Hell of the North

This last weekend I had the opportunity to race one of my most feared races “Hell of the North” in Salt Lake City, Utah. The course was designed in honor of Paris-Roubaix which by tradition is the Sunday following the race. My race was 50 miles long on a 4-cornered circuit where each lap has a 2-mile long section of pave. The race started with a neutral roll out at 18 mph, and as soon as we crossed the start/finish line the pace jumped to nearly 30 mph. I nor anyone else was expecting the increase in speed and as a result several riders were caught off guard. The turn before we hit the dirt section was insane everyone was jousting for position at the front of the peloton because it was the safest place due to everyone’s nerves and the pace at which we were traveling. After the first lap I sat up and relaxed that I was in a 3-man break away and we had a decent gap on the shattered peloton. Little did I know that my fellow companions in the break were none other than Tommy (a pro from team Bissell) and Chris Mckay (pro from team Competitive Cyclist). These guys were the real deal and made it very clear from the begging that if I wasn’t committed to the survival of this breakaway that I need to get off their wheel and ride with the peloton. I told them that not only was I committed but that I was willing to work and give the break all I had. We hammered the pace so hard that after each pull I had a hard time sitting in the draft. The pave was insane holding a line while bouncing over a dirt/gravel road at 25 mph is a nightmare. The race official on lap 5 of 10 rolled up next to our break and told us that we had opened the gap up to nearly 2.5 minutes. Thinking that this was a good sign I expected Tommy to sit up and tell us to ride hard but at steady state. I was wrong in fact the two pros said the opposite and dropped their heads and increased the pace drastically. I stayed with the breakaway for almost the entire race until lap 7 when I almost got bucked off my bike on the pave sector which caused me to slow down for a split second which way just enough room for a small gap to open up between me and my other two breakaway companions. I ended up soloing from then on until I crossed the white line. I finished 3^rd overall, with a time 1:45:16 we averaged over 25 mph. It was a great race super hard and intense and it made me have a greater appreciation for the cobbled classics.

I’ll be off the bike for a few weeks this month because this Saturday I’m marrying my lady in Seattle and then we’ll be heading to Mexico for our honeymoon. I’m so grateful for her and the support she gives me, she’s my best friend and I can’t wait till she is a Litchfield. 

Tour Del Sol

I know its been awhile since my last post, Ive been busy with wedding stuff, school, work, and training. But here is a short race report from my first race of the season.

This last weekend I raced the Tour Del Sol stage race in St. George Utah, I knew the race was going to be tough but I was nowhere prepared for the pain that I was going to experience. I drove down Friday with a few of my team members in there RV, after pre-riding the course on Friday we settled in for the evening in preparation for Saturdays TT and crit. The TT course was an out and back style course, I started 30 seconds after Clint which was fun. I had a great time trail except for my encounter with a tumbleweed, at the turn around I was getting back on to the main road when I noticed a tumble weed being blown across the street. I remember telling myself that I needed to time this perfectly to avoid hitting it. I did just that! The tumbleweed hit my rear wheel and I had to reach down and pull it out with my bare hands I felt a lot like Taylor Phinney in last years Tour de France TTT (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRpy1vVdPzg). After a painful 12k I was able to finish with a time of 28:15 which was good enough for 15^th in the GC, I was pretty happy with my result despite my tumbleweed encounter and the gnarly 15mph head/cross wind.

            

Later that day at 6pm we had our crit race at the old airport, it was a really fast and fun course that consisted of 4 corners on great asphalt. Unfortunately I went out to hard and ended up getting cooked, it was a crazy fast race we rode nearly 27 mile in 60 minutes and were hitting speeds in excess of 42 mph. I was able to finish in with the group at around 25^th place I believe. Clint did some serious work and chased down nearly every single breakaway because his teammate was sitting in 2^nd place overall. The crit was a lot of fun and made me realize that Criterium racing wouldn’t be so bad if all of the courses were like this one. One thing that’s nice about racing at an elite level is that you can take corners at 40 mph and feel completely safe because you know everyone in the peloton knows how to handle their bike.

Sunday morning started way to early, at 6am I reluctantly pulled myself out of bed to get ready for todays 85 miles road race. The weather was surprisingly cold for this time of year, when our race started it was 29 degrees outside. The race was the hardest race I have ever done in my life. The course was a loop that started in Gunlock state park and went up through the mountain and up a ridiculously steep climb known as “the wall”, on our first lap we rode the wall at a relatively moderate pace. The second time around was crazy; I don’t know if it was because of my fitness or the fact that I had done a TT and a crit the night before but that race made me go through Hell and back. There were several times during that I debated throwing in the towel. I managed thanks to Clint who willingly took a few of my pulls in the pace line (thanks buddy). In the end I rolled in a few minutes behind the leaders at 3:48 the pace was relentless full of attacks and climbs and was definitely a good judge of my preseason training. About 15 racers had to abandon from Sundays stage because of the pace or mechanicals, in the end I finished 25^th for the stage and 19^th overall. I know its hard for me to truly express how hard Sundays race was so I’ll tell you this as soon as I crossed the finish line I got off my bike and walked over behind the officials car and threw up. I was seeing stars for a few hours afterwards and I know everyone else was. All things considered it was great race I would highly recommend it to anyone and its on my calendar for next year. I learned a lot made some new friends, and most importantly had a great time riding with some truly talented racers from all over the West coast.