Peter Stetina took his first win at the 2020 Grasshopper Adventure Series this weekend in Super Sweetwater, California. He said, "The numbers show it was a breakout run on the World Tour stage. 'Being light in weight, I averaged about 270 watts over the three hours. Those numbers were something I've seen on a World Tour stage. It was extremely hard."

The 145-km race was mostly on paved roads, as the last gravel road was closed to traffic.

"It was a decent hilly course," Stetina said. It wasn't the longest, but it was adequate for February." There were teams with multiple riders, and they would fire up the riders on the road. It was definitely a tactical battle. I was very much in the spotlight, but there were some really strong riders there."

The lack of gravel put the former road riders on familiar ground, making experience as important as leg strength. 'It was all pavement, so tactically it was more like a road race,' he said. But it was hard. On the climbs, we had to burn a lot of workload and cut down a lot of riders. But, as expected, we got caught up in the road construction restrictions on Highway 1 along the Pacific Coast."

Stetina separated from a select group of riders about 15 km into the first big climb of the day and set about wearing down the competition from there. This plan was nearly derailed when the course was interrupted by road construction. [Stetina said, "They stranded us there for six or seven minutes, and suddenly the group went from six or seven to 40 or 50. But in the spirit of gravel, we kept our cool, waved to the cars, and started back in the pack in gentlemanly style." But on the hill before the finish, the group got smaller again, and Stetina took the lead as the leaders battled on the final climb.

"I had been setting the pace on the climbs and suddenly I couldn't drop the last few guys," Stetina said. 'On the final climb it became a game of acceleration and attack. Luckily, I was able to overtake Florent in the last kilometer. I barely got away, but it was a very tough battle."