Today was the Dooley Mountain Road Race. I felt really good before the race and was hoping for good results. Since this race finishes on a 10-mile climb, a lot of precious seconds could be won or lost. So staying with the pack over the first three climbs is critical.

We started out on a flat, tailwind section. There were surges and attacks here and there. I stayed towards the front at first, then realized I was wasting too much energy and went to the back and tried to stay out of the wind. The first real climb was tough. People pushed the pace right from the beginning so the pack shattered instantly. I was mid-pack coming into the climb but quickly started falling backwards. My teammate Mike Coffman pulled by me (we climb about the same), but I could hardly hang. Then a few minutes later he started to blow and I went by him. I looked back after passing him and it didn’t look like he was doing too bad, so I wanted to wait. Mike’s really good on the downhills and flats so I thought I’d have just a good chance of catching with him. Unfortunately, after I dropped off the group I was with, another group came up and Mike wasn’t in it. Mike must have really blown!

I was in a group with Tad Hamilton (Iomega, Boise) and he was working hard. I had a hard time staying with that group until towards the top of the climb when I started getting a second wind. We had a group of about 7 guys and we worked like crazy to catch after the top. It took us a good 10-15 minutes but we finally made it to the pack.

The pace up the second climb wasn’t as bad and I managed to stay with the pack. The third climb was tough and the pace picked up again. I realized that at this point, after doing 50 miles and three other stages, my legs were wasted, so I hung on as long as I could and then got dropped. Fortunately, the top of the third climb came soon enough and there was a group of about 12 of us chasing. We quickly caught right at the bottom of the descent.

So now we have about 30 miles of flat before the 10-mile climb to the finish. At first the pace was pretty quick with a couple surges here and there, but eventually, I think everyone was content to keep it together until the final climb. There were a couple riders who had been off from the very beginning, but the pack kept their time gap to about 2-3 minutes.

By this time it was getting pretty warm and I was out of liquid. Since there was one more feed zone, I thought I’d be fine. Sometimes I wear my Camelbak in addition to two 33oz. bottles, but today I thought I’d be fine with the three feed zones. Well, at the third feed zone they were supposed to have water and coke. The pace the few miles to the feed zone was pretty chill, about 22 MPH into a headwind. Unfortunately, it seemed like all the volunteers had coke, where most riders just wanted plain water. This made for a chaotic feed zone with riders slowing down, grabbing bottles, being told they were coke, throwing them, then trying to find water.

I grabbed one bottle of Coke, then I thought I heard a volunteer say there was water further up. So I kept riding at a fairly slower pace asking for water. No one seemed to have any! Then the pack was picking up its pace and people were accelerating so I had to start accelerating too. Then I saw a woman holding a yellow bottle, which I assumed was water (the granite color were what they were using for Coke). I tried to grab it but it bounced out of my hand. I think I was going too fast at that point.

So I get out of the saddle and had to chase the now flying pack which was totally strung out! By the time everyone is back together, the pace slows down and I move to the front. I saw that my teammate, Kelly (who was 4th in GC) was at the front in the wind. So I pull in front of him and rode tempo, which was only 20 MPH with the headwind, but not too hard from my perspective. Then a rider came up to me and asked why I was pushing!??! That I didn’t get? I didn’t say the answer, because that’s my style. I don’t like to (and typically, can’t) talk while I race. Race talk rarely goes anywhere and just wastes your energy. I rather just sit there and smile, which if someone has a problem with me, typically makes them madder.

So we ended up just toddling along until we hit the climb. So if we were just going to go pathetically slow after the feed zone, why in the world did people attack during the feed zone!!

So I drank the coke and gel that came with it but I really needed another water. I bummed a few sips off of Cody and Jason, but I really needed like 30 oz. Finally, we hit the climb and I get into a rhythm. Cody and Jason were in the group I was with and I was doing OK, but then I just couldn’t hang and I had to ease off. I knew this was a long climb and I didn’t want to blow in the first 2 miles.

Shirley, Kelly’s wife drove by and offered encouragement, to which I responded, “Got any water!?”. She gave me a bottle that was two-thirds full, which I quickly inhaled. Then I came upon Chris McGill who was making a good tempo but couldn’t hang with the riders in front, either. He got behind me while I rode my steady pace to the top. It was kind of ironic because I knew he was only 38 seconds ahead of me in GC. But I was so hurting and just wanted to get to the finish so I drink some water that I didn’t care. At the 1K to go sign he said, “thanks”, and I knew he wasn’t going to push it to the line. So I slowly increased my tempo and then really started to hammer with 500M to go. I was hoping that I could make up 38 seconds in 1 kilometer. Unfortunately, I didn’t go as fast as I thought I could and I only made up 20 seconds and nearly passed out at the line.

The sad thing was that Cody’s and Dykstra’s group was only 1 minute ahead of me. I think if I pushed it I could have hung with them, even in the face of dehydration. Oh, well, that would only have given me one or two more places. I ended up the race 35th overall. Not bad for my first Pro/1/2 race (with hills)!