Let's start with the drama, then the actual race.
Why was the course shorter this year? It was 11-12 miles shorter because we bypassed the Round Valley area due to time constraints. We had time constraints because started an hour later than planned. We started an hour later because it rained quite a bit during the night and early morning.
I also missed a 1.5 mile section of the course. I was in a group, following, and never saw a turn that we apparently missed. I never thought I was off the course; I saw orange markers all over the place. The image below shows the portions not ridden in red where the top right is Round Valley and the bottom right shows the missed 1.5 mile section.
I did hear a guy say that we missed a turn as I was passing more orange markers so I responded with something like "no, we're on course, see the markers?" Then during the climb after Johns 99 someone else from Revolution (or maybe the same guy) talked to me, said we had missed a turn, and told me he was showing 34 miles on his bike computer. I told him I was at 32.5 and we agreed I must have missed something. I thought I was disqualified at that point but I felt I should get the verdict at the finish line. I came to ride this thing and I wanted to finish.
At the Park City feed zone I told Vanessa about my possible DQ. She informed me a bunch of others had the same issue and there would likely be an adjustment at the finish. Cool. Maybe I can finish without a DQ. Moving on.
Then the results get posted. I am in first place. Jason Sparks calls me in disbelief and I tell him I missed the 1.5 mile and things just need to be adjusted. We go talk to Jay, the organizer. I ask to have my time adjusted, and after much discussion the decision is made to leave the standings as they are because penalizing just me isn't fair if others don't admit to missing the section as well. Before the awards Jay talks to the top 5, no one else is certain about missing the section, so the standings remain unchanged. I get the top step of the podium, although possibly not deserving. I'll never really know but I likely would have gotten 3rd place. [Update: Um, the dust settled and what I meant was 7th place...]
Sunday night the results change to show me in second place. My time is still not adjusted but someone else that wasn't listed anywhere near the top in the original results is now 1st.
The drama portion of this article is over. Now the race.
I knew I couldn't keep the truck and trailer at the start during race day so I scoped out overnight options for this race a few weeks back. I found a tiny dirt lot about 1/2 mile south of the start parking lot that allowed me to wake up a bit over one hour before the start. As I was getting ready I got a call from Jason Sparks asking me if I knew the situation because there was talk of postponing the race. Nope, no idea; I hadn't been to the start area yet but I made my way there to confirm and was told the race start was postponed one hour. I was already dressed and wet...let's race! But nope, they made me wait.
We start at 8:00 and bypass the Round Valley 12 miles. Nice, Round Valley is my least favorite portion of this race anyways and now race shrunk to 68 miles. Let's race!
I started with the 8-9 hour group, the second group off the line, because I didn't want to get stuck in traffic like I did last year. I figured I'd be in the back of the faster group rather than try to go through most of a slower group. There was a bit of slowdown during the first few miles still but not as bad as Round Valley last year. Maybe the muddy conditions caused it, or maybe people were conservative at the beginning of the event.
I found myself going pretty hard once the traffic cleared, and burning some matches to get in better positions for various climbs and descents. And I hadn't made it to Snow Park lodge yet. I also found myself thinking I should slow down a bit. Nah. Feels good. Let's race!
Snow Park lodge already? There's Vanessa...I don't need anything until Silver Lake in 3 miles so I'll just dump my empty water bottle to make the next transition faster. And I ask for an extra bottle to clean my bike cause my gearing was shitty due to the mud. See you in 3 miles...
Bang, already at Silver Lake lodge. This year I know I need to ride the little practice loop first so I tear through that loop and start looking for Vanessa. Oh, I donno why, but that loop was awesomely fun this year. I enjoyed the shit out of it.
I hear someone cheer me on, which turned out to be Bonnie, but I ride through the feed zone without seeing Vanessa. Oh oh. Is she maybe still on the chairlift? Nope. Did I miss her riding through? Nope. Ok, fill my water, ask Bonnie to tell Vanessa to meet me at TG and go. This may be another year like my 2010 LOTOJA where I am ahead of my support crew all day. I can make it work. One water bottle until TG and one clif bar until Park City. I was out of EFS liquid shot and very glad I grabbed a Clif bar just in case. I guess I shouldn't have dumped my empty bottle 3 miles earlier. I thought I learned that lesson at LOTOJA too. I'm a slow learner.
Earlier in the day I noticed a guy wearing Fat Cyclist shorts but a Carbo Rocket jersey riding a single speed. Could it be Fatty himself? Nope. It wasn't. But a little while after leaving Silver Lake lodge I spot Fatty behind me. I ask for confirmation that it's the real Fatty, he confirms, and we have a few conversations about Leadville, PCP2P, bike choice, and other stuff for the next few miles. He finally gets tired of my climbing speed and goes by but I mostly stick to his pace, keeping him in sight.
I get to TG, look around for Vanessa, fill my water, and ask a guy to tell Vanessa to move on if she shows up. Time for some seriously technical downhill.
At some point during the descending I pass Fatty, then he catches and passes me back during the Shadow Lake climb, which I had decided to take super-slow. I remember this climb was the turning point for me last year where I just wanted the event to end. This year: take it easy, make it around the lake, then enjoy the killer downhill to Park City. The lake showed up pretty quickly actually and I felt strong after climbing for nearly an hour. I pointed downhill and flew, hitting 31mph near the bottom. I passed a few people, told Fatty he'd get me back on the next climb, and made it down to the feed zone. Wait, can I say how much I loved that downhill? It's one of those times where your brain is the only speed limiter, where you pucker, where you have your fingers on the brakes and are just hoping to have the reaction time you need. K, let's move on.
Hey! There's Vanessa's cheer! Hey! There she is! I got two bottles, some EFS, drank some soda, tried to fix my gearing again, cleaned a bunch of mud, someone lubed my chain, and left. 1 minute 34 seconds. Nice.
Spiro is next. Last year that climb went on FOR-E-VER. This year went much quicker partly because the course changed and partly because I felt stronger. I really like the new Armstrong trail too. I remembered it from preriding and I remembered the gradual but not ridiculous climb. Mentally I was feeling quite strong because I made it to Park City in 4:45 and knew I prerode the final section in 2:55 at a snail's pace, so I calculated 2:30 to finish which would make 7:15 for the whole race. That would be amazing.
I get to the rocky section of mid-mountain. I mean rocky. And I eat it up. My Jet9 RDO killed it. I just held the bike upright. Until that one rock. I was climbing at 5-6 mph, saw a 1ft rock with a perpendicular face coming up, looked ahead beyond it and hit it straight on, causing me to endo, stuff my finger, and laugh. It was just one of those moments where a little concentration was lacking, and I paid for it. Moving on.
I get through Red Pine Lodge and continue on mid-mountain trail for awhile, all alone. The section from Park City to Red Pine was pretty much by myself; I may have passed 2-3 racers but there wasn't much activity.
A bit after Red Pine I got passed by a UMB guy that I later found out was Mitt. I saw the "3" on his leg and asked if he was Michael and he said no. Phew. Michael is in my age group and has this uncanny ability to pass me at the end of many races.
A small road climb stood in the way of me and the most awesome downhill section ever. I saw UMB guy climbing and felt I could match his pace so I tried to take that climb pretty strongly and in no time the downhill began. I wish I could describe this amazing downhill to give it justice. Here, let me give you a visual: I took this during the preride because I just LOVE this section:
Imagine probably a mile of this flowy, twisty, fast, gorgeous, adrenaline-filled trail where once again your brain is the speed limiter. Now imagine riding this trail PERFECTLY where you just didn't make a mistake, where it just all worked, where you could almost remember every single turn and take every part just beautifully. Yeah, like that. I was one with the bike and the mountain. I loved it. LOVED it. Near the end of this zen-like moment I came up on some hikers, slowed, passed them, and heard something like "that was smooth" in a woman's voice. Hell yeah it was. Wait, what? Someone caught up to me? A woman? No shit? I have nothing but respect for women but I typically don't get caught on downhills, and I've caught up to some of the best on downhills. I'm kinda crazy like that.
I later found out that was Amanda from the Kenda team. She won the pro women overall title. She is a downhill goddess, plain and simple.
As we get to a rolling hill section I ask Amanda if she wants to pass and she declines. More downhill follows so we ride down together for a bit. I then have a chain suck issue, have to pull over, and she passes. I quickly fix my chain, get back on, and chase. That was a fun chase :) I caught up a bit before the Ambush climb and we start climbing together. I surprisingly can stick to her pace for the majority of the climb, and am quite happy to have her to pace with. I remember last year at this point I just finished the race without really pushing but this year I climbed at nearly threshold. Not bad for the 60th mile.
During the climb we talk about the upcoming water bars on the last descent. I remember them from the preride and am pretty confident she can deal with them no problem, being the descending animal she is.
Last descent. Time for some fast and technical stuff. I catch up to another guy, Amanda gets by him, and I see Aaron C. on the side of the trail. He notices me and says hi but I am too focused to reply. I hoped he was ok :S
Then there's the finish. It's different than last year. Hairpin, jump? no way, bypass jump, grass, tiny singletrack, hey why are those people standing in the middle of the singletrack? WTF?? Oh, there's the finish, I have to turn left...Done! What an amazing day!
In retrospect, I wondered if my 2010 LOTOJA was a fluke. I knocked an hour off my first LOTOJA. Did I just get lucky? Well, this race helped me clear that up. I did this race in 7:14. If I add 1:10 for the time it took me to do Round Valley last year and, say, 15 minutes for the 1.5 mile I missed (1.5 miles @ 6mph...pretty slow climbing), I get to 8:39. Last year: 9:46. Look, I shaved an hour on a 10 hour event again. Eeeexcellent.
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