore. So howz about the Masters? Unfortunately, they've got grizzled old aliens like Dave Zimbleman (gazillion-time Nat champ) and Mark Schaefer (fastest time at 2007 Lotoja) plus a few Vegas desert rats like Chicken Anderson and an on-form Bruce Balch. Oy vey, can I just ride the public event? Gots 'til Friday afternoon to decide I guess.

Battles Below the Surface, or Watch Cody Drive It

How much do you love stage races? The inaugural Tour of Missouri ended yesterday, and some folks out there considered it boring because Hincapie and Discovery had pretty much wrapped up the gc after stage 2. To them I say: "look below the surface and you'll still find some real drama."

Case in point, the battle for the 3rd step on the gc podium. Going into the final stage circuit race, Saunier-Duval's David Canada had that spot with a scant 1 second lead over Dominique Rollin of Kodak Gallery/Sierra Nevada (KGSN).

The final stage was essentially flat and would likely end in a field sprint. The only way Rollin could move into 3rd was to get bonus time in the intermediate sprints (3, 2, and 1 seconds) or the final. Of course Saunier-Duval, a top Pro Tour team, would be trying hard to keep Canada in 3rd.

Very early in the stage, a three-man break escaped and was being driven by one of David Canada's teammates. His hope, of course, was to keep the break away and eat up the time bonuses. Nobody in the break was in gc contention, so if they stayed away for the bonus sprints, the gc order would not change.

The break quickly got 20-25 seconds and was really motoring before KGSN was able to find the front and begin their chase. But when they did get there, the battle was on!

cyclingnews

KGSN got organized with a little over 5 km to the first intermediate bonus sprint, and they had to close down ~20 seconds to a very motivated and strong group of three. It was their responsibility alone, and no other teams needed to help. Plus, if they succeeded in reeling in the break, they still had to deliver Rollin to the sprint in good position. No easy task after such a hard chase!

I watched this scenario live yesterday, thanks to streaming internet video. Perhaps you didn't see it. Well, it's your lucky day because I snagged five minutes worth and embedded it below for you to see. If you want to hear the race radio, and the finish-line announcers (inc. Dave Towle), then you'll need to turn up the volume a bit. Don't forget to turn it back down after! For the SB locals, watch for Cody...

So yeah, KGSN pulled it out. Did you see Cody driving it from within the last km?! So fast that his teammate couldn't make the final turn and had to hop the curb! Freakin' awesome! So Rollin won that sprint but Canada got 2nd. That left them tied on gc. The next two bonus sprints were absorbed by a break but the field was all together for the final. Rollin got 3rd in the field sprint, so with that extra bonus, he moved into 3rd on gc. Very impressive!

Not boring at all!!

Training Week -- 9/10 - 9/16

Was pretty fatigued most of the week. Had a couple of short rides with intensity and one long'ish climbing ride. Not sure it was a good prep week for Everest.

Number of rides: 6
Riding time: 12 hrs
Time in mid/high aerobic zone: 5 hrs
Best ride of the week: Saturday, climbing with SLO boys (Nick Nitro, Ken Hanson, Bob Clark)
Other: nope
Notes:
- Only got 18 kft of climbing this week. That's how screwy this Everest training is... you get 18 kft of climbing in a week and it feels like being a slacker!

Tres Colores

In real life, as opposed to the picture, this pepper looked really cool with brilliant red, orange, and green. This variety was supposed to mature red only. Maybe the orange comes from some cross pollination from a nearby plant? Who knows... who cares...

I don't know why I take pictures of the silly fruits and vegetables I grow, but it is strangely satisfying. Maybe because nothing else I do ends with a tangible product. Yeah, it's somewhat rewarding when I complete a piece of software, and it does what I wanted it to do. But you can't hold it. It has no size, weight, or aesthetic appeal (except to a true code nerd). And the quality is even debatable ...as any software developer knows, it could always have been written more elegantly and made more robust. Always.

And cycling. Yeah, hard training rewards you with better performance in races, and maybe even better health. Maybe. But it's also not tangible. Plus, it's basically meaningless to people outside of our small, esoteric bike-racing community. Talk to non-cyclists for more than 60 seconds about your last race, and you can just see their eyes start glazing over.

But everyone understands food. Most people even like it. And nobody can deny its importance!

So why the pictures? Well, a nice piece of fruit doesn't last. You either eat it, or it rots. So I capture it in a picture and shout out to the world (or should I say, the occasional web surfer or work-procrastinator who happens onto this site)...

Hey, I produced this food and it was delicious!!

I guess the logical next step will be to grow enough to start giving it away in good quantity. That would feel really tangible and useful!

All Good Things...

...must come to an end sometime. We had a great group of people for our 2007 TGI/Hazard's racing team, top notch every one of them, but for a wide variety of reasons, folks are going their different ways for next year. To some extent, I think people just need change for change sake ...to keep it interesting ...new people and new dynamics. I haven't figured out my path yet, but I won't take long and I won't flip-flop. Decisiveness--that's how I roll! (No comment allowed from you Mrs. Fanelli!!!)

But let me rant a bit. Or maybe it's not a rant, because I won't knock anybody or anything; perhaps it's more of a whine...

I really wish that someday we had one large bike club in the Santa Barbara area--or even wider, let's say the whole 805. And said bike club's primary mission would be to encourage and promote competitive cycling in all forms and it's membership would be a diverse cross-section of the cycling population. Young and old, men and women, all colors and economic strata--anyone can join with an interest in competitive cycling.

Within this large club, there would be smaller teams focused on some particular aspect of racing. A women's road team, a men's cat 1/2 team, beginner and expert MTB teams, etc. You get the idea.

I believe there is strength in numbers, and what a force we could be if all the cyclists in the 805 were united. Cycling advocacy, mentoring new riders, race promotion, racing logistics (travel, feeding,...), and camaraderie!

Further, am I just naive, or would such a group be really attractive to potential sponsors? Surely the SB-area demographics would have industry sponsors excited!?!

There are examples of what I'm talking about. Alto Velo in the Bay Area and LaGrange in the LA area. Both huge clubs with smaller racing teams.

Why doesn't a club like this exist here? Lots of reasons probably, some of which are too inflammatory to post here, but I worry there is a big one that may be a show stopper. SB cycling is a bit like a microcosm of the bike-racing world at large. By that I mean specifically that many riders here only see to the horizon of the south coast. It's a small fishbowl. Instead of real races, we have Saturday and Sunday worlds. Mothballs crit is the big championship event. How boring would those "races" be if everyone from town rode for the same club/team? I still hear conversations occasionally about who beat whom at Mothballs ...last year!! BFD

Personally, I'd rather think that we're all together from the 805 neighborhood, and when we venture out to the wild lands of LA or the Bay Area, we're all bonded in person and/or spirit. It seems like too many SB cyclists are thinking cliquish about who's friends with whom locally, which bike store they patronize, or who hangs out at the coffee shop. Dumb examples probably, but hopefully you see what I'm trying to say.

Think about it differently... consider when you were in high school or college. Certainly you weren't close friends with all the kids, but you still had a strong common bond with everyone from your school. Especially when you were out in the world. That's kind of an analogy for how I think a large local bike club could be. SB is your high school, and when we go down to LA to play our rival, we're all true to our school.

Alright, enough whining. I'm in desperate need of a recovery ride...

Training Week -- 9/3 - 9/9

Huge, for me anyway. And pretty enjoyable really ...makes me wonder why I was so lazy in my previous 30 years of cycling and bike racing. Slow learner I guess.

Number of rides: 7
Riding time: 25 hrs
Time in mid/high aerobic zone: 14 hrs
Best ride of the week: 10x OSM on Monday
Other: none
Notes:
- 44 kft of climbing

Autumn Knocking

Cooler mornings, longer shadows, trees growing weary. Change is in the air. Time to begin fall harvest. I just picked these winter squashes and now they need to sit in the dirt and cure for a week or so. Last year I had great success with Butternut squash, and they made for many delicious dinners. Soups were especially good. The butternuts didn't work out as well this year, partly because all the Zaca fire ash covering their leaves, but I'm hopeful for these huge Banana squashes. Sheesh, one of them is two feet long! Winter squashes like these are really rewarding to grow and when their skins toughen up, you can keep them for months at room temperature. That's why they're called winter squashes--you save them to eat during the winter.

Hard Labor on Labor Day

A few months ago, jandy badonkadonk had a nice blog post about how he punished himself with a huge climbing day for his crime of DNF'ing a race. That made a lot of sense to me. First, you don't want to make a habit of DNF'ing, so there should be some deterrent. Second, doing an epic training ride as punishment should help you avoid DNF'ing in the future. Quite logical really.

Therefore, since I quit the University RR last weekend, I figured it was time to suffer. The sentence: ten times up and down Old San Marcos. In a row. In the heat. with minimal rest between repeats, as in, just enough time to grab new bottles when needed. (Of course, nothing wrong with keeping those bottles cool in an ice chest...)

Each trip up the hill is a tad over 1,200 feet vertical in 2.9 miles. Based on absolutely nothing, I had a goal of averaging 20:00 per climb for an ascending rate of 60 ft. per minute. I figure that should be a decently competitive climbing rate at the Everest Challenge.









#; OSM time; avg. HR (bpm)
1. 20:04 137
2. 19:28 137
3. 19:44 134
4. 20:05 132
5. 19:48 134
6. 19:20 138
7. 18:53 139
8. 19:49 138
9. 21:10 135
10. 18:57 143

Average OSM time: 19:45
Average heart rate during climbs: 137 (78% of max)
Total ascending: 12,300 feet

Some notes:

* Garmin says each round-trip up and down the hill required about 400 calories. My total riding time was ~4.5 hours. Given that a person can only digest ~300 calories per hour, I was clearly running an energy deficit.

* Fueling/hydration: I consumed ~1,600 calories in two bars and 11 bottles (~240 oz.) and still lost a couple pounds. Toward the latter repeats, it felt like the food wasn't really digesting very well. Makes me wonder... can you exhaust your digestive juices by pounding so much Cytomax in such a short time? Maybe that's a physiological aspect that needs to be trained for long, hot races.

* On the third climb, I came upon a large mouse in the road who had either been injured or was on a bad drug trip. The thing was flipping all around, front-to-back back-to-front, over and over. It was sad. I debated about running over him to end his misery, but then decided against it because I didn't want mouse guts squirting up on my legs and bike. Last week I saw a huge Bobcat run across the road in this same place. He was probably one of the many large animals displaced by the Zaca fire. I hoped he was still around and was able to find and eat the mouse.

* We are really lucky to live in a place with so many active people. Every single trip up the hill, I either had company from somebody else doing the climb or at least exchanged hearty greetings with another person doing a workout. OSM, the place to see and be seen!

* Nice to see a return to the bike by Matt McAllister. He was in a group that climbed up OSM, Painted Cave, and Stagecoach with Blinger and Chicken Ranch. Yet another former bike racer who can't kick the addiction, despite a multi-year dormancy!

* Huge thanks to Eric Forte for keeping me company for three of the repeats. This despite a major effort to win Pier to Peak yesterday.

Pier to Peak

Billed as the world's hardest half marathon, Pier to Peak starts at the Santa Barbara wharf and climbs 4,000 feet to the top of La Cumbre peak. Gina has raced this event several times, but this year I talked her into riding bikes with me up to the top. We cheered on the runners and enjoyed the drama of good racing and epic suffering.


It was about 70 degrees for the 7:00 AM start and the mercury rose quickly from there. By the time the leaders hit Gibraltar, it was well into the 80's and it didn't stop climbing before reaching about 95. A cruel irony of this event is that the slower you are, the hotter it gets.

Eric Forte running by the mission.


Ted Cotti and Shigy Suzuki were the early leaders. They hit Gibraltar with several minutes advantage on Eric.


But as we all know, climbing is Eric's forte...


...and he methodically mowed down the leaders and didn't look back!


On the steep stuff, Eric runs darned near as fast as I can ride up the hill. So after helping Gina fix a flat tire, there was no way I'd make it to the top in time to see him finish. But I caught the award presentation ...promoter Jake Clinton giving Eric a nice placque.


Our favorite D.A. Lee Carter finishing strong...


She was the early leader in the women's race. Her form was perfect and she looked to be running effortlessly. Alas, she was caught and passed on the climb. Perhaps the extra weight was too much?

Race results posted on active.com.

Training Week -- 8/27 - 9/2

A great week of training! Some long days, a big-climbing day, and some intensity.

Number of rides: 7
Riding time: 20 hrs
Time in mid/high aerobic zone: 11 hrs
Best ride of the week: 10 kft climbing day on Tuesday
Other: none
Notes:
- Two five-hour rides
- 26 kft total climbing
- Three flats
- OSM in 15:16

Grrrrrr.....

Vuelta a Valenzuela, Stage 6 Results
September 1: San Jose De Tiznado - Acarigua, 216.2 km
1 Emiliano Donadello (Ita) Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni-Selle Italia
2 Julio Herrera (Ven) Indeportes Paez Guasdualito Apure
3 Arturo Corvalan (Chi) Fecez Eje. Gobernación Barinas
4 Jonathan Hernandez (Ven) PDVSA Gas Anzoategui
5 Jacob Erker (Can) Symmetrics Cycling Team
6 Ivan Fanelli (Ita) Cinelli Endeka OPD