Pedalling Squares

Tombstone Road Race

My allergies are still really bothering me. My nose was like a faucet last night just leaking snot. I haven't had a good night's sleep either. But, the good news is, the allergies don't seem to bother me much during a race. Hmmmmm.

I thought I had a good TT ride yesterday until I saw Loveday's time: he put 1+ minutes into me yesterday. Doug's mentor, the legendary Paul Wolfe, is 50 years and he also put some time into me. Shania Twain's got nothing on me - I feel like a woman. Anyway, I'm sitting in 8th place, which is in the money, but things will shake up again today for sure.

The course is another bathtub with an evil finish - at the end, we climb up Mule Pass (5 miles), do a quick descent through the tunnel, and around a slightly off-camber right-hander. This short little descent allows just enough time for lactic joy to pool in the quads. Then, we get to crawl up the last 2K of the prologue course. Isn't that special? Who thought up this course, hmmmm? Could it be . . . Satan?

The race started up the prologue course with a neutral roll-out. Then we began roughly 16 miles of descending bliss. We're descending at about 40-50 mph when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a guy move left fighting a nasty shimmy. I've seen jackhammers with less action than that guys front end. Not what you want at 40+mph. I guess he recovered ok because Vaughn saw him later.

Once we turned onto 90 things settled down some, but we're still mostly descending. Then I guess the homies up front got out the gutterball and shouted "Game On!". I was having to close gaps all over the place. Guys were getting shelled left and right. I knew Vaughn was behind me, and was hoping he was faring ok. Finally I caught onto the main group and quickly went to the front near the leader. I didn't want to deal with that action again. (Oh yeah, gutterball refers to a situation where there's a crosswind, let's say coming from the left. Now if I want to draft off of the rider in front of me, I need to be behind him and slightly to his right, depending on the angle and severity of the crosswind. This will cause the riders to form a diagonal line across the road from the left to the right. Eventually, there is no more road on the right and you're forced to ride in the gutter, where there isn't much draft, and you have to work really hard. Game on, anyone?)

We made a right hand turn and now it was mostly a tailwind, but we were going fast. Somewhere in this section a breakaway of 4 riders got away. No worries, it's early, it's windy, and Mule Pass will suck the life out of your quads quickly if you've been working in a break for 30 miles. Ain't no thang . . .

As we approach Tombstone, Denny Vaughn, another Tucson rider I used to know, attempts to bridge up to the breakaway which is dangling at about 40 seconds ahead. I thought for a second of joining him, but the wind just spooked me - that's a long way to go in the wind. So off he went and he did eventually catch them. So now there were 5 riders in the break.

We had now basically bottomed out and were going to be climbing for the remainder although it wouldn't get steep until Mule Pass. Things were uneventful, but the break was staying away. 1 guy had come back, so they were down to 4. I was still pretty sure they would come back or that we would see some explosions and hear some giant sucking sounds on Mule Pass as they blew up. On we went.

The approach to Mule Pass was pretty straight and there was a slight crosswind from the right. So I was fighting for wheels right on the yellow line for a long time. I eventually moved up to the front, near Doug and the leader. I knew that things would "hot up" soon (in the immortal words of Phil Liggett) and I wanted a front row seat.

Meanwhile, the leader wasn't getting much help from his team. There was a break up the road and the leader was doing the majority of the work. His teammates would occasionally make an appearance at the front, but from what I saw, he was doing 2/3 of the work and he had at least 3 teammates there. Ouch.

Mule Pass began without incident, the leader's jersey still doing most all of the work. I was riding comfortably in no worse than 4th wheel now. Doug was there as well. I talked to him before the ride and he was hoping to make it happen on Mule Pass. He had a lot of time to make up - about 1 minute. No surprise really, since Doug has always been a great climber.

Doug says to me "Dude, what's in your water bottle?" Doug's a bit of a . . . well he's kind of goofy sometimes.

"Huh?"

"What's in your bottle, dude?"

"Accelerade"

"Can I have some?"

I brought an extra bottle of Accelerade in my jersey pocket because I was worried about not having enough to drink and now he wanted to bum some off of me? If it was anyone other than Doug or Vaughn, I probably would have said . . . well, no. . .

"Sure", and I handed him the bottle. He took a long pull and gave it back. He was very thankful, so I told him he owed me. Maybe a leadout?

I guess Vaughn grew tired of our little girl's pace at this point and launched a monster effort. He quickly got about 20 seconds. We didn't plan it, but I was pretty sure he was trying to put a little more pressure on the rest of the group. It gave me more incentive to sit on and not do any work. I think he was singing some Aretha Franklin, though, because the group wasn't giving him any respect - there was no reaction in the pack.

Eventually Vaughn came back and we found out that the break was 2:47 up. Wow, so much for my windy, tired legs theory. Those guys were busting it. Doug called for his faithful teammate, the legendary Paul Wolfe (you can't say Paul's name without the "legendary" in front of it, it just doesn't sound right). Paul immediately comes to the front and launches a vicious effort. Tap the keg, fire up the BBQ, put on Jungle Boogie and get ready to get down, because the party has now officially started.

Doug and company follow the acceleration. He pulls off and Doug continues the vicious pace. I stay on Doug's wheel - he'll be the man to beat today, no question. He pulls off and I come around him trying to maintain said vicious pace. Now it's just the two of us, but there's still probably 2-3 miles of climbing left. We've got a gap, and I know things are absolutely exploding behind us. Doug came around me. Ouch. I whimpered a little, grovelled a little and then the best I could do was a digital projection of my virtual self on Doug's wheel (anyone know the reference there?) as he rode away.

Doug was riding away and no one was going to catch him. He had 3 minutes to the break and he had to put 1 minute into the leader if he wanted to win the overall. He was up to the task.

A few more guys came around me. I was all over my gears, trying to spin my 25 and then standing on my 19. I was going backwards. Eventually, after about 7 people passed me, I was riding alone. There was a group of about 3 and then another group of 4 ahead of me. I was by myself, but not that far back, just trying to maintain a good pace and singing songs like James Brown's Get Up or the Chili's Get on Top for inspiration. There were other groups not too far behind me. I knew of at least 2 guys that were now behind me but were ahead of me on GC. So if I could make up some time on those guys, that would be good. We approached the top near the tunnel and I tried as hard as I could to accelerate over the top.

Oh that little descent through the tunnel was delightful. I tried to spin the legs a little, knowing that when the last 2k started, it would really hurt if I didn't. When we turned up the last bit of climbing the legendary Paul Wolfe came out of nowhere and rode past me. Damn - where the hell did he come from? I settled into a good rhythm, hoping to fight off the lactic acid joy for a little while. I was actually feeling better than on Mule Pass. I caught and passed the race leader and gave him a pat on the back: "Tough day, dude". Then I eventually caught and passed the legendary Paul Wolfe, but some guy who was with him caught my wheel. He stayed there as we approached the 200m sign and just beat me at the line. Guess what place I got? Yep, for the 4th stage in a row, 10th place! Call me Mr. Consistency.

This is getting way too long, so I'll wrap it up. Doug ended up catching the break at the finish line but got second place on the stage. He won on GC. We took a few pics of the awards ceremony, including the Bubbalicious Podium Chick(Patrick, she's dying to meet you) and one of Doug and me. Doug gave me the bottle of wine he won. He said the Accelerade helped him "accelerate" up the hill. He's so corny.

I ended up in 9th overall, 10 seconds from 8th place and being in the money. Oh well. If they gave an award for consistency, surely I would win, with my 4 10th places.