Dang that race hurts. I had bad legs all week, to the point where I wondered if I'd even be able to drag myself to Brighton on Saturday. Luckily I was able to make it to the top, though not in record time. Regardless of my final placing (34th out of 47 Cat 5 starters) it certainly was a good workout as my average heart rate for the 1 hour and 28 minutes was 175 bpm.
I rode to the start and cut it way too close thanks in no part to a flat rear tire before I even pulled out of the garage. Not wanting to take the time to put in a new tube, I grabbed the rear wheel from my wife's bike. It probably looked a bit funny to pair a Ksyrium ES (front) with an SL (rear) but it enabled me to stick to the plan of warming up on my way to the race. Speaking of which, my warm-up turned into a mini race of sorts the last 10 minutes thanks to a few wrong turns on the way which saw me roll into the parking lot of the Porcupine Grill not more than 2 minutes before the start.
I'd been advised to stay out of the red on the steeper sections and hammer the flats. It seemed that I was passed by the entire group as we approached Storm Mountain but I resisted the urge to go full gas and kept the pace sustainable. As we finished the steep climb I upshifted two cogs and quickly passed 10-12 racers who gone too hard and blown. I repeated this process for the remainder of the race, passing more people each time the grade eased up. Traffic was pretty crazy as I approached Solitude and for a while it felt like I was riding through the caravan of support vehicles at the Tour. Thankfully the motorists were patient and didn't give me any trouble. In fact, a few of the cars were carrying mountain bikes and the drivers shouted "Go Revolution!" as I was wearing my team kit. That was cool and much appreciated. At the time I probably would have gladly traded them places as riding the Wasatch Crest seemed a better and more enjoyable way to spend a Saturday morning than racing to Brighton!
On a totally different subject, I added a DVR to my Comcast package on Friday and LOVE it. I can now watch 3 hours of Tour de France coverage in a little over 1 hour thanks to the ability to fast forward through commercials and dull commentary/racing.
7 comments:
Why would anyone want to waste time watching the Tour De Farce?
ya.. it took me an hour and a half as well. thats why i cant ride with you anymore.
I looked for you, must have been the late start.
The Comcast DVR works well, I was worried about HD content, but it records it perfectly along with the 5.1 surround. Sweet!
When can I pick up my copy of TDF for winter riding?
You're ready for an UPGRADE!
hehe.
Nice job on finishing. I've got a lot of climbing to do in the next six weeks. I kinda wish I had done this one, but my kid and her Saturday morning surpise kept me from doing anything.
That cop car wasn't the "sag vehicle" was it?
:)
You are for fortunate that you don't have to live in Kansas and drive 100's of miles to a reasonable climb.
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