You're doing 270...
Only six days to go until TOFU. I am experiencing that nervous excitement that is the result of dread and anticipation. Hagemonster, our team manager, just sent out the TOFU Technical Guide that explains all of the race rules, stages, prize money,etc. Team End is going to come away with some green! The dread mentioned above is building due to the fact that this race is going to be hard. The stages are all tough in their own way and the fact that there is so much prize money on the line just ups the ante. So fortunately AJ had planned an early Sunday morning ride which gave me the opportunity to do some Stage 6 recon.
The Body, Zulle, AJ and I were making our way up the Alpine Loop on Sunday trying to decide if we were even going at Landis’ blown up speed. We decided we were not. AJ was trying to tell us that if he got his speed above 8 mph the Carbones have an aero advantage in the mountains. Zulle told us we were doing 270 watts just before the Timpanooke turn-off. I thought, “Wait a minute, Zulle is like 30 pounds lighter than I am.” Immediately AJ said, “You are doing 270.” I tried to think about what I needed to be pushing but couldn’t since The Body was throwing his back into it and putting the hurt on.
Zulle and The Body headed back to SLC, but I know they were going to do Snowbird and Big Cottonwood on the way home. The rest of the group made it to the top shortly and we were off on the descent to Sundance. I was hoping when we stopped at the General Store at the resort that we would have a chance to run into Redford. That guy is cool. We didn’t see him, but I saw a cool picture of him from way back at a fundraiser concert. He was sitting with John Denver and the heroic former Utah Congressman, Wayne Owens. Very cool.
So we started back up the Alpine Loop and I was not feeling too good. I just tried to keep things rolling and towards the top I started to recover. Maybe the beer from the General Store had done the trick. To make a really long story short (6 hour ride), it was super hot going back up the south side of Suncrest to get a total of 8500 feet of climbing over 4 big climbs.
City sign sprint competition standings:
DH – 3
T2 – 3
T2 will pay on the next ride. Speaking of that, so will AJ for giving him the heads up!
TOFU update:
Fruit juice diet complete. I’ve now moved on to getting some good carbs put away. If you buy your beer in Draper, you’ve got slim pickings.