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The Cochise Classic race was yesterday. It’s the 157 mile race that
just about killed me last year. Last year I wound up with some pretty
major muscle spasms at the end of the race. This year was MUCH better.
Below is the race report I sent to my coach, I thought you might enjoy
reading it. We have to provide our own support for the 157 mile event,
so Annette and the kids “leap-frogged” me in the car and passed me food
and Accelerade (a cycling specific sports drink) along the way. Last
year I had a rough time, this year Annette did.
I had my spare wheels in the trunk in case I had a flat. It’s faster
just to put a new wheel on than change a flat tire. Anyway, Annette
stopped at a Safeway along the way to get some food for herself and the
kids. While she was there she needed something from the trunk and took
my spare wheels out. Forgot to put them back in the trunk – oops! So I
wound up with a new pair of wheels! I bought a fixed gear bike for my
birthday and the shop was done putting it together, so we stopped on the
way back to get it and I picked up my new wheels at the same time. My
old front wheel was just about shot, so I didn’t mind losing it. But I
had just had the rear wheel rebuilt and had just put brand new tires on
before we left. Oh well, I’ll still keep her – she gets a bunch of
points for riding around southern Arizona supporting me and just for
putting up with me in general! J
When we got to the finish I asked Annette to get me some water from the
ice chest in the trunk. When she came back I asked if she happened to
bring my sandals so I could get out of my cycling shoes. She did and
started to go back to get them and realized she didn’t have her keys.
Locked them in the trunk of the car when she got my water! She was just
having a bad day! I rode my bike back to the hotel we were staying at to
see if my keys were in the room, but no, they were also locked in the
trunk of the car with my cycling stuff. I rode back and let them know,
then they walked back to the hotel and I rode back again to call a
locksmith. Luckily the local locksmith happened to be at our hotel for
something, so he was able to get it open for us pretty quick.
Cochise just wouldn’t be Cochise without some sidebar stories to go with
it! Anyway, this is my best finish in a race yet. If the tandem hadn’t
been involved, I think I would have given the guy who won some serious
competition. I came in 11th last year and 2nd place this year. Next year
I plan on coming in first! J
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Sent: Sunday, October 03, 2004 4:17 PM
Subject: Cochise Classic Report - 2d place finish!
Cochise is a really hard ride! We started with 38 riders and a head
wind, so the pace going out of Douglas wasn’t nearly as fast as last
year. Everyone stayed together, even through the start of the climb to
Bisbee. Right after we went through the 5 road circular intersection on
the South end of Bisbee the first attack happened. It broke the group in
two and I stayed with the front half this year. Just before the open pit
mine there was another attack and 6 of us went with it. We opened a good
gap then one guy went to the front with a tandem right behind him. I
didn’t realize at the time, but now realize they were working together.
The tandem would allow a gap to open just to the point where I would
think about passing, then accelerate hard to close the gap. The guy in
front just rode tempo the entire time. At the end of each acceleration
the guys on the tandem would look back. It was a very well executed and
planned attack. After about four of those accelerations I cracked. One
person cracked before me and a third person shortly after me, which left
two guys and the tandem going through the tunnel alone. The three of us
who fell off re-grouped and rode the rest of the way up together with a
guy wearing a Landis jersey pulling. At the top, I went to the front for
the descent. I hit 52.5 mph going down and the two guys I was with had
trouble keeping up. We rode together for 20 miles or so and I was
definitely giving the strongest pulls. Before Tombstone we could see one
of the guys who was in that initial breakaway in front of us. Right
before we caught him the guy who pulled me up the last part of the climb
in Bisbee dropped off. Two of us rode for 2 or 3 miles before we caught
that guy in front. There’s a good climb outside of Tombstone and we lost
contact with each other going up. I was in the middle when the gaps
happened. I didn’t see the guy who fell behind on that climb for the
rest of the ride.
I flew through Tombstone at 34-35mph, passing 2 cars along the way, but
didn’t catch the guy who was in front of me until after passing through
town. We were all doing hand-offs for fluids and he and his support
person weren’t very good at it, they kept dropping the bottle. I stopped
once for a “natural” break and he finally stopped to change bottles.
Once again I was doing the strong pulling, usually maintaining 26-27 mph
and he would do 20-22 on his pulls, which I was ok with me because it
still gave me a break to recover some. During one of my pulls before
Benson I glanced back to pull off and he was gone. Don’t know what
happened to him, so I was alone from outside of Benson to the end of the
race. I did, however, see him one more time. I was on the highway and
saw a cyclist ahead of me going up Texas canyon. I thought he looked
familiar. 3/4ths of the way up he stopped and it was the same guy. He
said he was cramping pretty bad and asked if I had any spare water, but
I was down to half a bottle at that point, so he was on his own. There’s
a sign out there that said the turn off to 191, which I knew as the road
back to Douglas, was still 18 miles off! It freaked me out since I was
low on Accelerade, but shortly after that sign there was another for
Dragoon road - 1 mile ahead, which was my turn. Dragoon intersects with
191 quite a way south of the freeway. I found out after the race that
the guy accidentally turned early and cut several miles off the route,
which is how he got in front of me. He also lost contact with his
support crew when he did that, which is why he was out of water.
Apparently that’s happened before and the race officials add “predicted”
time for the distance missed instead of just disqualifying him.
Anyway the road back to Douglas was similar to last year. There was a
pretty strong headwind most of the way, but certainly not as brutal as
last year. I made pretty good time, trying to keep my average through
that windy section over 18mph. At one point I asked my wife to stay
where she was and time how long it took before another rider came by.
There were two guys riding together 15 minutes back. She checked them 3
times and they weren’t gaining on me until near the end and I was
definitely getting tired by then. There’s a turn 7 miles before the
finish and about 13 miles before that turn I was having trouble keeping
my average speed up. Once I hit the turn I was back up to 19-20, but for
a while there I probably averaged 15 or 16 and the guys behind me were
able to gain some time. About 4 miles out a race official drove up and
escorted me the rest of the way in, which was kind of cool. I still had
enough in my legs to kick my speed up to over 28 mph for the finish.
So, the finishing time was just over 7:26 by that tandem and the
individual winner (they finished with the same time). I came in 2d place
(since the tandem doesn’t count) with a time of 7:58, 32 minutes back.
But I was alone for about 97 miles, so I’m feeling really good about my
ride. I shaved almost 40 minutes off of my time from last year and
finished without any cramping the entire ride! Woohoo! J The two guys
behind me came in 8 minutes later, so they shaved 7 minutes off when I
had that slow section. Podium finish, but we had our puppy with us, so
we didn’t stay for the awards ceremony this morning. What a difference a
year makes!
Mike
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