Wolf Creek
Bike racing is hard. Some days you can hammer all day long and it actually feels good, yesterday was not one of those days. The pace going up the front side of Wolf Creek Pass was pretty sane for the most part I was hanging but i knew i did not have much more. About a mile from the top Norm attacks and kind of splinters the field. I did not react figuring we were close enough to the top that the damage would be minimal and it would come together on the way down. I was with small group chasing the main field which was about a minute in front. We were rolling along pretty good when Aaron Jordan and Chris Pietrzak come by us and Mach 3. Then it got hard, amazingly everyone was working and we were catching the field. We are just about to catch and AJ’s pedal breaks. That sucked as he was the big motor in our chase. This is a new race and I am sure most of us had never ridden this course before. The whole way down I am sure everyone was think what i was thinking, “Holy crap we have to come back up this!” As a result the pace was again “piano” as we rolled thought Hanna and Tabiona. One thing I don’t think anyone had planned for was how long this race was going to be. (the winners were over 4 hours) As a result most of us were out of liquid and faced with the reality that the next feed zone was over an hour and 3000 vertical feet away. In one of the classiest moves I have ever seen from a race director, Hageman stopped at a store and bought a case of water and started passing it out from the side of the road and from the wheel vehicle. What a godsend. So anyway I was hoping the second climb would be like the first climb and it would be mellow until we got near the top. Wrong. As soon as we started climbing Normie was up to his usual self and had us all in the pain cave. I don’t even attempt to follow and get into diesel mode. Seven guys are up the road and I am in no mans land by myself. I figure someone will come off and I will not have to fight the headwind that is waiting at the base. Sure enough I catch one of the PCCA guys at the summit. We kept it rolling until the finish where I had enough left to get the “sprint” for 7th. I felt kind of bad sprinting for 7th especially since the PCCA guy did not skip a turn all day, but it is a race…. Anyway I think it is a testament to the classy way Todd and his crew are teaching those guys to race. Work hard and the results will come. Congrats to Nate Thomas for pulling off the win and to Norm for making it crazy hard.
Tour of Utah pictures are downloading as I type this.
