Dead Dog

This past weekend I was in Laramie, WY for the Dead Dog Classic stage race. I did this race last year in the 4's and did pretty well, so I was pretty excited to go back. I drove up Friday night and stayed with a few guys from my team in the classy Ramada. Saturday was the road race, and the day started out with an early wake up time. Fortunately, the forecast was for sunny skies, calm breezes, and a high of only 75- basically perfect weather for a race. The road race was 87 miles, with close to 7,000 feet of climbing. It was definitely a daunting stage. The race started out pretty calm, but about 25 miles in we hit the first of two big climbs, and the race immediately splintered. I was caught almost immediately in between the lead group that was quickly pulling away on the climb and the stragglers behind that couldn't hold the pace. I got into a good rhythm, though, and climbed pretty well. Two of my teammates caught up to me close to the top of the climb, and we worked together the rest of the race. The second climb was just as long and hard as the first, and my legs were really starting to hurt. It was a welcome sight to see the summit, and long descent helped me to recover slightly. The flat road back towards the finish was plagued by a strong crosswind, so we had to roll a sweet ecehlon which actually worked pretty well. The last 11 miles were rolling climbs, and that is where I really hit the wall. I was so spent from the climbs and the crosswind stretch that I could barely turn the pedals over. The last K was absolutely brutal, and my body was screaming at me to stop. I finished, but it wasn't pretty. I crossed the line in 18th out of about 50 riders in my category, so overall I did pretty well. It was probably one of the hardest road races I've ever done, and I was glad when it was finally over. The rest of the day on Saturday was spent sleeping, eating, and just recovering. I had to get ready for the crit and time trial on Sunday.

The crit was the first stage on Sunday. My legs were still brutally sore from the race the day before, but after a good warm-up session they felt a lot better. Early in the race, a break got away and nobody seemed willing to chase. So I went to the front and put in two really long efforts to try to close down the gap. But both times people weren't willing to continue the chase, so my effort was all for naught. Oh well. The rest of the race I just kind of sat in and tried to stay near the front. It came down to a bunch sprint for 3rd place, and I ended up coming in 12th. I was still happy with my race because of the amount of work I did and how I was still able to be in the mix at the end, which I hadn't been able to do in the last few crits I've done.

Immediately after the crit was the time trial. It was a little over 10 miles and started out downhill, then turned around and came back uphill. It's a hard course for sure, and my sore legs made it even harder. During it I just felt like I had zero power left in my legs. Oh well... I guess that's to be expected for not having done many really long rides this year and then trying to go out and do a brutal road race followed by a crit and a time trial. I finished pretty far down in the time trial, but ended up taking 22nd overall, which I felt wasn't too shabby. Overall, I was pretty happy with how the weekend went.

Now I'm back in Boulder and starting my last week of summer school! I can't wait until that's done. I don't have any races planned for this weekend, so hopefully I can get in some good long rides. I'm also really pumped for the 4th of July. I think a few of Jacob's friends might be coming up from New Mexico, so maybe we'll have a small party or something. Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for reading.