Sanpete Road Race 2009

I started off by riding up to the ride with Higgins and Brent which is much more entertaining than driving it alone. We got a little frustrated with how slow the packet pick up line was moving. They finally just started handing out the numbers to everyone which was super nice. I was a little worried because I was still carrying 4 extra pounds from my vacation and had been sick during the week and I could still feel some junk in my lungs and was coughing every once in a while.

The race got off to a bang, literally! They shot off a canon, which sent the heart rate of John Ward up by 40 beats per minute. The pace was fast from the start. At about mile 9 or 10 we started climbing a little and Dwayne decided it would be nice to split the peloton, so he hit the climb hard. We lost John, Higgins, and Travis and about 20 other cat. 5's as they were spit out the back. I slipped to the back of the remaining peloton and was on the verge of becoming a casualty myself. I even saw Adam slide back a lot which surprised me.

The remaining peloton regrouped and we started trying to implement our team tactics. On a few occasions we grouped up front and tried to let Adam go. The peloton kept chasing him down. Liam, Brent, and I also tried but the peloton wouldn't let us go. It felt great to go to the front as a team and then block for another team mate and draft off of the chasers. Mentally I felt like we belonged at the front. I didn't feel like a small fish in a big pond anymore, I felt like a team of sharks in a small pond. At mile 40 we caught the cat. 4's who had started 5 minutes ahead of us. That really felt great.

We hit the water stop with the cat. 4 group and it was kind of a mess. I knew it was going to be a mess so I sprinted up the road to be get my water bottle first. I then slowed down to wait for my group. Alot of cat 4's came flying by with one cat 5 in their group. We regrouped with all the cat 4's in front of us now and the cat 5's behind. We knew that 1 cat 5 was in the cat 4 group and he rode the rest of the way with them and won the cat 5's.

Shortly after the water stop when we were regrouping I heard the sound of a flat tire and looked over and it was Liam. He was bummed. He only needed a couple of points to take over 1 place in the cat. 5 points standing. The thought crossed my mind that if he had the same pedals I could just trade bikes with him. It never crossed my mind until after the race when he brought up that we could have traded wheels with him. Sorry Liam!

Shortly after some other guy went off the front and the leaders in the peloton said to let him go alone. Another guy chased him down and that put two guys out front. After they got a small lead, another guy tried to bridge the gap and Brent got on his wheel along with two other guys which made a chase group of 4 or 5. They chased for a couple of miles and finally absorbed them. They now had 5 or 6 guys working together and had a good lead on the peloton of about 200 yards or so. They lead for about 5 miles. They had a reasonable chance of going all the way because of the mix in the break away many of the fast guys in the peloton weren't going to chase them down. Unfortunately they hit a bad section of road which made it impossible to rotate and they were caught by the peloton.

At about mile 60 I was hanging out at the back of the peloton and feeling pretty tired. I tried to stand up at one point and I felt a twinge of a cramp go through my leg. I quickly sat back down. I knew that I was in trouble at that point. Every time I tried to pedal hard I could feel twinges of cramps. With 3 miles to go at mile 64 we went up a little grade and I couldn't put enough pressure on the pedals to stay with the peloton and was dropped. I was easily with in reach of them if I could put any real pressure on the pedals. For the next two miles I dangled off the back by 50 to 100 yards with the fear that I was going to have an all out cramp attack.

Then I could see the peloton slow down because the cat. 4 peloton was only 30 seconds in front of them. I rejoined the peloton with 1k to go and then the sprint started. I knew that if I stood up that I would immediately cramp, so I just paced myself in easy with Dwayne, who wasn't even trying at this point.

We finished 67 miles in 2 hours and 45 minutes. That is 24.35 miles an hour. Wow! We beat the cat. 4's best time by about 5 minutes and the peloton slowed up for them on a few occasions.

Liam came across about 10 minutes later, which is amazing considering he had to fix a flat and probably didn't have many riders to draft off of. John, Higgins, and Travis came in about 10 minutes behind Liam. They averaged about 22 miles an hour which is also very good.

Racing rule 1: Don't do anymore work than you need to.

Thanx to Zazoosh at the Tour de Park City we can enhance our education of this rule by reviewing some action shots.

Here we see Adam dragging the whole Cat 5 group:


Here's Rogers dragging his own group back to the front of Cat 5:


Here's Dean...dragging a Cat 3 group along...


Ok...did anyone listen to this rule so well explained by Coach Nate at Hakenya?

Ah, here's the star pupil - Good job Mason! Let the others suffer!


You know I kid. I almost wish I took part in this suffer fest with you. Maybe next year. Nice job to all of you, you look good out there. Here are a few more nice shots:

Adam
Rogers
Brent
Higgins
Mason
Dean

Heroes rule the day at the Tour de Park City

The Tour de Park City is quickly becoming a premier distance road race in Utah. It has a few advantages over Legendary races like Lotoja. For one, it is a circular course so the need for your own sag support, hotel room, and traveling is diminished. The rest stops were awesome this year. They were well placed and efficient this year. The course also has a lot more climbing than Lotoja which makes it better(and more painful) for splitting up the peloton.

I signed up in the Cat. 5's. I felt really intimidated because they combined the Cat. 5's with the 4's. It was by far the biggest group I have ever ridden with. There must have been 100 in the combined group. It was nice to see other BCC members in the group. I saw Mason, Higgins, Freddie, Adam, and Brent.

Our group started off at a fast pace. I positioned myself at the back and I could see on occasion that Adam and Brent were near the front. With the lingering painful memory of last years Tour on my mind I made a concerted effort to drink and eat plenty to postpone the "Bonk" as long as possible. With all the fluid intake I needed to pee badly, but at the same time I didn't want to lose the peloton. Right at the point that I couldn't take it anymore the whole peloton stopped in unison and took a nature break just like the Tour de France. Then at the first water stop no one attacked this year. Everyone slowed down, got their water, and regrouped with out too many problems. The pace was faster than last year and going up Chalk Creek we started to shed some riders from our group. There were a few times when my heart rate got a little high on some of the steeper sections of that canyon. The 50 mile water stop also went pretty well with no real attacks and lots of riders taking nature breaks. The story changed once we arrived at the 5 mile dirt road section. The attacks started and the peloton split. It was dangerous lots of flat tires and a few wrecks. By the time we hit the paved road again, I could see the peloton up the road with 20 to 30 riders left in it. Behind was the remants spread out all over the road. We slowly started gathering a few riders together over the next few miles to mount a formidable chase group. We chased for about 15 miles at a furious pace. I was worried that I had used up too much energy too early in such a long race. We reeled them in by mile 75. Then about mile 80 the pace slowed down. The peloton had roughly 40 left in it at this point. I could see Brent, Adam and Freddie up front still. At about mile 85 Adam went up front to push the pace a little but no one from the peloton got on his wheel. He just kept on riding away from the peloton. It wasn't planned, but he kept going. Finally the attacks started. One guy in particular wanted to bridge the gap up to Adam, but he didn't want to do it alone. Brent bravely employed the blocking strategy to protect Adam. He would get on the guys wheel but refuse to pull, so the guy would just give up. The guy made many attempts with all of them being foiled by Brent. When Brent wasn't foiling the attacks he was getting on the front of the peloton and then slowing the pace down. He was the ultimate teammate. Of course that used up alot of his energy and about mile 100 he drifted to the back of the peloton where I said hi to him for the first time in 4 hours 40 minutes. We finished the first 100 miles with 4850 ft of climbing in 4 hours 40 minutes. That was a lot faster than the previous year. Brent and I reached the water stop at mile 106, at the foot of the Uintah mountains together only 5 seconds behind the peloton. We grabbed our musettes and started to eat and drink. We made our way up to the peloton, buy it was short lived. The grade started to kick up and the peloton started riding off. Riders were being spit out the back all over the mountain side. It is about a 20 mile stretch of climbing between the water stops. I was riding alone and suffering but realized I was feeling a lot better than last year. Adam later said that the survivors in the peloton didn't catch him until near the top of Bald Mountain. What a Stud! I made it to the top and got some water. I started descending alone and was hoping a group would come along that I could ride with, but no such luck. about 10 miles down I decided to stop for a nature break, and when i turned around a group went flying by. I was disappointed that I missed that opportunity. I continued down alone until about two miles from kamas where a group of 3 caught me and I finally got to draft even if it was only a couple of miles. The climbs between Kamas and Park City are painful and hot. Just when you think you are done climbing and start to fly down hill you are presented with another climb. I was in survival mode for most of the last 25 miles, which was better than last year where I spent the better part of 75 miles in survival mode. I finished in a great time for me. I was about 55 minutes faster than last year. Adam and Freddie were already finished. Adam placed 3rd in the Cat 5's with a time of 8:33(roughly). I got 13th with a time of 9:00. Brent came in 14th with a time of 9:03. I didn't get the times of the other BCC members.