Posted by Paul on Monday, May 05, 2003 at 11:53 AM
My Happy Place
Mogollon Road Race
(Thursday's Stage)
This stage is pretty straightforward. It's 70 miles. 63 of those miles are mostly flat with some rollers, then there's a 3 mile gentle warm-up climb, then put it in the granny gear, find your happy place, and get to the top. Oh yeah, the other thing is, it's a point to point race - so you end up 70 miles from where started. So it ends up being kind of a stressful day since you've got to coordinate a ride home as well.
We started with an uphill neutral rollout to the main highway. I think the guy/gal driving the neutral rollout vehicle had too much coffee, because that neutral rollout felt like a time trial. Neutral rollouts are supposed to be really slow, especially if they're uphill. This one wasn't. Vaughn and I were fighting to stay on. It was at this point I noticed my legs didn't feel so fresh. But I still had another 3 hours before the difficult climb started to actively recover. Do you believe that explanation? I'm not sure I did!
The first 63 miles were pretty uneventful. I did get a yellow line warning. Oh well. Meanwhile, my legs still weren't feeling that fresh.
As we approached the climb, I started trying to move near the front - no use starting a difficult climb like that at the back of the group if you don't have to. We went pretty hard up the first gentle 3 miles or so up to White Water Mesa and I was really surprised because we were still a pretty large group at this point - lots of good climbers. At this point my legs were feeling a little fresher - guess I needed a 63 mile warm up.
It's about 1 flat mile across White Water Mesa. So - time to recover. Because the last 3 lung-searing, quad-burning, heart-pounding miles are brutal. But of course that didn't happen. Someone threw down a pretty good attack to string out the group thinner than Britney Spear's lace top and send everybody anxiously groping for . . . uhhh . . . wheels. Damn. No rest for the weary. I hung tough in the top 15 or so, and then noticed the road turning skyward.
It gets steep pretty quickly. I think that on these climbs you want to pace yourself - if you can hang with the lead group, then you should, but if not, accept it, put it in the granny gear, find your happy place, think happy thoughts and get through it. This was my strategy. I'm still in the hunt for GC, and it doesn't matter what place I get, just how much time I lose/gain on everyone else.
I brought the 25 tooth gear for this stage, and probably could have used a 26 or 27. So I put it into the 25, and got my spin mojo happenin'. I was with the lead group at this point, but things were getting strung out quickly, as expected. There was a little "rest" section, where the grade was 5% - honestly, it felt downhill to me! Then was the hardest, steepest section.
Man, I lost it somewhere in here. I had no power in my legs. I was runnin' on fumes and thoughts of the massive quantities of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that can only be found in Double Stuf Oreos. Oh man, it was ugly. I got passed by a few people, but we were all hurtin' campers.
There was another rest (only 6% grade!) at about .5 miles to go. I seemed to pep up somewhere around here. I was riding with the race leader at this point, so that was kind of a good feeling. I started working my 25 again and spun away from him and caught 2 more guys right near the finish.
I finished about 3 minutes back, in 32nd place. Vaughn had a pretty rough time and finished about 8 minutes off the winner. The good news - I moved up one spot on GC to finish 13th. If I could have just had an average day, I could easily be in the top 10. Damn.
On the way 70 mile ride back we got a ride with some of the old Albquerque homies: Dan Doornbos and Bill Rucker. We got caught up with all the gossip. Dan brought PB&J sandwiches - we all partook. Yummy!
We got back to Silver City and then went to have our first lunch/dinner at about 3:30. Then at 7, we went for another. Ahhhh, the joys of being a cyclist - good food and lots of it.
Tomorrow is a 76 mile road stage. It's got a lot of up and down to start, including 3 tricky, dangerous descents. Then a long section of just narrow roads, then one more climb and then a mostly flat finish. Vaughn and I have scouted this course extensively (thanks to Vaughn's mishap) and I think it could be a good stage for a long breakaway attempt. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
Kisses to Ben, Emma and my wife. I miss you!
Mogollon Road Race
(Thursday's Stage)
This stage is pretty straightforward. It's 70 miles. 63 of those miles are mostly flat with some rollers, then there's a 3 mile gentle warm-up climb, then put it in the granny gear, find your happy place, and get to the top. Oh yeah, the other thing is, it's a point to point race - so you end up 70 miles from where started. So it ends up being kind of a stressful day since you've got to coordinate a ride home as well.
We started with an uphill neutral rollout to the main highway. I think the guy/gal driving the neutral rollout vehicle had too much coffee, because that neutral rollout felt like a time trial. Neutral rollouts are supposed to be really slow, especially if they're uphill. This one wasn't. Vaughn and I were fighting to stay on. It was at this point I noticed my legs didn't feel so fresh. But I still had another 3 hours before the difficult climb started to actively recover. Do you believe that explanation? I'm not sure I did!
The first 63 miles were pretty uneventful. I did get a yellow line warning. Oh well. Meanwhile, my legs still weren't feeling that fresh.
As we approached the climb, I started trying to move near the front - no use starting a difficult climb like that at the back of the group if you don't have to. We went pretty hard up the first gentle 3 miles or so up to White Water Mesa and I was really surprised because we were still a pretty large group at this point - lots of good climbers. At this point my legs were feeling a little fresher - guess I needed a 63 mile warm up.
It's about 1 flat mile across White Water Mesa. So - time to recover. Because the last 3 lung-searing, quad-burning, heart-pounding miles are brutal. But of course that didn't happen. Someone threw down a pretty good attack to string out the group thinner than Britney Spear's lace top and send everybody anxiously groping for . . . uhhh . . . wheels. Damn. No rest for the weary. I hung tough in the top 15 or so, and then noticed the road turning skyward.
It gets steep pretty quickly. I think that on these climbs you want to pace yourself - if you can hang with the lead group, then you should, but if not, accept it, put it in the granny gear, find your happy place, think happy thoughts and get through it. This was my strategy. I'm still in the hunt for GC, and it doesn't matter what place I get, just how much time I lose/gain on everyone else.
I brought the 25 tooth gear for this stage, and probably could have used a 26 or 27. So I put it into the 25, and got my spin mojo happenin'. I was with the lead group at this point, but things were getting strung out quickly, as expected. There was a little "rest" section, where the grade was 5% - honestly, it felt downhill to me! Then was the hardest, steepest section.
Man, I lost it somewhere in here. I had no power in my legs. I was runnin' on fumes and thoughts of the massive quantities of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil that can only be found in Double Stuf Oreos. Oh man, it was ugly. I got passed by a few people, but we were all hurtin' campers.
There was another rest (only 6% grade!) at about .5 miles to go. I seemed to pep up somewhere around here. I was riding with the race leader at this point, so that was kind of a good feeling. I started working my 25 again and spun away from him and caught 2 more guys right near the finish.
I finished about 3 minutes back, in 32nd place. Vaughn had a pretty rough time and finished about 8 minutes off the winner. The good news - I moved up one spot on GC to finish 13th. If I could have just had an average day, I could easily be in the top 10. Damn.
On the way 70 mile ride back we got a ride with some of the old Albquerque homies: Dan Doornbos and Bill Rucker. We got caught up with all the gossip. Dan brought PB&J sandwiches - we all partook. Yummy!
We got back to Silver City and then went to have our first lunch/dinner at about 3:30. Then at 7, we went for another. Ahhhh, the joys of being a cyclist - good food and lots of it.
Tomorrow is a 76 mile road stage. It's got a lot of up and down to start, including 3 tricky, dangerous descents. Then a long section of just narrow roads, then one more climb and then a mostly flat finish. Vaughn and I have scouted this course extensively (thanks to Vaughn's mishap) and I think it could be a good stage for a long breakaway attempt. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.
Kisses to Ben, Emma and my wife. I miss you!
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