LOTOJA 2008

Game over. Mission accomplished.

Ben came out from MN to ride the LOTOJA Classic with me and four other team mates.

Before going any further it must be made clear that Ben is the hardest and most determined bike rider I know. Period. Ben lives at 900ft elevation and came out West to race at an average of 6000ft. He took his asthma and his severe knee pain and put them in his jersey pocket and grit his teeth through 206 miles to finish with us. My helmet is off to Ben for his amazing ride. Next time you see him, slap him on the back and give him props.

The ride was amazing. We started out at 6:30am and finished at 7:30pm. Our actual ride time was 10hrs 50mins. Almost 19mph average over three mountain passes for a total of 8000ft of climbing. Hit a personal speed record of 52.6mph and in the middle of that run did a full on BMX side skid at 46mph when my bike developed a severe high speed wobble. That was the single most terrifying moment of my life...

My friend Steve drove support for us and had full bottles and food waiting for us at the designated feed zones. At the end of the race we all had one tall boy Coors Light which none of us could finish because we started to feel drunk half way through the beer.

I felt great through the whole race and didn't hurt too bad the next day. I have been eating an insane amount of food the last couple of days. Have to cut back on that...

Thanks to Ben, Ryan, John, Drew and Doc for sharing the experience and I hope we do it again. And thanks to Steve for driving support and always showing up with full bottles...

In other news the road scene is over in Bozeman. Tonight was the final crit of the year and our team placed 1st, 3rd, 7th and 8th out of 15 starters. Not too shabby.

Cyclocross starts the last weekend of this month and 12 races have been posted on the calendar. 10 of those are within good driving distance so I may get my fill of cross this year.

Peace out. Troy