With only two more days to our next team race, the Aevolo riders have been participating in local races, taking part in championships in their home country, or spending time together getting in those last training kilometers.

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We are thrilled to announce that Luis Ricardo Villalobos is the new U23 individual time trial champion of his home country Mexico. With a time of 59:06, he was only 20 seconds off of the winning time of the new elite national champion Ignacio Prado.

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This means it’s not just the U23 title that Villalobos took, but he also earned himself a silver medal in the elite event.

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Back in the US, Gage Hecht entered his first individual time trial of the year, as the Tour of the Gila next week will also have one individual time trial stage. In the Karen Hornbostel Memorial Time Trial Series, Hecht finished third, only 25 seconds down on the winner.

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Jason Saltzman travelled to North-California for the Copperopolis Road Race, widely regarded as one of the most challenging one day local races in the United States. Five hilly loops with a total distance of 110 miles makes it a very tough race, but after a third place finish in 2016, Saltzman had high hopes of his race in 2017.

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Unfortunately, a mechanical prevented him from getting a good result in.

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“Sometimes you drive 5.5 hours to a bike race, wake up at 5:30 am, only to flat but at the end of the second lap as part of a reduced front group. That’s a small part of the masochism of bike racing. Time to ride myself into the ground tomorrow with the possibility of an Easter crit,” said Saltzman.

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In the meantime, Tyler Stites, Jokin Extabe Leturia and Michael Hernandez have been putting in a training block at Mount Lemmon in Tuscon, opting for relaxing miles instead of hard racing.

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It looks like all of our riders, whether by racing or training, are fully committed to show themselves in our next team race, the Tour of the Gila, which runs from Wednesday April 19 to Sunday 23rd.