Lotoja

[RC Vikings]

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/i...kValue=6700671

Since Arch is on his way back to Vegas I get to tell my lies first. Friday night we meet and have dinner with our support crews. Arch has his daughter and her boyfriend and I dragged my golfing buddy down to help out. Saturday morning arrives and it's a crisp beautiful morning. No 110 degree heat for Arch and no 30 miles per hour winds for me. We get in the front of the line for the start of the cat 4's. We start out and do a real easy 20 to 22 mph into Preston (35 miles). Arch was out with the front guys and I was just content to stay in the middle and enjoy the ride. At Preston I made a tactical error. We had sent our support crews up the 80 mile mark and with only one neutral site in between I wanted to make sure I had two full water bottles. Thinking that most everyone would fill up I thought we would be okay. We weren't and the big group was down the road by the time I got my bottle back. We chased but couldn't catch up.

Just outside of Preston is a steep decent into the valley. Two guys came screaming by and I took off after them. Being a bigger guy going downhill fast is never a problem. I get into the valley just getting ready to start the first climb and I notice Arch isn't with me any more. I hook up with about six guys and we start working at the base of the climb. We did okay until it started getting a little steeper and our group broke up. At this point I've got about 15 miles of climbing alone ahead of me. During this climb Arch caught me. It was obvious he was climbing much better so he went on and I figured I wouldn't see him again the rest of the day. At the top of the climb I took a p break and loaded up at the neutral support.

After a long fast decent I got back on with roughly eight guys. We were working pretty good and then a pack of about twenty came by. We rode this train into Montpelier (75 miles) where I was able to load up with my stuff from my support crew. After Montpelier came a 3 or 4 mile roll up to a climb about six or seven miles in length. I was surprised how steep it was so I just gutted this out of my own. At the top a cute girl was looking for a ride down the hill to get back on with her group so I told her to jump on we were going for a ride. We cruised down that mountain and across the foothills and caught some people. Nothing provides motivation like trying to help a cute girl.

Finally we were at the base of the last climb of the day. The bottom wasn't very steep and I was in a good group so we were able to catch up to Arch. Ahead of us was another six or seven miles of climbing with the top three or four fairly steep (105 miles). Arch gaped me up the climb but once again I pulled out my best Figon impression and flew down that hill.

We got into the valley and hooked up with a very good group. The next twenty were very fast (high 20's) and I was feeling good. We stopped for fuel in Afton (125 miles) and got back on the road again. We started fast again and Arch was having problems. He said he couldn't hold that pace (bike problems) and feeling like a climber on Everest leaving a fellow climber to die I took off. I felt bad but I didn't want to lose this group. We continued into Alpine (159 miles) doing this mid to high twenty's.

At Alpine the group broke up into a smaller group of about ten people. We did alright but I could tell everybody was getting tired because I would take my pull and look around for the next guy to come through and get a look like "dude I've got nothing left". This group broke up and five of us took it the last thirty together. We were doing high teens/ low twenty's to finish up. My goal was to break eleven hours and I was worried that I was going to miss it by about three minutes but the race was about mile or two shorter then planned and I was able to do it. I felt bad Arch had bike problems but hopefully he will try it again.

It's time to start thinking about a CG team for next year.