It’s a little difficult to fit a half-dozen cyclists onto one small podium step, which is maybe the reason people forget that cycling is a team sport.
The Stone House Group is here to remind them.
The team was put together by local cyclist Rob Alvarez three years ago for this very moment, with the stars aligned to make a real run at the dominant P&S team out of Hermosillo, Mexico. Alvarez is a graduate of Sahuaro High School and a Cat-1 cyclist, the highest level for a non-affiliated professional rider. For him, Saturday’s Tucson Medical Center El Tour de Tucson sponsored by Casino del Sol represents the pinnacle of the sport.
“It’s a bucket list kind of thing,” he said. “It’s a huge deal. I get more excited for this than any other ride. I could win some big races in California or in Mexico, but everyone I know says, ‘How did you do in the El Tour?’ Even a top-20. ‘A top-20? Wow!’ Yeah, but I want to win.”
With one major addition — both to the team, and to his own abilities — there is a chance.
Former professional cyclist-turned-triathlete Ivan Dominguez recently began coaching, and Alvarez hired him to get some fine-tuning. Alvarez competed extensively in his younger days, but with a business — The Stone House Group is sponsored by, and the name of, Alvarez’s real estate company — to grow and a family to look after, he put cycling on the back burner.
Roughly four years ago, he and close friend Brian Forbes decided to focus more on cycling.
Alvarez decided to become the title sponsor, and in 2014, he and Forbes found themselves in the breakaway to finish El Tour, only to fade down the stretch, ultimately finishing sixth and seventh, respectively, in a race that Philip Tinstman won. That gave them a taste, and after a bad race last year, they came back this season hungrier for more.
With Dominguez’s tutelage, Alvarez is gaining confidence. His swagger has grown after a recent successful finish for Team Stone House at a road race in Hermosillo; Alvarez won and teammate Craig Streit took second.
But it’s Dominguez’s decision to forgo the Arizona Ironman and join the squad for El Tour that has Alvarez really humming.
“He’s been a top-level athlete since the early 2000s, and he’s won at pretty much all the major races in America,” Alvarez said of Dominguez, a sprinter whose biggest win was in Stage 7 of the 2007 Tour of California. “We were already excited about El Tour, because the team has great chemistry, everyone fits, but to have him is the icing on the cake. To be able to ride with that guy, it’s like name any top pro, and it’s like you’re riding with him. He’s that good. Kind of like your hero.”
Dominguez — nickname: the Cuban Missile — could be the missing piece in a squad of six that includes Alvarez, Forbes, Streit, Wouter Zwart and Daniel Parkman. Parkman will also be going for the tandem category along with Eli Roberts.
There is enough depth to get the team on the podium, Forbes believes. Once one of them has the chance at a breakaway, the others will be there for support and the heavy lifting, like shading the crosswind.
“You need to have 1-through-6,” Forbes said. “A lot of times, the workhorses, if they had the opportunity, they’d be winning races. High-end professionals, you’ll see guys who for a year or two they do a lot of work, and the next year they’re the team captain. In football, the quarterback is usually the star, and the linemen don’t get the recognition, but that’s what gets the team there. Same thing in cycling — you have a quarterback, but the other six, seven guys are all linemen. All the grunts.”
The goal for Alvarez and Forbes is to see the kit up on the podium in Tucson.
“I was talking to my daughter in my car yesterday, just saying it’s super-important,” Alvarez said. “It’s not about money, fame, anything like that —since I’m 10 years old, I’ve heard about El Tour. Being a Tucson cyclist, trying to race at the highest level with a family and a business, El Tour is the big one for us.
“For us, it’s the world championship.”
