TOFU recipes for your enjoyment
The best way to sum up TOFU last week is epic. I know that is a bit cliché, however, it really was just that. The event in and of itself, the courses each day, the fans out on the course, and the competition added it all up. Big thanks to the sponsors and the organizers. It was an honor to be able to participate. I wanted to do daily updates last week. It just was not in the cards. I had plenty of nervous energy but once the racing started it all became super focused on race preparation and racing. It also became a family event. I think the fam was just as exhausted as I was on Saturday afternoon.
So, before an event re-cap I’ll start with some highlights of the week.
- J-Lao and T-bird at the front of the racing day after day is a highlight for hero-worshippers. It’s one thing to appreciate these two racers from the sidelines, but watching them throw down when you’re in the field is amazing.
- Rolling through the finishing straight out at the race track and hearing J-dorade and J-vanator screaming for me to hang in there every lap.
- Seeing D-oza in the feed zone every day and having her yell that she was proud of me on the Nebo climb.
- Hearing about J-dorade yelling “Go DAD!” in the feed zone, shocking the Toyota-United feeders that a girl that age had a dad in the race.
- Being pushed up State Street by the cheers of the crowd every lap even though I would get gapped every time up the hill.
- Questioning the speed at which I was descending main street and hoping that if the tires weren’t glued good enough that the crowd would buffer a 45mph+ wipeout on Friday night.
- Screaming spectators encouraging you to keep fighting on every climb between Sundance and Snowbird, including Aunt Carol and Uncle Carl’s entire family holding some super-cool signs about DH being #1.
- The Utah race contingent at Tanner’s Flat.
- The insane Utah race contingent at the KOM on Friday night.
- The Body and I exploding/imploding at least 18 times in the final 5K before Snowbird.
- Seeing Team 101.9 The End and our names painted on the road in various places.
- Party-Jack raging up at around 500 meters to go on Stage 1 yelling “Hardwood!!!!!” and me realizing he’s going to fly past me unless I kick it, probably moving me up 20 spots just before the finish line.
- The Preston brothers showing their excitement at my finish on top of the Nebo loop.
- Trying to think of something coherent to say every day after the race to cyclinginthehive.tv and then finally thinking of something that would have been coherent a few hours later.
- BadMF handing me a beer 2 minutes and 25 seconds after the finish in downtown Slick City.
- Listening to all of the updates on the team radios throughout the week. Seriously, all of the little comments of encouragement made me go just a little bit better.
- Chatting about cool bike parts, thanks to the G-Man at Specialized with the secret weapons, with TT Nat’l Champ Chris Baldwin on the neutral heading to Nebo.
I’m sure I’ll remember some more as the lactic acid haze fades and the Red Bull buzz wears off. By the way, how many Red Bulls do you think I can drink from 1 hour prior to a race through the end of the race on the Provo-Nebo stage?