We started out Thursday morning and made our way down to my parents place at the southern tip of Illinois. We slept there for a night and finished the trip on Friday. We ended up getting into Ocoee, TN about 5 PM on Friday, registered, pre-rode part of the course, then used on-star to find Mama's "fine" Italian Restaurant for a nice pre race gut bomb! This place was so classy they pulled out the finest styrofoam to serve everything in, nothing says 5-star like olive oil on a styrofoam plate for dip'n!! Sweet!
After fueling up we prepped the specialized race rigs before heading to bed. The race started at 7am so an early wake up was in order to get there in time since the nearest hotel was 45 minutes away. Our wake up call came at 4:30 and the only selection for breakfast was the local Waffle House! More great dining!! It was an interesting time people watching since LeHoover and I were just getting out of bed and I think everyone else there was still trying to figure out were they were going to be sleeping?? After some waffles we made the trip to the start line!
The race itself was awesome! The first 20 miles was full on with my HR never settling below 170. After the dust settled I made the elite selection in the front group consisting of Bishop, Schalk, Eatough, Simonson, Beck, Koerber, and myself. It was game off for a bit while everyone looked around to see who the new guy was! It was kind of interesting to do introduction on the bike as Eatough came up to me and introduced himself to me. The heat was turned on again after the 2nd feed zone when Schalk attacked as most everyone else stopped to grab feeds. By this time I had settled in with Simonson and Chris Beck riding in 3rd, 4th, and 5th before stopping at the 3rd aid station. After my rookie "long" stop I ended up riding with Koerber for awhile. Just after the 4th stop is when my race fell apart. Not one flat, not two, but three flat tires. The first two were fine, but the thrid one had me walking for 2 miles before getting to the last aid station at the 90 mile mark. I fixed the tire for the last time and made it to the finish for 13th out of 119 entries about 40 minutes down on the leader.
For the second race of the day, the BIG frog 65, LeHoover was able to walk away with the victory! Awesome job by him even after a missed turn! I believe he ended up out on course for 4 hours and 40 minutes while I spent 7 hrs and 9 minutes of my day on my bike!!
All in all I was happy with my results, while Bender gave the team another victory for the 2009 season.
Next up, TJ has the Cat 2 Tour of Gila while the rest of the team will be waiting for the Iola WORS race. Iola will also be the first time the entire team will be in one spot! Watch out for this guy, I heard he has been riding a lot after spending some time in Hawaii, this is the only spy photo I could find!!
2 comments:
Awesome finish even with the flats.
Bummer with the flats...great race report though. Sounds like you were ready to tear some legs off ;(
Post a Comment