[bluegoose]

Sorry, I couldn't resist the thread title again this year. And additional apologies for the length of the report. Skim or skip as you see fit.


First off, I must say that the volunteers where outstanding. They were all extremely helpful and friendly. They were a bit overwhelmed and understaffed at a couple of the rest stops, but they did the best that they could. I have a hard time getting upset with someone who volunteers their Saturday to pass out water or food to ungrateful riders.


From what I understand, the Alpine County Chamber of Commerce has always enlisted the local cycling club out of Lake Tahoe, Alta Alpina, to help with planning and support. This year they apparently severed their relationship with Alta Alpina, which was not a good thing. Typically, registration takes about 2 minutes. Friday night it took us 45 minutes. It was a joke. And it cut into my sleep time, which is more valuable than gold.


My day started with a wake up call at 4:00 and we were in the car by 4:20 for the 40 minute drive to the starting line. We were hoping to beat the mass start and leave at 5:15, but the highway patrol was there, giving out tickets to anyone attempting to go early without a headlight. It was ridiculous. Here there are, about 2,000 riders sitting in the middle of the road waiting for the clock to strike 5:30 with an empty, well-lit highway just a few feet in front of us.


And that is the end of my gripes about the race organization. It was a beautiful day in the mountains. When we drove up Friday night it was very smoky, with only about 10 miles of visibility. When we woke up Friday it was clear as could be. Temps at start time were about 56 degrees. The initial 4 miles are a screaming descent which got a bit chilly, but was over before too long. Then it was up the first hill – west side of Monitor pass. Last year at about mile 2 of the climb I remember looking down and seeing my HR at 171 with this feeling of impending doom, wondering what I was doing there in such poor shape. This year was much different, as my legs felt great and my HR was well-controlled at about 155-160 for the whole first climb. This was actually my goal for the first 2 climbs, as I had hoped to not exceed 160 until the third pass.


I hit the top about 10 minutes faster than last year and feeling very well. After a brief stop we went flying down the back side of Monitor toward Nevada, at which point I was only about 130 miles from Big Piney's house, where I'm sure he was fast asleep in his warm bed. Once we hit the bottom, we immediately turned around and headed back up. This is the pass where I really started to struggle last year. I kept the HR below about 162, trying to leave myself a good buffer for when I needed a break from the saddle to stand up. I made it to the top in good shape, now about 30 minutes ahead of last year.


The next climb up the front side of Ebbetts pass is really the classic climb of the whole ride. It is about 14 miles long and covers about 3,500 feet of climbing. It is generally about 6-8%, but some of the steeper sections hit 18%. I started to really feel the legs burn on this climb. On the first 2 passes I was able to keep the cadence about 60-70 rpms. Up Ebbetts it was everything I could do to stay upright, as my cadence dropped to about 40 for much of the climb. There is a group of ladies who hang out about half way up and cheer everyone on. Three years ago they were dressed as Angels, last year it was belly dancers, this year they were prom queens.


Despite my serious struggles, I still made it up about 90 minutes ahead of last year and feeling fair. I had a hard time getting much solid food in me at this point, but was able to gag down some Shot Blocks and Gu, which is all that I ate from mile 55 to 136.


The next climb was somewhat uneventful, being only about 5 miles but fairly steep up toward the top. Then it was down the incredible descent down the front side of Ebbetts toward the lunch stop. At the base of the hill it was now about 95 degrees with a slight headwind for the long section through the river valley. I found a small group of guys to share the work and made it through in decent shape.


After a brief stop at the car to dump all of my cold weather gear and refill the bottles with ice water and gold Gatorade I headed off the the last climb of the day up Carson pass. About 4 miles up I reached down to get a drink and realized that I had forgotten my water bottles at the car. After muttering a few savory words, I had no choice but to turn around and go get them. After losing 30 minutes on the unscheduled detour, it was back up the last mountain. The clouds started gathering at this point, cooling off the temps significantly. The last climb was unrelenting, but was not steep enough to make it terribly uncomfortable.


Almost 2 hours later we hit the summit and the parking lot for the final pass. As soon as they gave us our 5 pass pins, the heavens opened with lightening, thunder, an incredible downpour and marble-sized hail. It sure would have been nice to have the vest and arm warmers that I had just jettisoned 2 hours earlier, as we were freezing at this time. This lasted for about 45 minutes while about 500 cyclists were huddled together under pop-up canopies, eating the only food available to us – ice cream sandwiches.


I found one of my buddies and once the rain stopped we decided to go for it, wearing plastic bags that we had found as vests. What is normally a 55 mph descent turned into a 25 mph brake-fest. With slick roads and water spraying in my face for 25 miles, this was not quite the reward for all of the hard climbing that I had hoped for.


All in all, it was a decent day, considering I suffered for about 10.5 hours on the bike. There were no BYU jerseys there, but there were 8 folks from the U Huntsman Cancer Center, both employees and survivors, all of whom were very nice people. Even with the water bottle mishap and the weather delay, I still finished 75 minutes faster than last year. I was hoping to finish by 4:30, which would have put me 2.5 hours faster than last year, but I was still happy with how things went.