the century of wind

Bre, Kate and I are up at the cabin for the week prior to racing LOTOJA. Yesterday I road the Jackson and back which is just over100 miles. The weather was great and I felt great through the ride. There was no wind until I turned back from Jackson and the wind picked up. Then it was a massuve afternoon head wind all the way back to the cabin. Yuck. Great ride and good training for next saturday's 206 mile race up here. This morning we drove up to Jackson and ate at Bubbus. Fantastic.

Sanpete Classic Road Race

Yesterday was the Sanpete road race. 98 miles, rolling course, one 3 mile climb near the end that is not steep. We had 7 Ski Utah guys and so could control the race. I was marking Jess. He attacked many times but never got rid of me. At about 30 miles in, I went in a break with Clint, Jes and his teamate, Sam (porcupine) and a canyon rider. This was going ot be the break that made it. There was some trouble with people pulling through and the rotation was not smooth. In the pack, Dustin tried to bridge but then canyon would have been the only team without 2 riders in the break. They put 3 guys on the front and brought us back. I think that if we would have just put our rotations together we would have made it. In any event, shortly after, Cameron rode off the front and 4 riders, one by one, bridged to him. So there was a 4 man break up the road with Cameron from Ski Utah, and a guy from Cyclosmith so our 2 teams were not working and just controling every attack (there were alot of them). One of the 4 came back to us, a single from Contender). Cameron ended up 3rd over the line. When we hit the climb I drilled it and dropped Jess. Gary stayed on my wheel. Dustin attacked and Tyler Wall went with him with 2 other guys. I played cat and mouse with Gary at he was in 3rd in the UCA rankings behind me by just 1 point. At 800 meters to go I put in my attack (too early) and held him off until inside 200 meters) he came around me at the line and I took 9th. Great result for Cameron (3rd) and Tyler (6th) for our team. Laura Patton took 1st in the cat 1,2,3 women.

Next race (and last for the season) is Lotoja in 2 weeks.

tapering

Tapering for a race is a pain. You would think that riding less hours at easier paces would be easier but it isn't. Maybe it isn't easier because you loose some of the focus you need to complete weeks where you are working hard. In any event, I can't wait to race this weekend.

The week after

The week before the Tour of PC I got the weakest virus from my daughter. I hardly thought about it and by the start of the race I felt great. Well, after burying myself at the race I think the virus had free reign and I was knocked down from Sunday to Tuesday. Wednesday I felt well enough for 1:30 of easy as it gets pace. Thursday was good enough for about 70% effort up Emigration. Friday afternoon Bre, Kate, and I drove up to the cabin for the weekend. We got there about 5:30 and I unloaded the car and took off on my bike for the Freedom-Thayne loop. At the furthest point from the cabin a sheet of rain, and what felt like hail, began pounding me. I TTed the rest of the course and got back with a PR on the course. Not a great thing to do when you are recovering from a cold. Anyway, Saturday (today) I got out early and did 60mi up Snake River Canyon averaging 22MPH and felt very strong. After we all took a nap and then Kate and Bre went to a show and I'm taking it easy. I'll probably do about 50-60mi tomorrow before heading home.

I've got 2 races left for the season, Sanpete and LOTOJA. currently I've got enough points to upgrade to CAT 2 but I have no desire to go. There is some great competition in the 3s right now and I'm having a great time with the Ski Utah 3s. I'll put in a hard off season and see what 2009 brings.

Tour of Park City

Yesterday was the 170 mile Tour of Park City. It was probably the hardest race I've ever done. The course goes from Kimbal Junction in Park City up through Coalville and then follows Chalk Creek Road to Evanston, WY before turning back toward Utah. You then climb over Bald Mt. pass in the Unitas (10,800ft) before decending to Kamas UT and finishing over several hills back to Kimbal Junction.

The Cat 1,2, and 3s all raced together. The last time I raced with the pro 1-2s was at Tax Day circuit race this last spring. It was like death.

We rolled out of Kimbal Junction at 7:05am and my teamate Jan went to the front and began pushing the pace. I thought that was ambitious considering the length and difficulty of the course coming. But Jan did one better. At 10 miles into the race he went right off the front and built a solo lead that topped out at about 6 and a half minutes. With jan out front we (Ski Utah) went to work controlling the front of the pack. There were about 5 of us and Jan made 6 teamates. When someone would launch an attack, there was a Ski Utah teamate on his wheel, over and over again. We sat on any paceline that started and went with any attack. Nothing got off. I got yelled at by a few cat 1-2s but they of all people should know the tactics we were employing. It was great.

Once we got to Evanston, WY and turned back toward the mountains we hit the head wind and Jan's lead began coming down fast. An attack from FFKR went and Jeremy Smith covered that one. They got about a half mile up the road when Mark Shafer came up beside me. He's a Pro 1 and a former national champion. As soon as he launched his attack I was on him. We got half way between the pack and Jeremy when he asked me if I wanted to bridge. We worked together and bridged to Jeremy and the FFKR guy. The 4 of us pacelined for about 15 minutes before catching Jan. He hooked on the back of us to recover.

The climb starts at about 3-4%. I guess the FFKR guy was missing pulls when he missed a pull and let Mark and I get a gap on him, Jan and Jeremy, Jeremy let the gap widen to about 200m before attacking and bridging solo to us. This left us with 3 in the lead break, Mark Shafer from Paul Tracy Racing and Jeremy and I from Ski Utah. The 3 of us pushed up the long, long climb. I had never ridden up this side of Bald Mt pass (though we come the other way in the High Uinta Classic) and I didn't know where the top would be. I kept telling myself that it would be around that corner up there, and then "that's the last corner right there". I had been out of water for an hour and knew that this was the winning move. I had to stay with those guys. I took 4 clif shots with caffine and kept at it. I can't believe I was able to hold the climb with those 2 pro 1-2s but we went over the top together and hit the feed zone. I grabbed 3 bottles of water (minis! those stupid mini bottles!) and we began the decent into the head wind. For the first 7-10 miles it is fast (50+MPH). Then we began pace lining into the wind. About 10 miles before Kamas, mark hesitated on a pull so Jeremy attacked. I sat on Shafer's wheel and watched jeremy slowly go out of sight. In the end Jeremy would win first place by 4 minutes, solo, into the wind. I sat on Mark's wheel. With my teamate going for the win I had no reason to do any pulls. We went through the last feed zone and I got no water. THis was the second feed zone that I did not get any water in. Mark had his wife at every feed zone with water and food for him. I was begining to cramp. As it turned out the water i got at the top of Bald Mt pass was the last for me (50 miles to go). Shafer began attacking me on the hills outside of Park City but I held on to him. He ws angry thinking that I would just attack him at the line and take 2nd after sitting on his wheel but in the end I didn't have enough to come around him on the sprint. He took 2nd and I took 3rd. The 4th place rider came in 9 minutes later. After the podium photos they gave me a check for $500 for 3rd place.

It was awesome team tactics and an awesome finish for the team and me. On the way home I picked up 40 lbs of ice and poured it in the bath tub. 20 minutes later I felt better, got takeout at the Bombay House (chicken coconut kurma and nan, great) and then went to bed.