Monday, June 21, 2010

Tour de Nez: Best Race Ever

That's right. You heard it here first, folks. Tour de Nez is officially the best race ever. Forget the fact that its 3 day omnium of over-the-top technical circuits built for crit monkeys. Take away the incredible Sierra scenery, the ridiculousness of Reno and the HUGE prizelist. Tour de Nez is the best race ever because they give the riders free food after every stage. BOOOOM!

(Sorry about the dearth of photos. I'm waiting for Ronnie to flood the web with her awesome work)

Anyone who knows me knows that my talents in life are few, but that I am passionate about them. The list of the top 5 goes something like this:
1. Eating
2. Lifting
3. Digging
4. Chopping
5. Cycling

Notice how eating is at the top of the list. Yeah. That's not an accident. Now I'm not saying I'm particularly gifted at any of these things, you'll never see me in the Lumberjack Olympics or going dog for dog with Joey Chestnut, but I like to think I can hold my own with fork, axe or shovel (and occasionally bike). Tour de Nez is the first race that has challenged me in more than one of my top five skills.

Stage one: Prologue and Golden Nugget Buffet.

I wrote earlier about how the cycling portion of stage one went. The food side of stage one turned out to be probably the most difficult stage of the race. The golden Nugget buffet is every decent American's food fantasy come true, with all you can eat quantities of just about every food under the sun. I actually saw some form of Mexican pork stuffed with chorizo. I think that's the south of the border equivalent of the Turducken. I had a slow start, kicking things off with a carnivore plate thereby ensuring necessary protein intake. I'm a sprinter at heart, though, so while others were going strong in the middle of the meal I waited for the right time and then kicked hard for the dessert line. Mooney gave a good leadout, but I had him by about 3 pie lengths at the finish.

Stage two: Reno Twilight Crit and Pizza at the Imperial Pub.

I had a bad start to this race. First I pinned my number on the wrong side and then I had the displeasure of watching a tremendous crash in the finish of the women's pro race. However my luck changed when I heard some weirdo yelling "YAAAHOOOOOOO" and looked up to see none other than my very own father. That guy had managed to sneak all the way to Reno without me catching wind of his plans. AWESOME surprise! I decided to put the earlier setbacks out of my mind and focus on impressing the old man.

The race was a strange pairing of tight corners and looooooong windy straightaways. The course would open up to 4 lanes and then quickly shrink back down to a single lane before you knew it. You can see video of the course and hear Dave Towle giving Phil a shoutout. Phil was riding like an elk in rut, just charging all over the place and asserting his dominance. Alas, with the wind and long straights nothing was going to snap off so he led out with one to go, got chased down by some numbskull who thought it was the bell lap and still kept it strung out until the last turn. At that point I hitched my wagon to the Sterling Express as he ramped it up over the next 300 meters. Right as I was about to come off his wheel Cody Stevenson dodged a bit, Sterling almost crashed and I hit the brakes. I got around Sterling for 4th, but couldn't touch the top three.

Later at the Imperial I was again trying to overcome early setbacks. The first waitress I asked hadn't heard anything about food for cyclists, which sounds like an aid program I'd like to be a part of. She pointed me towards the owner who told us that there wasn't any food to be had, but there was a sweet "dollar off Coors Light" deal for racers. Thanks a ton. We were about to weigh anchor when a small buick moved and began to speak. It turns out this small mountain was actually just a helpful bouncer. He informed us that there would in fact be pizza, as much pizza as we could eat, very soon. At that point we noticed two raised tables set up buffet style with reserved signs on them. I'm typically rather shy, but when it comes to pizza I can be decidedly bold. We figured the best way to handle this situation was to sit down right at the buffet table, which did. For our patience and persistence we were rewarded with as much pizza as we could eat, and as you know that's quite a staggering amount. Sorry the crust was so thin, Phil.

Stage 2.5: VIP ride from Northstar to Wild Cherries Cafe to Donner Pass Lake.

We got up (too) early on Saturday to go do the "VIP" ride from Northstar, although it turns out we didn't get up early enough. Well, I didn't. I made us all about 5 minutes late and as Phil was taking us the back way into Northstar, reminiscing about MTB Nats while the ride was rolling down the road without us. Luckily we caught up with the group at Wild Cherries and enjoyed some delicious baked goods and coffee with some awfully nice cycling enthusiasts. YCT Superfans Becky and Alan were in attendance and it was cool to spin around with people who really love the sport of cycling. This was sort of a rest stage, so I didn't really pound the pedals or devour the pastries. I was strategically planning for stage 3.

Stage 3: Northstar ciruit and Northstar BBQ Buffet and Beer.

This is one of the coolest courses I've ever ridden. Sure its punishing, totally unforgiving and almost killed me, but despite its total disregard for my well-being, both mental and emotional, I have no choice but to admire it for its raw beauty. Its like the Himalayas of cycling courses: its awesome to behold and you'd really like to go there and check it out, there's just a good chance you'll die there if you do. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that extreme, but for a fatty like myself it was pushing the limits. The course starts and finishes in Northstar village on winding, cobbled pedestrian walkways. In the two mile laps you get spit out of the village, down then up a chicaney whoop-de-doo, up a deceptively hard climb, across a windy false flat and then down through a couple of tight corners before sprinting uphill through a parking lot to a steep hairpin kicker back to the village. Sound crazy? It was. I was in 4th place overall going into the day and just 7 points shy of the lead. My goal was to mark the other omnium riders and try to make my move at the finish. Graham Howard and Burke Swindlehurst ended up getting away during the race at some point when my eyes were popping out of my head and it felt like I was vomiting fire. The air is thin at 6500 ft. Mooney was having a no chain day up at the front. At one point I actually cried out in pain and frustration when he was grinning ear to ear and leading a strung out pack up the climb while I was pedaling in absolute desperation to maintain contact. He didn't hear me, or pretended not to, and kept right on crushing. I outlasted Sterling and Sergio, but I couldn't get around John Baker in the end. He was on fire, winning the field sprint for 3rd and sewing up the omnium while I limped in for 6th, but managed to move into 2nd overall. VeloNews writeup.

The Buffet was top notch. Phil managed to fit a beef, chicken, and veggie patty on the same burger, and I was a half step away from trumping him with a beef patty between two choclate chip cookies. Reason won out. Barely. We ended the evening with a great group of cyclists and cycling groupies (and my DAD!) sitting around a fire in a beautiful ski resort, sucking back brews and burgers and talking shit with two dudes cranking out the hits of the 90s in the background. It really does not get much better than that.

I was not kidding when I said Tour de Nez is the best race I've ever done. At every turn they went out of their way to make it the best event possible, both for riders and for spectators. The courses were all in great locations and made for wonderful spectating, they had the great Dave Towle calling the races (and admonishing Paul Mach for lining up early). They had videographers recording the races and they offered rides on the motorbikes during the races. They also took the time to set up VIP rides so that fans had a chance to spin around with the racers and I'm sorry I didn't see more riders participating in this. Its an easy way to give back to the promoters and to help get people stoked about bike racing. I, personally, was blown away by how well the riders were treated at Tour de Nez, including all those delicious meals and VIP rides. I'm certainly not an important person, let alone a Very Important Person, but its cool to feel like one every now and then. Its like getting a free upgrade on a long flight. Sitting in first class doesn't make you a classy guy, but its nice to live the lifestyle, even if only for a weekend.

Huge thanks to all the people who toiled to put this race on. As long as I'm able to race a bike I'll always come back to the Tour de Nez.

1 comment:

Becky Aiken Neal said...

Great blog Ryan. We can say that the Tour de Nez is the best vacation ever. We didn't expect it to top our last years TdNez experience, but it did. It was VERY hard getting back into our real life of returning to work ugh!!. Thank you so much for mentioning us in your blog, we had a blast and was really happy we got to ride with you, Phil, and Filip. Thanks again and i really do love your blog, i will be sure and check it out more. See ya soon
YCT Superfans - Becky & Alan