Madness. Absolute Madness. I’ve never seen a course like this in my life. Its like Cat’s Hill and the Nevada City Classic had a bastard child. The photo does not do it justice. Right from the gun you run smack dab into Chilkoot hill, which averages 18% for what seems like an eternity. After a bit of rolling across the top you climb another moderate grade before a few fast downhill turns and then an all-out, eye-watering descent into two off camber corners. The last turn had a sharp bump in the pavement right at the apex of the turn which forced you out of the saddle right at the craziest, fastest part.
I had to be up at 4:30 am to do a TV appearance on the local news and it was not the best preparation for the gnarliest race of my life. I rode to the line early for good position feeling drained from the ridiculous wakeup call and the long week of racing. My legs were screaming at me the first time up, and that is not a good sign. I only had 20 laps of the 1.4 mile course, but in the shape I was in it might as well have been 200. You only had to make 5 laps to get a pro-rated time, but I was determined to go as long as my legs would hold out.
I suffered through sheer agony for 10 laps, and then I lost contact. I would stick it on the climb, giving it everything I had, and then just grit my teeth and try to hang on over the flats and second climb until I could rest for a second on the downhill before starting it all over. With 10 to go I got gapped off on the flats after the climb (behind Nick Frey… again.) and we chased for a whole lap, but when we couldn’t catch them by the beginning of the climb it was all over. We noodled for a bit before Chad Gerlach, who had also been dropped, came by with a group and we rolled in with them.
We got whistled off and exited the course past the official who was taking down numbers. I rode right in front of him, told him my number, and yet he somehow didn’t list me. As a result I got DNFed for the stage and subsequently for the whole race. As I write this I’m still pissed. Well, pissed and so, so sad. I really busted myself up trying to have a good race this week, and after being derailed by some bad officiating on the first day I had my entire effort erased in the books because someone was too careless to take down my number. They won’t change results after 15 minutes and I didn’t see what had happened until we checked the results later that night. Frustrating beyond belief and really, really disheartening. I guess sometimes that’s just the way it goes.
The officiating may not have been the best I’ve ever seen, but the organization of the Nature Valley Pro Ride was awesome. We had a team mechanic, Tyson, which is a luxury I’ve never known before. Its such a treat to have someone so great to rely on. When you’re racing your butt off every day and worrying about the GC, courses, nutrition and transfers it’s a huge advantage to be able to just drop the bike off and not have to worry about it again until its ready, all cleaned and tuned, waiting for you at the beginning of the next stage. Pictured below from the left are 3 of the people who made the Pro Ride possible: Matt, who organized the whole thing (travel, racing, sponsorship and everything else for 12 people from all over the country), Tyson, mechanic extraordinaire (without him I’d have been totally lost), and Pat, the owner of Penn Cycle and Fitness who sponsored the team. They provided everything from a truck to haul all the bikes, Tyson and a full mechanics station, to drink mix and chairs. Truly awesome. My sincere thanks to all of them.
I suppose I should also give thanks to Nature Valley. Without them there wouldn’t be a race or a Pro Ride. This is a really unique program and I don’t know of another like it in the country. To give a bunch of amateurs from around the nation a shot at a big race like this is just awesome, and Nature Valley should be proud to be the sponsor of something so wonderful.
Josh went above and beyond and let me crash at his place for an extra few days before I head out to the Tour of America’s Dairyland. We’ll see how Wisconsin stacks up next to Minnesota, where the only thing more impressive than the racing is the hospitality.
The Williams booth at Stillwater:
Also, this cute girl made sure no one walked off with any wheels while I was racing. Plus she gave me some delicious iced coffee. I think she may have been an angel.
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