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.