LOTOJA XXVII Report (7th report in an ongoing series)
I love this race. I admit, there are times every year when the wind is blowing in my face and my legs are contemplating cramping, that I wonder why I have paid money to suffer on the bike for 10+ hours, but by breakfast the following day, I’m already making plans to do it again.
This was a very unique training year. In years past, I’ve had a routine of training with the OC boys and getting in a series of spirited early AM rides during the week and a bunch of long rides on Saturdays during the summer. Since the move to Utah in May, I’ve been left to train mostly on my own with an occasional ‘group’ ride on Saturday with my boys John and Brian and Irvine transplant, Paul Badger. John and I did a couple of centuries, including 1000 Warriors, in August and Paul joined us for 80 miles on one of the rides (his longest training ride of the season). I really missed the hard pace with several intervals of the Irvine morning ride. In place of that ride, I mostly did solo rides up AmericanForkCanyon – no sprints, no intervals – just
riding. I knew the lack of preparation was going to come back to haunt me……
Mark, Bob and Paul showing off our Lotoja Tattoos at registration. This was something new this year to help stop non-registered racers from taking the place of registered ones on race day.
On Friday, my facebook update was that I was going to think positive. No longer whining about not training, now I was focused on “fresh legs’. That line of thinking paid off. Friday night the Emmett clan, mom, dad, John, Beth, Jack, Lily, Kristin,
Brian, Jackie, Annie and I enjoyed what has become a traditional pre-race meal at the Olive Garden. At other tables were Tyson and Julia Manning, Mark and Mindy Facer along with Corte and Cheri Haggard. At another table Paul and Kim Badger were having dinner with Paul’s cousin and at a 4th table was the Robles clan - Casey the racer and his support team of his dad, wife, sister and brother.
Peter and Janet Harker were at Peter’s brother enjoying dinner without the hassle of waiting in line for an hour.
Post-peach ice cream photo op. Did I remember to thank my parents for opening up their house for the 7th year in a row?
After our ‘too late to do any good carbo loading’, it was back to Twin Pine Ranch for the ‘never too late to do any good homemade peach ice cream’ It’s a lot of work for mom and dad – especially mom, who in recent years has been required to do more and more of the ‘heavy lifting’ – to get the house ready, garage cleaned out and all of the peaches cut and pealed and the ice cream made. They keep offering up their house for the pre-race gathering and I know that all of us – both friend and family, really appreciate it. It is a busy night of arranging support, filling musette bags – mostly with food or gu that won’t be consumed, but also energy drink (Hammer Perpetuem for most) and an assortment of Hammer Endurolytes and Ibuprofen. . In recent years, John and I have zeroed in on turkey meat rolled up with a cheese and mustard for our any-thing but sweet snack. This year I was very happy to eat my treat in Afton (mile 120). John was so excited that he made one for Afton and a second for Alpine – too bad he dropped the one in Afton and as has become an all too frequent a happening, John beat his support to Alpine and was left on his own like Bear Grylls to fend for himself the last 40 miles (thank goodness for the neutral support at the end of Snake River Canyon).
My brother Tom was also riding this year. Two years ago in his first full Lotoja ride, he beat my time by a few minutes. This year he was even stronger. He planned to ride in the so-called ‘Fun Ride’ – a non-competitive class that leaves first at 5:45. As it turns out, being first on the road is not always a good thing. In his case it meant a long day in the saddle and most of the miles done solo. When riders finally started to catch him they were always the fastest riders of the fastest groups. He needed to be caught by guys like me, but alas, I started almost 50 minutes later and there was no way I would see Tom until I got to Jackson.
Tyson and Peter at the Start line
My start time with the Master’s 45+ was 6:34. Starting with me would be Peter, Paul and Mark. Corte opted to sign up with the Master’s 35+ group just so he could get a 3 minute head start with Tyson. This was not going to be pretty. Our group of 70 Masters was full of former CAT 1 racers who had thoughts of setting a new course record. Not my style of racing, but at least we had an early start time.
Just before our start, I stopped for a photo op with Trent Eyre – something I’m sure will be forwarded to his brother Tait who was not able to participate this year because of his new church calling as a counselor in the Irvine Stake Presidency (I’ve already apologized to Tait, but I’m not sure he bought off on the sincerity of the apology!).
Once I slipped onto the start line, I could see that I couldn’t get across to Peter, Paul and Mark, but I soon caught them as we literally raced out of town. No warm-up. We’re cruising down 2nd North at 25+mph and I looked over to Paul at about 3rd West, less than ½ mile into the ride, and said sarcastically, “how’s this pace?” His reply, “See you later.”
We weren’t even 1/3 of the way to Preston when we caught the 35’s. Corte and Tyson were near the front as we rolled by. After that our group became a little disorganized with the 35’s and 45’s mixed together. Eventually a big group of 35’s went by us and I followed – alone, which is a no-no. It took a couple of minutes to figure out the rest of my group was behind so I set up and waited. I apologized to the guys at the front of my group when then caught me and it was not big deal. I’m pretty sure they realized the old man wasn’t going to make a solo break away 15 miles into the race.
We reached Preston en masse – both 35’s and 45’s mixed together. I tried to stay near the front – the race text message to Kristin said that I was in 3rd place at the first time check. Yup, I’m a powerful rider….. My brother Bill was once again at the control as support in Preston. He hooked me up with a musette bag with two fresh bottles of Perpetuem. Bill, aka, YPR, is AWESOME. He’s up at the crack of dawn, drives into Logan to watch baby bro Tom start at 5:45 then stops by Twin Pine Ranch to pick up musettes for John, Tyson and me. His willingness to do this takes a ton of stress off others who are doing support for the rest of the race because they don’t have to race to Montpelier. Thanks Bro!
Snapshot of Tom's day. Many long lonely miles in the saddle.
I missed Brian in Preston. He was waiting for the relay teams to arrive, but a rash of flat tires outside of Preston had the group delayed. Eventually they got the timing chips to Preston and he, along with his Aunt Shelly and her friend were off on their 50 mile ride to Montpelier. Shelly also rode the final 46 mile section to complete almost 100 miles on the bike for the day. Brian said his portion of the ride went well. That shows what over 500 miles of riding since Lotoja last year will do for you. After arriving in Preston, Brian joined up with Kristin, Jackie and Beth in the support vehicles.
Just outside of Preston, about 20 of the 35’s an 45’s stopped for a nature break. Peter, Mark and I included. Tyson and Corte kept rolling. At the start of the Strawberry climb I was with Peter in a large group of mostly 35’s. I had talked to the race official on the motorbike going into town and he told me that he planned to separate the two groups after the feed zone and would hold the 35’s back. Peter didn’t know this was going to take place so he wasn’t aware that main group of 45’s were a couple hundred yards up the road and pulling away. I told him the situation and told him I’d help get him back up to our group so we rolled up to the front of the group only to have some guy at the front yell at us for racing. I told he we were 45’s and trying to chase back on so he lightened up. It took a few minutes but Peter and I worked together and caught back up. I knew I couldn’t handle that pace all day so I patted Peter on the back and told him to race hard and make us proud. I then sat up to wait for Mark, Corte and Tyson who were less than a minute behind.
About half way up the climb, John came by with the leaders of his CAT 5 group that had started 20 minutes behind us. John looked strong. Later I learned that just after passing us, he lost the wheel of the 4 leaders. He blamed seeing us as the cause of a bell going off inside telling him that the pace of the leaders was too much. A couple of days after the race John amended his story as to why he let the leaders get away, he told me "Because they were freaking faster than me." That's an excuse I can relate to. Near the summit, Ben Kofoed said hello as the leaders of the CAT 4’s passed us. Ben’s won and been on the podium in past years as a CAT 5. This was not his year as he was forced to spend 30 minutes in a port-a-potty and gave up any chance of a podium finish.
John racing down Strawberry. He looks like he's on his way to his fastest time ever. 9:41. Wow.
Mark leading a 'Red Burro' down Strawberry
At the false summit a strong group of CAT 5 riders caught us. I said to Corte, “Let’s try to hang with these guys over the summit” – easier said than done. I did my best to hang on, but after a few minutes I knew Corte was off the back and that Tyson and Mark would probably explode right along side me if we tried to hold on. The last mile of that climb is deceptive. Never has Corte been stronger so it was a no-brainer for Mark, Tyson and I to back it off at the summit and take a nature break while we waited for Corte. Just as he rolled up, Mark and I jumped on a small but strong group. We caught Tyson off the bike just over the summit and he never had a chance to jump on. Corte also missed this train. Mark and I stuck with these guys and worked a fast pace with them all the way to Montpelier. It was the hardest – outside of the climbs and the final 6 miles – all day. Mark and I were able to enjoy a leisurely 5 minute stop in Montpelier talking to the girls while we waited for Corte and Tyson to roll into town.
Paul is my hero. Long Day. Big Smile.
Brian and Shelly
Kristin, Jackie and Beth are the BEST!
Julia, Mindy, Cheri and Kim
Julia later told Annie that Tyson was a little depressed and in pain with a sore back at the thought of having to ride the last 120 miles on his own and was very happy to see that Mark and I had waited.
We all stuck together on the Geneva Climb. I was a little disappointed at how hard this supposedly easiest climb was. This year it really kicked my butt. We had a fast descent . Tyson noted that his top speed was almost 55 mph – the fastest he’s ever gone on a bike. That’s pretty good descending for the rookie.
We had our only real tail wind of the day for the first few miles heading toward Salt River. I grabbed a fresh water bottle at the neutral and the climb was on. This is the toughest climb of the day. Headwind, heat and steep. We each set our own pace. I was off the front but always in view of Tyson with Mark trailing him and Corte bringing up the rear. At the top, Tyson and I made a porta potty stop while Mark took a horizontal position on the asphalt of the view area parking lot just past the KOM timer. We ended up waiting at least 20 minutes for Corte. Had he flatted? Bonked? Mechanical? We chatted and consumed some of Mindy’s grapes then finally decided that Corte was a big boy and could make it on his own.
Off we headed for Afton. We jumped on a pretty good group that came by us and I don’t think any of us went to the front as we rolled into Afton. It was Tyson’s first experience with ‘Rumble Strips’. I have more nightmares about rumble strips than I do about my first experience with wasabi and squid sushi in Japan 35 years ago.
Did I say Tom spent a lot of time on his own?
Tyson off the front on Salt River
Last big climb of the day
Mindy feeding grapes to Mark - How did we miss Corte rolling by?
In Afton we asked Cheri about Corte. “Oh, he’s up ahead about 20 minutes”. Do’h, he must have rolled over the top while Mark was lying down and Tyson and I were either not paying attention or in the porta potty. Oh well, let’s go get him.
Thanks to his sneak attack on Salt River, Corte was off the front
Sitting in behind the Cat 4 Women in Snake River Canyon
These girls stayed in the front allowing us old men to stay out of the wind
Right outside of Afton we hooked up with the four leaders of the Women’s Cat 4 group. They were racing for the podium and couldn’t risk working with us so we sat on and enjoyed not having to work. This year the wind was blowing as usual, but was mostly a head wind so you could hide unlike last year when the wind was coming it at 9 or 10 O’clock and there was no where to hide because the rumble strips prevent any kind of echelon riding.
We found out in Alpine that Kristin had missed John at the feed zone. She had passed him on the road in with what she thought would be plenty of time, but parking and getting the iced bottles ready took more time than it took John to fly into town. John has a good attitude and knew that he could get some water at the neutral at the end of the canyon. Note: at the end of the race I witnessed what looked like a husband berating his wife for missing him in Alpine. She was crying as she said, “but I didn’t even have time to go to the bathroom!” It’s a ton of stress if you’re one person supporting a fast rider. I can’t say enough about Kristin. Her organizational skills really shine Lotoja day. She coaches Beth and Jackie along with newbies like Mindy, Cheri and Julia. She’s the BEST! Honestly, I couldn’t do this race without her.
Soon after we heading into the canyon, Mark, Tyson and I hooked up with two of the girls we had been following. The stronger rider, from Porcupine Racing was apparently off the front. They were setting a good pace and I was content to follow. I might have been tempted to follow a couple of other small groups that went by, but I knew my limit and while I felt like I had a little reserve in the tank, I was pretty sure Mark was closer to his limit because he’d been fighting off cramps since the first climb. I wasn’t sure about how much Tyson had left, but I knew he was content to sit in with Mark and me.
About 2/3 of the way through the canyon I spotted Corte up ahead. As we went by I slapped him on the butt. He said he jumped on the back but couldn't hold on for long. By now the girls had picked up the strongest rider who had been off the front and we stayed with them into Jackson. On the new section, I saw a group of about 15 come by us. I could see the barn door 10 miles up the road so I jumped on hoping Mark and Tyson would be able to go with me. They did – for a while…. Mark popped where the bike trail merged with the highway. Tyson stayed for a couple more miles as a random group of 7 worked a fast double pace line. Tyson finally popped and I stayed with these guys to the finish.
Finish
Mark hooked up with a fast guy and came within about 10 yards of Tyson at the finish, and they both finished a minute behind me. It was over for us. Not my fastest time, but without a doubt the easiest race ever. I rarely was at my limit and for the first time ever, I didn’t even come close to cramping. Maybe the Optygen works!
Corte rolled through about 20 minutes later. All in all a good day with the four of us working together for almost the entire day. I have my work cut out for me convincing Mark to come back and ride Masters 55+ next year.
Great guys to ride with
Shep and Tom. Early start, Fast Finish. Sub 10 hours for Jeff and a mostly solo sub 11 for Tom.
Hmmm, didn't we just see Mark on his back about 100 miles down the road?
T Manning gave it his all..... and then some.
Selected Results below. Check out how close Casey came to missing the sub 11 hour time:
96 miles and a purported 14,778 feet of climbing (plus a 3 mile ride to the start line and 6 miles back down the canyon to get a ride home). The results are in. Looks like I just barely made the time cut-off for recording times..... They planned to stop recording finishes at 2PM (our start time was 6:50AM). Bill Freedman (friend of Tait's) and I rolled through just before the cut-off. Tait finished a few minutes behind me and we saw Trent closing in on the finish line as John and I rode back down the canyon.
I planned to take it easy on this ride because I was pretty sure I didn't have the training base to do any more than that. Tait, Trent, Brian and I got dropped on the first climb heading to Kamas. The major factor for me getting dropped was that I put my front wheel on backwards and decided to stop and flip it so my computer would work. Do'h. John, Peter and Adam made the selection of what became about 15 riders according to John. The brothers Eyre and I hooked up with the group leaders from the group behind and pulled into Midway together. Brian was a few minutes behind.
In Midway, I stopped to help John who was stranded with a flat and a blown spare. He was riding with the leaders, flatted then blew up his spare (probably twisted the tube when he put it on). I hooked him up with one of my tubes and we chased in tandem through Heber Valley, finally picking up Brian on the south side of Deer Creek Reservoir. Once the Sundance/Alpine Loop climb started John was off the front and Brian was off the back. I went over the top of Alpine Loop with the brothers Eyre and we made it into Highland together. In American Fork Canyon everyone came to a stop just before Timpanogos Cave parking lot. I found out later that 5 riders from the Brumby team (Mesa, AZ) crashed when a Ford Explorer stopped suddenly to avoid on-coming traffic. They were going about 40 mph down American Fork Canyon when two riders hit the Explorer, two more ran off the road to avoid it and the 5th went down trying to sliding along the road in the broken glass. The most seriously injured was Dave Collins, who went flying through the rear window braking his jaw and opening a cut from his ear to his sternum that also cut his jugular. According to a tweet and an email update from race Director, Rick Bennett, he would have most likely died had not two EMT's been riding in their pack. He lost 5 pints of blood but looks like he will make a full recovery.
A crash like that is very sobering. While it's a bummer that we didn't get to enjoy the fun riding down lower American Fork Canyon because traffic was backed up several miles while the accident victim was life-flighted - at least those I was riding with all stayed upright on their bikes and avoided the traffic in the Canyon which was very nerve wracking. I think I lost at least 20 minutes by not being able to race lower American Fork Canyon. In Highland, I took the time to stop by the new house for a potty break and to get a cold bottle of water. I was so over trying to post a good time and much more focused on just finishing.
John is a skilled and fast descender. He told me he passed close to 40 riders on the American Fork Canyon descent and caught the leaders of his group who were held up due to the accident. After leaving me at the base of the climb to Sundance, John extended his lead over me on the final 50+ miles and finished a solid hour ahead of me. Time enough to go sit down - two different times - in the cold river water at Snowbird. John said he never felt good all day and even as strong as he is, he was forced off his bike to rest or recover at least once on the climb to Snowbird.
Trent and I left Tait to suffer on Suncrest - the climb over South Mountain from Utah County to Salt Lake County - and then I left Trent on Wasatch Blvd. The snowbird climb is horrific when you are fresh. When you're on the rivet AND the temp is close to 100 AND there is a head wind the climb is beyond horrific. I ended up stopping 3 times on the climb for a total I guess to be about 30 minutes because of cramping. At one point my right quad was cramped so hard I couldn't do anything except stand on the side of the road and wince in pain. Two different support vehicles offered me a ride to the top, but I figured I wouldn't be able to make fun of Brian for hitching a ride to the top on our training ride two weeks ago if I did the same, so I waited out the cramps and climbed back on the bike.
My ride time was 6:14 compared to my clock time of 7:09. It was hard not to just pack it in and turn around. As I said earlier, I have never suffered this much on a bike. Never.
Adam and Brian ended up not finishing. I understand Adam hit the wall and was sick at the base of Little Cottonwood and decided not to continue. For Brian, this was his 6th time on the bike all year (all in the past 3 weeks). He decided that there was no need to make the turn off of Wasatch Blvd on to Little Cottonwood so he waited for Kristin who was on her way to pick us up at the base of the canyon.
Peter Harker gets the ride of the day award (5:49). He stayed with the leaders for most of the ride and then in the end paced himself and finished 7th! John said a couple of guys asked him where team Sho-Air was from. He told them SoCal and their reply was "you guys are fast". I feel I might not have represented as well as I should have.
Fastest time of the day goes to Todd Brown. Looks like Todd finished 11th (5:45) in the Masters 45. Not bad when you consider all those training miles he sacrificed to teach early morning Seminary. Well Done.
Photo of my nifty Bear Lake Classic Tee taken with my web cam.
So..... for my first road race - other than Lotoja - I picked the Bear Lake road race on May 16. 51 miles around Bear Lake in a clockwise direction starting at Blue Water on the south west end. I heard about it yesterday and decided to drive over early this morning to see if I could get in. I didn't know if I wanted to ride Cat 5 with Jeff Shepherd and Ben Kofoed or Masters 45+. Turns out the Cat 5 race was full so the decision was made to race Masters. OUCH. I guess I should have been training the past few weeks instead of packing up the house and looking for a job.
I had heard from Tom and Jeff that most groups do a moderate to fast pace around the lake and then the last mile or so is a group sprint. Not so with Masters. I was in a group of about 25, dominated by 6-8 riders each from Bountiful Mazda, Canyon Cyclery (Draper based), Cole Sports and Ski Utah. I was flying the Sho-Air colors. The race started just like many of the pro races. At the gun 3 riders were off the front and for the next 20 miles I stayed near the front as we chased down at least a dozen break away attempts while letting several solo attempts go - but never more than 100 meters. At about mile 19, we turned along North Beach and I cramped just as another break attempt took off. I pulled up for a few seconds and let the last wheel get away. After a short chase, I sat up resigned to a 30 mile solo ride to the finish. I'm sure I'll see many of the same riders at Lotoja in 4 months. I'm not looking forward to that.
The Masters 35's caught me (they started 3 minutes back) along the east side of the lake. I hung on at the back for a couple of miles, but finally let them go on a hill not much bigger than a freeway over crossing. Something I now have in common with Bob Roll.
At the south end of the Lake the first group of Cat 5's caught and passed me and right behind them the Pro Women rolled by. I sat on the back of the Pro Women to the finish before sitting up to stay clear of their sprint.
Just after I finished, in came the second Cat 5 group. Ben Kofoed lead the group on the left had turn with a straight 500M run to the finish. Jeff Shepherd said he was third wheel at the turn. After Ben pulled over, Jeff powered by the last rider and won with ease sitting up while the rest of the group battled for 2nd. Way to go Jeff!!
I did get in a hard 50+ mile ride and a pastrami sandwich at LeBeau's so the day wasn't a total loss. Next year I'll be back and I'll be 55. Might be the only good thing about getting old is moving up to a new age division.
One of my favorite former Laker's took first and the former lead singer for the Doobie Brothers came it 8th. At least I made the top 25!!
Results below:
Bear Lake Road Race 5/16/2009 Masters 45+ Place Points Athlete Team 1 02:03:01.67 35 Michael Cooper Canyon Bicycles Draper 2 02:03:02.54 30 John McKone Cole Sport Racing 3 02:03:02.63 26 Gary Swain Bountiful Mazda 4 02:03:03.57 23 Andrew Lock Canyon Bicycles of Salt Lake 5 02:03:03.76 20 Bob Walker Bountiful Mazda 6 02:03:04.39 18 John Lauck Bountiful Mazda 7 02:03:04.77 16 Jeff Clawson Canyon Bicycles Draper 8 02:03:04.83 15 Michael MacDonald Bountiful Mazda 9 02:03:04.83 13 Jeff Ure Bountiful Mazda 10 02:03:05.37 12 Michael Loveland Unattached 11 02:03:05.52 10 Ken Yonemura Ski Utah Cycling/Utah Premier 12 02:03:05.87 9 Lorin Ronnow 13 02:03:06.01 7 Criag SORENSEN Unattached 14 02:03:08.46 6 Steven Lewis Canyon Bicycles of Salt Lake 15 02:03:08.55 4 Jerald Hunsaker Bountiful Mazda 16 02:03:09.00 3 Dirk Cowley FFKR Architects/SportsBaseOnline.Com p/b Tour of Utah 17 02:03:09.18 1 Michael PROFSKY Canyon Bicycles Draper 18 * 0 Jamie Longe Canyon Bicycles Draper 19 * 0 Scott Bales Bountiful Mazda 20 02:03:12.02 0 Bruce Bilodeau Canyon Bicycles Draper 21 02:03:22.20 0 Peter Barquin X-Men/Team Northwave 22 02:03:39.19 0 Mark Chrysler Unattached 23 02:03:39.19 0 Louis Riel Canyon Bicycles Draper 24 02:10:21.00 0 David Saurman 25 02:12:22.00 0 Robert EMMETT Sho-Air
One of the things that I love about cycling is the hard work of the teammates on behalf of their leader - whether a sprinter, climber or GC (General Classification) cyclist.
Yesterday on Stage 2 Levi Leipheimer absolutely decimated the field on the final climb up Boony Doon Road. His team drove the front of the peloton all day in the rain and then delivered Levi to the base of the last climb. With Yaroslov Popovych his only remaining teammate, Levi asked him to "Light it Up". Popo stepped on the gas for about a kilometer and then Levi was off. No one could follow. Soon he caught and passed all 10 riders in the break and only Thomas Peterson was able to hold on to Levi's wheel as he powered into Santa Cruz. Very impressive!
On the first stage of the Amgen Tour of California, Levi found himself 12 minutes behind Francisco Mancebo. Levi's team went to the front and while Levi sat in 3rd or 4th wheel the likes of Chris Horner, Chechu Ruberia and Lance Armstrong buried themselves to reel in Johnson and Kemp and then take back back 11 of the 12 minute advantage Mancebo had established. Had the race officials not decided to stop the clock before the 3 lap circuit of Santa Rosa, the Astana boys would have been able to bring back the entire advantage.
The KOM results tell the story:
Howell Mt Rd
1 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Rock Racing 8 pts 2 Timothy Johnson (USA) OUCH Presented By Maxxis 7 3 David Kemp (Aus) Fly V Australia 6 4 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana 5 5 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 3
Rock 'N Road has a great Saturday ride that started up just before Christmas. The first half of the ride is a fast paced ride through Santiago Canyon followed by some food, drink and socializing at the Woodbury RNR shop before heading out on second 34 mile loop through Shady Canyon, over Newport Coast to PCH and back to Irvine via Laguna Canyon.
This week they posted a reminder about the ride that included a photo of Patrick and me sitting outside the shop during the mid-ride break a couple of weeks ago. This is the photo that is going to get me back to the gym and into the pool in an attempt to loose a few of these off season pounds.
For those who enjoy listening to Jim Rome, Patrick has a fun story he related a few weeks ago about his experience with Rome early one morning in Shady Canyon. While on a ride before the sun came up, Patrick was cut off by an unknown driver who may have rolled through a stop sign. An obscene jester exchange might have been the end of the story, but later that day, Patrick was listening in to AM sports talk radio and Rome was ranting about how cyclist think they own the road and related the experience he had earlier that morning - which was all about Patrick. He tried in vain to call in and tell his side of the story. So the next time you hear Rome ranting about how much he hates cyclists, you can blame at least part of it on Patrick.
I'm a huge fan of fatty. I check in on his blog often - especially since we're seriously considering a move to his stomping grounds in Utah. On many occasions, the fatcyclist, aka, Elden, has brought me to tears - both of laughter ('How Not to Get Invited on the Next Group Ride and 'How to Size Up the Competition' are two of my favorites) and sorrow (posts about the ups and downs of his wife, Susan's, battle with cancer). Today's post titled 'So You Want To Be A Cyclist Part I: Choosing Your Equipment' is an instant classic. I was already laughing when I got to the part about the recumbent and unfortunately filled my nose with Diet Coke as I read it. Too Funny.
Now, if only I could figure out how to fit a pillow and a Russian phrasebook into my mini-wedge....
Tyson and Peter at the Start line
Snapshot of Tom's day. Many long lonely miles in the saddle.
John racing down Strawberry. He looks like he's on his way to his fastest time ever. 9:41. Wow.
Mark leading a 'Red Burro' down Strawberry
Paul is my hero. Long Day. Big Smile.
Brian and Shelly
Kristin, Jackie and Beth are the BEST!
Julia, Mindy, Cheri and Kim
Did I say Tom spent a lot of time on his own?
Tyson off the front on Salt River
Last big climb of the day
Mindy feeding grapes to Mark - How did we miss Corte rolling by?
Thanks to his sneak attack on Salt River, Corte was off the front
Sitting in behind the Cat 4 Women in Snake River Canyon
These girls stayed in the front allowing us old men to stay out of the wind
Finish
Great guys to ride with
Shep and Tom. Early start, Fast Finish. Sub 10 hours for Jeff and a mostly solo sub 11 for Tom.
Hmmm, didn't we just see Mark on his back about 100 miles down the road?
T Manning gave it his all..... and then some.
Starting the Recovery with cold water on sore legs.
Tres Emmetts - Tom, Bob and John. An hour after the finish and the sun's still up!
1000 miles!
John (six starts, six finishes, two podiums), Corte (six starts, five finishes), Bob (seven starts, six finishes)
