Friday evening, Lindsay and I packed the bikes and the dogs into the Element and headed off for Salt Lake City, Utah. Besides having to battle a slight blizzard for the final 100 miles, we arrived safely at our destination. We were lucky to be hosted by a our friend Justin Grisham who just happens to live at the top of what I would call a small moutain, just outside of Salt Lake City. We pulled in around 1:15 AM, got to bed around 1:30 and the alarm went off at 6 AM.
The road race started out of a small town (or area) called Stockton. It was snowing/raining, blowing and right around 32 degrees. They had re-routed the road race to stay at the lower elevations and shortened it to only about 70 miles. Within the first 5 miles, I thought for sure I was going to drop off the back. My legs felt horrible, I was cold and of course everyone wants to attack in the first couple miles. I was able to hang with it till my legs warmed up and from then on, I felt much more comfortable. The canyon cycling team had enough riders in the race that they were able to send an attack off the front just about every minute which made for a series of hellashish (if thats a word) accelerations. Finnally a break went, and our pace became more steady. A somewhat organized chase began a few miles later but it became clear around mile 50 that there was not enough organization to pull the break back. The weather was miserable, and at times I could barely see the road in front of me due to the blowing snow.
With about 10 miles to go, a second group went up the road with two team exergy riders and another Cayon rider. Once the gap got fairly large, I attacked with the intent to bridge the gap. It took me about 10 minutes, and a huge effort to cross the gap. Once accross, we worked fairly well for the final few miles into the finish, it was full gas, and I barely remember it as I'm pretty sure I was cross eyed the entire time. In the end I was able to take 8th place on the day and get a pretty sizable time gap over the next group.
As the weather deteriorated, the racer promoters decided to cancel the afternoon time trial. I was dissapointed, but at the same time, I had seen the course and it would have been extremely dangerous with the rain, snow and now slush on the roads.
I got a good dinner, and some good sleep that night to prepare for the 40 mile circuit the next day. The course was very similar to the Tucson Bike Classic circuit which basically went up a hill, then down the other side. An early break went, but I stayed with the GC leaders since they both had strong teams that I figured would eventually work to bring the break back. Unfortunately, this did not end up being the case and in the end, 4 riders stayed away. Nice job to team Bissells Chase Pinkham for his well deserved victory on the circuit. I did make a last lap attack that snagged me the 5th position but once again, my playing it safe probably kept me from securing a better result.
The race really did not have a ton of climbing, but what it did have never really put me under pressure. My biggest challenge is keep up with the brutal attacks. I don't have quite the snap in my legs and I end up closing gaps a lot. I was impressed with the Team Exergy riders in both the strength of their riders and their proffesionalism. We worked together in the road race to gain time, and in the circuit as well to try and get rid of the leader. Definitely a good group of guys and strong riders.
I ended up 6th overall in GC and I was the highest placed Cat 2 rider. Still chasing my first win since my return! :)
The next race for me is the Tour of the Gila. I really don't know how I'm going to stack up, but in my heart I know up to this point I had put in a lot of work. I feel good, and with two more weeks of solid training, I feel that I can at least do something. I set a few personal power records over the weekend which is great because I am continuing to improve. Starting to become more and more clear that I need a good team to ride for. Hopefully a good ride at Gila will help with that!
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