Athlete Diary: Geoffrey Curran – Amgen® Tour of California

Blog by Geoffrey Curran, Sponsored Axeon Hagens Berman cyclist

This blog comes to us in the continued series from sponsored cycling team Axeon Hagens Berman. Throughout the year, riders from the American under-23 squad will share their unique experiences as they compete in races around the world. In this entry, native Californian Geoffrey Curran shares his insight into the team’s biggest race in the United States, the Amgen® Tour of California.

I left my house in Tuscan last Friday for the quick drive down the coast to North County, San Diego for the Amgen® Tour of California. It was a bit odd because usually I have to do some extensive travel to get to a race. But for me, it was just like going to a race in the Escondido area, where I race pretty often.

Our pre-competition agenda included the anti-doping tests that they perform on every rider. The nice thing about being sponsored by Klean Athlete and using their products is the piece of mind they give you. You know when you are filling out the paperwork that there is zero risk of a Klean supplement being flagged.

Then it was time for “race hotel life,” which consists of sitting around, surfing the internet, doing some reading or finding an NBA playoff game on TV. Saturday, the day before the race began, we met up with some people who had hosted us at their house the week prior. They came to our hotel to ride with us on our ride down to the beach. As someone who knew the area, I decided we should just go toward the beach. We did the typical cyclist thing – finding a coffee shop, sitting down and invading the area and then riding back. It was actually quite nice and relaxed.

The mood among the team members heading into the Sunday-to-Sunday race was pretty low key. It is a big race, but a lot of the guys on our team did it last year, so it was not as much as a hurdle to get through racing against really big world teams; it was pretty much like any other bike race.  There was only one rider on our eight-man roster who I had not raced with: Greg Daniel, who had been competing in Europe most of the spring.

Sunday’s opening stage was more like a tour of San Diego. A group of riders broke away early in the race and after that it was pretty relaxed for a while. I had the compass running on my GPS, so I was just looking at that, figuring out that we were racing the ocean or going up the coast. There were some good exhibits happening by a local park. Then we got down to Imperial Beach and Chula Vista, and I realized I had visited there in 2014 after I had joined the national team. Basically, I had previously ridden the remainder of the stage until 30 kilometers to go. For the most part, things were pretty normal until the run-in to the finish. It was all about helping out some of my teammates by getting them to the three-kilometers-to-go sign.

Some people find this pretty unusual, but I am unusually observant in races. I can tell you when the bridges are built by the signs on them. I don’t know why I pay attention to stuff like that – no matter how fast we are going. I just see things and like to pay attention to what is happening on the side of the road. And staying on that subject, I have noticed elementary and middle schools provide the biggest and most reliable fan base for professional cycling. If you want to see people to cheering the hardest, just pass by a school. They’re not in class; they’re banging those noise sticks in support (a fun alternative to schoolwork for kids between the ages of 7 and 13).

One change from last year’s race, at least for me, is the media attention we are getting. With a combination of some better outreach by our press team and the fact that we are also showing so well in the races, pretty much everybody is interested in talking to us. It has not been out of the normal for our press officer, Sean Weide, to ask us who wants to do interviews because we have two TV stations and a couple newspaper reporters asking for comments at the start. Last year, we just showed up and sat around before setting out on the race.

As I write this, we have three stages to go. I hope we can hold the momentum and maintain the aggression we have had so far. I will check in after what will hopefully be a terrific and successful final weekend in Northern California.

You can follow Geoffrey on Instagram and Twitter

Instagram: www.instagram.com/currancurry
Twitter: www.twitter.com/geoffreycurran

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