After four days of hard racing in unseasonably hot weather, Stephen Leece and Torey Philipp finished in the top 10 of the Sea Otter Classic men’s stage race. Leece placed fourth overall and Philipp, tenth, for the six-rider California Giant Berry Farms/Specialized squad in Monterey, CA.
The racing started with the 60-minute criterium early on Thursday morning. “It’s kind of a strange race with two u-turns.” Leece said of the 1km course held on the Laguna Seca Raceway. “Pretty much you have so stay up at the front and the team did alright with that. I don’t think we did quite as well as we would have liked to, we would have liked to have put Benny in a position to do well but we didn’t quite do that.”
The squad missed the decisive break which stayed away until the finish. In 17th place, Benny Swedberg was the highest placed for the team.
“The next day, I think made up for it in the road race.” continued Leece who took a flyer on the final lap of the 68-mile road race stage which culminates in a one-mile climb to the finish line.
“I attacked about a few kilometers from the feedzone.” he explained. Only the three riders locked in the general classification battle were able to catch him. “(Andy) Jacques-Maynes, (Matt) Cooke and (Morgan) Schmitt bridged up to me on the feedzone climb. The pack was not to far behind but there was no organization or impetus to bring it back in so we stayed away all the to the finish. The other guys beat me in the finish, I’m not too happy about that.”
Leece’s fourth place on the stage moved him up to fourth in the general classification. “I would have liked to have been on the podium, on that day and also on the overall, fourth position is very hard to take because it’s just outside of the podium but I was still happy with the result.”
Saturday afternoon brought the 7.8-mile time trial where Leece placed 10th at 38 seconds from the stage winner. “For me that was a good time trial, I think I paced myself pretty well, and took advantage from the course pretty well. I’ve raced this race a few years now and I know that course pretty well. Each year I think I do better and better on it. I think I could have done a bit better but I was happy with how I kept my GC position and how fast I went.” said Leece.
Philipp’s 20th place, at one minute and eight seconds down in the time trial moved him up to tenth in the general classification.
The fireworks exploded in the final stage, the two-hour circuit race held on a 2.2-mile loop on the Laguna Seca Raceway with a challenging 300-foot climb and the Corkscrew descent.
“We did a really good job as a team of covering breakaways and I was really happy about that.” said Leece. Sam Bassetti made his way into the first short-lived break. But then the race dynamics changed when following a flat, the yellow jersey Andy Jacques-Maynes was off the back of the field with his Kenda/5Hour Energy teammates. “Exergy was at the front, they were riding and preventing any breakaways from going up to road.”
The reset button was hit when the yellow jersey caught back to the dwindling field with six laps to go. The Berries were marking attacks and riders. “ I was covering Andy and Schmitt and Cooke, trying to get with anything that looked dangerous and promising. All the other guys were doing a good job in being in anything that went up the road.”
With two laps to go, Chris Stastny escaped with three others but the break was also brought back in the final lap. Yannick Eckmann was the highest rider in the squad finishing in 9th place with Bassetti right behind.
“We had good representation up the road throughout the race, and I felt good following all the dangerous moves when I needed to. Unfortunately we didn’t have anyone up the road at the end and with the hill, it’s very hard to organize so we didn’t get anyone far up there in the sprint but I held on to my position in the GC in fourth and I was happy with that result.”
Both Leece and Philipp held on to their general classification standings to finish top 10 overall won by Andy Jacques-Maynes.
The next big race for the squad will be the SRAM Tour of the Gila in two weeks. “I’m really excited for that, I’m on good form, I feel strong, that race will be another level for sure. I’m excited to test myself at it.” concluded Leece.
