VH1 Blogs

I rode 206 miles and all I got was this hanger.

Beaver shirt not included

Actually this is not all true, I also got a numb hand and sore bum.  Here is my 2009 Lotoja race report:

Like a ninja with a leg tattoo, I rolled on to the starting line seconds before the start.  The weather was perfect and no vest was needed. I figured after High Uinta and Leadville we would get snow before Preston, Idaho.  The pace was slow for the first 30 miles, so slow in fact that we were caught by 3 cat 5 groups, and some of the “fun riders”.  The group swelled to hundreds! After a pee break and getting splattered by cow poo from the road, we rolled into Preston.  Holly was awesome with the musette hand off.  I am so glad I went with the musette.  Adam, and Tony did the stop and stock strategy and had a tough time getting back on the train.  Strawberry was quite pleasant as Mark, Steve and I shot the breeze waiting for the real action to begin.  The group had a good pace up the climb and then bombed the downhill.  We caught up to Joe at the bottom of the descent and ended up riding with him until Geneva.  It started getting a little warm temperature wise and as advertised the CarboRocket kept the cramps away.  Holly was waiting at Montpellier and once again had the musette ready.  She gets big props because not only was she taking care of me, but she also had the kids (one of which was potty-training)!

The massive group started to ramp things up on Geneva and a good chunk of the pack was dropped.  At the top of the climb I looked at Mark and said” one to go”.  We only had 15 miles of rollers then the Salt River climb.  Piece of cake I thought.  I thought wrong.  Like an idiot I rode at the back 2/3 of the pack and was constantly getting yo-yoed.  I was suffering like a pig!  At the KOM start line I knew I couldn’t hold wheel any longer and fell back.  I knew if I kept redlining ,the remaining 100 miles would be sheer misery.  I limped over the KOM and tried to recover over the rolling stretch to Afton. 

Trust me I was suffering here

It is amazing in a long race how you ebb and flow.  You go from no worries, to bonk, to elation, to emotional, back to no worries.

In Afton I was so excited to eat some “real food”.  I left detailed instructions with Holly to put a bottle of coke, 2 turkey and avocado wraps, and a Paradise coconut chocolate chip cookie in the musette.  I got to feed zone 7 and there was no sign of Holly.  I started to panic, but within seconds she came running up.  Come to find out this is what she was dealing with in the parking lot. She had the menu just like I ordered it.

Afton-Alpine was a blur except for 2 seconds of agony.  The rumble strips are legendary along this strip of road and I hit a patch of them.  After 120 miles even DZ Nuts cant make the “taint” feel good.  Not only did the rumble strips destroy that region, it also gave me the “hit in the nuts” stomach ache!

The Snake River Canyon was awesome.  It really is beautiful, even more so with Jackson being only an hour away! I ended up riding with a couple Spin Cycle guys and 2 SkullCandy teammates.  The time flew by.  Going into today my goal was a sub 10 hour ride.  I was constantly doing the math and knew that I would be really close to the 10 hour mark.  When I crossed the line my Garmin showed 9:55.  I did it!  Not a great time but mission accomplished!

Following the race I told Holly the ONLY way I would ever do Lotoja again was if she did it with me on a tandem.  I think she wants to try the relay in 2010 and the tandem in 2011? Oh yeah the left hand is still numb.  I think I may have some Ulnar nerve damage, what do you think?

206 miles is a long way!

This entry was posted on September 16, 2009 at 9:16 am and is filed under Races . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.