Park City

Today was hot! In Salt Lake we hit 91 and Park City was in the low 80's. However, for the riders in this afternoon's semi-pro xc race at Deer Valley I'm sure it felt much warmer. Just hanging out in the feed zone I drank 3 bottles of water! I was there to hand up bottles of Gatorade to Fox, Bart was supporting Blake and Warren was feeding a Cole Sport teammate. It was fun talking to these guys while we waited for the racers to come through. I haven't been able to find results online yet but heading into lap #4 Chris Holley was sittting in 3rd and riding strong while the racer in 1st looked to be hurting. Hopefully Chris was able to keep it rolling and finish strong.

I should have hung out a bit longer to catch the finish but after watching the race for 2 hours I was ready to ride some dirt myself. I drove over to Park City Mountain Resort where I parked, changed and headed up the Spiro trail to Mid Mountain. I wasn't prepared for a long ride as I hadn't really eaten lunch (a small bowl of pasta at 10 am and a Cliff Bar at 1 pm) and only had water and a single Cliff Bar with me. When I hit Mid Mountain I decided to take it south, towards Deer Valley so I could ride a loop as opposed to the alternative of riding an out-and-back towards The Canyons and then returning on Spiro. After 4 or 5 miles I hit a construction zone that had closed the trail. However, there was a new trail that had recently been cut as a detour (it was called Empire something) so I took that, hoping it would dump me off in town somewhere. Eventually I ended up at a paved road that fed into Hwy 224 which featured a section of 10% downhill where I was rolling with the cars at 45 mph. I ended up at the main roundabout between PCMR and DV so I was able to retrace my steps back to the car without too much trouble. Total ride time was 1:41 which was about right given my fuel situation. Needless to say I was hungry when I got home so I picked up an Astro Burger Combo for dinner. Such gluttony is limited to special occasions and man did it taste good today! After finishing this post I'm off to enjoy a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream and brownie before turning in for the night. Ice cream becomes a pre-bedtime ritual when the temps are 90+!