Danny's View
The race started with all the teams looking for the breakaway but nobody was happy with any of the groups that got gaps. I was riding the front hoping to make it in the right move, but after some attacks and counters with Stephen all of a sudden we were doing feed zone loops single file! Further down the road we hit a major section of cross winds and there were crashes all over. Instantly the field was in 4 groups. Stephen and I ended up in the 3rd group. After a 15 minute echelon chase we rejoined the field with the final 10km climb just ahead. We hit the climb full bore in the big ring. I lasted as long as I could and as soon as things started getting too hard, and knowing that we have 4 more days of racing, I shut it down and cruised the remaining climb losing 9 minutes to the leader, Francisco Mancebo. Tomorrow the wind picks up again and we climb from the start!
Hubbys View
Today was an experience for me, my first taste of altitude didn't go as planned and I was really struggling off the bat. I survived for as long as I could sucking wheels in the gutter for a good hundred ks when I started to ride into the race until we crested a climb and hit a rough cross wind when I was caught at the back and behind a crash ended my hopes of attacking the final climb with the group. I got into a good group of ten rides to ride into the finish with about 20 minutes down. Tomorrows another day so we will see...
SLeece's view:
Stage 1: Despite being near the front and in a couple attacks, no early break got away. In the beginning, I felt fresh and unaffected by the elevation, but by the time we reached the base of the Mogollon, I felt much different. The elevation affected my stomach and hurt my recovery today but hopefully by the end of the race I will have adjusted a bit. As Danny said on the ride back, "This is Gila, it's the race that is gonna make you question your sanity and why you're a bike racer."
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