State 1 - Time Trial
Course: 11 miles, out and back, pancake flat TT on the south west side of Kauai.
Bike setup: Zipp Sub9 / 1080 / 3T Ventus setup on the Cervelo R3SL.
When I arrived at the TT there was barely any wind, but by the time I started (46 mins after the first rider) there was considerably more wind. Even during my ride out to the turnaround I felt the win get increasingly stronger. About a mile before the T/A I got that psss psss psss sound that I never like to hear. Rear flat tire! Made it to the turnaround under 11 mins which I was happy with as Tony Lang told me he did about 24mins for the whole course. Decision time... Stop and not risk ruining a $2k Zipp Sub9, or press on... I decided to just go for it. Controlling the bike was a little tricky with the rear end snaking around and that, combined with the increase in Crr cost me valuable time. I ended up with a time in the mid 25min range. Knowing how well I was going, only to be derailed by a flat and still only lose 1.5mins to the winner was a little hard to take.

Stage 2 - Criterium - 45 mins
Originally we were schedule to race for 60 mins, but everyone other than Tony Lang, John Climaldi, and myself wanted the race reduced it to 45 mins. Just meant we'd end up riding faster... Game on! The race started off nice and dry with a little wind on the 4-turn course, with Mauricio Puerto spending some time at the front, but it didn't take long before Tony Lang and I were upping the pace. About 10 mins after the start the rain started, and just got worse! Time to put the hammer down... Didn't take long for Tony and I to get a gap and pull away from the chasers. A couple riders tried to bridge up but no dice! The rain continued for most of the rain and only stopped with about 10 mins to go. I pulled away from Tony with a few laps to go finishing 1/2 a lap ahead to secure the win.

Stage 3 - Road Race - 53 miles
Thanks to a ruined TT, I was missing some much needed points. Going into the the road race I had 30 pts and Tony was on 36pts. Based on the points scale, if I won the road race Tony would have to finish 4th or worse for me to take the GC. We would have been tied on points, but I'd take the GC based on having stage wins. The only way I could make this all happen would be to make sure we had a big group going into the finish, win the race, and hope that other people would outfox Tony in the sprint. Getting riders that are more known for their sprinting than climbing (Kevin Kawainui) around a lumpy course took some patience... Staying relaxed on the climbs and minimizing any surges in pace is not my style! We got to the finish with 4 guys - Tony Lang, Ray Brust, Rob Miller, and myself. Ray attacked going up the final climb, then again on the flat with a few hundred meters to go. I countered Ray and took the win. Ray came in second, Tony third, and Rob in fourth. Damn, the plan almost worked!!!

Winning the road race. Photo: © Colin Cross www.hawaiiracephotos.com