Tour of the Gila Part 1
We just finished out third stage at Tour of the Gila in Silver City, NM. Here’s the low down, Wednesday was an incredibly hard 16 mile out and back time trial. You climb four miles go down a steep decent, climb some more, turn around and come back up the steep climb and back down into the start finish area. I felt great on the way out, averaged 20 MPH up the climb (which was only about 4% grade) but then was toast by the time I headed back. I ended up getting 39th out of 87, not what I was hoping for.
First off: here is what Zach and I really race for. Each day whoever finishes the best gets to sleep in the coveted futon, the other on the floor. I’ll just say I have been sleeping good all week.Thursday’s road race was 93 miles and we went really slow for the first 80 it seemed. At mile 86 the road shoots straight up a mountain and you climb the last seven miles. The final kilomemter was a 14% grade and really separated the men from the boys. The break away from the morning stayed up the road, 8 of them I think. I made it inside the top 20 finally, meaning I got 20th.I hate when people say it like that. Oh, thanks to my old junior racing buddy Danny Summerhill for some water after I missed my feed.
Friday turned out to be one of the easiest road races I have done. It was an 83 mile stage with a pretty good climb 20 miles in. Then was the 10 mile decent, the only decent resembling the roads of Italy I have ever found in the States. 45 MPH with literally 180 degree turns, one lane and gravel. I made it down in one piece, but not before seeing a guy lock up his rear wheel, lay it down, then get his head run over by another guy at about 20 miles an hour. I think in all six guys stacked it on that one. I am working with TargeTraining for this race and out man LeeRo was in a break that ended up getting seven minutes ahead so we just say in all day. Hopefully I can make it in a break on Sunday’s stage, as it seems no one ever wants to chase them down and a new overall leader always emerges at the end of the day.
