You asked for it (you made me do this!), so you got it. Here’s a [brief] report on Lotoja.
By the numbers:
Distance: 204.5 miles
Climbing: 9,000 feet
Avg. Speed: 19mph
The Story (in five parts):
The cool thing about this day is that we ride as a
team. 7 guys, no drop. All for one, one for all. Heck, we even wear the same kit, all
matchy-matchy like. The goal is to have
a great day on the bike and finish in less than 12 hours and beat sundown (you
get an automatic DNF if you come in after dark). That means we have to keep moving. Andrew
Tappe and his friend (and now mine) Tai Bright have assembled a great group of
guys. We agreed to 10 minutes per stop,
no more. Nobody wants to go 204 miles
only to DNF!
(L-R) Andrew, me, Todd, Jason, Tai, Chad, Jose
The 1st
30 miles – flat, cold and fun:
All for one took a blow at the start. I got slotted by the
organizer into a start group 6 minutes behind the rest of the guys. No exceptions on hopping up into a different
wave, so the guys murmured something about soft pedaling until I caught
them. Tai introduced me to 3 friends of
his in my wave. I assumed we’d
collaborate to catch Andrew and Tai’s pack.
You know what happens when you assume…
At the start, I went to the front and pulled at 24 mph. There were 100 riders in our start group, so
it was fun to look back and see how long the pack stretched out along the roads
out of Logan, UT (a town surrounding by rolling mountains on both sides).
As soon as I hit speed, I was asked to slow down to 19-20mph
and was given the message that the leaders had a plan to save their energy for
later. So, I took my spot in the rotation
of four at the front. Each time it was
my turn, I punched it a bit, only to find myself alone 50 yards off the front.
The other three in rotation were pretty erratic when it came
to holding a line. At mile 10, that came
to roost. I was in 3rd
position in line and rider one swerved, took out the front wheel of rider two
and he went down in a flash right front of me.
I swerved and missed him my a hair.
The pack was not so lucky – about 15 people went down, some
hard. The sound of bike and human
meeting pavement is not a good sound.
I stopped, circled back, got Tai’s friend’s bike back in
order, back on his bike and checked on a few other riders. Luckily, only road rash and some sore
joints. Then went to work to pull him
back to the pack. We caught them a few
miles later.
I stayed at the front, a bit freaked out by all of the erratic
riding. At mile 27, a pack came by from
the back, and I decided to hop on.
Now we were flying at 25mph.
Much better. I like these
guys! Unfortunately, it would only last
3 miles. A few hills into the first rest
stop at mile 30 thinned out the group and we came into town about a group of
15.
I sort of thought I might see Andrew & Tai’s group
waiting at the rest stop, so I rode through the entire stop to see if they were
waiting at the exit but, no luck.
Unfortunately, everyone else in my little pack stopped for
support, so I was alone. Not good for
what was to come next.
Queue the internal whining.
Section 2: 47 miles, including Strawberry climb
Leaving the rest stop leads to a right turn right up a
canyon and into a steady wind. Not good
to be alone. To add insult to injury,
the race bible warns that this section is 22 miles uphill, including two 7%
climbs.
Out alone, I hopped from group to group just sort of time
trialing in the wind by myself.
Then it got worse. My
seat felt low and I looked down and could see the post slipping. That meant two stops to fix it and dial in
the right height.
I started doing the dark math: 6 minutes behind at the start, 10 minutes
lost to the crash, another 10 to the seat issues. The odds of catching the guys was bleak!
Then it got even worse.
The sky turned black and it got cold.
Like 40s cold. Then the rain came down. Steady and really cold (too early to start
daydreaming of a hot shower?).
The internal whiny voice became gnashing of teeth. It was stinkin’ cold! AND WE WERE CLIMBING!
Misery loves company and with about 7 miles of climbing to
go, I settled in with a father in a Norwegian champions jersey (a sign Mom?) and
his super fit son who set a great tempo up the climb. Thanks to their help, the climbs in these
sections were PRs.
Was so psyched to get to the top and see Andrew, Tai and the
rest of the gang. They had waited in
the rain at the top (thanks guys!).
60 miles of solo chasing came to an end. Whew!
The organizers gave Andrew and Tai some trash bags while
they waited. Those went pretty fast, so
Andrew grabbed me a piece of a cardboard box to stuff in my jersey to help me
keep warm on the descent (it worked).
We flew down the went descent for 15 miles and then out onto
the flats to get to the first supported food stop at mile 75.
Special Callout:
Tai’s wife and daughter (Vicki and Lakeyn) do an amazingly long day of
support. They speed from stop to stop
and log over 250 miles in the car. Tai
had cooked up some amazing rice cakes and boiled potatoes. Vicki and Lakeyn met us with our food and
Tai’s treats at each stop. Huge!
Section 3 – the
KOM section.
Get to mile 108 and you’ve knocked off the bulk of the
climbing in Lotoja. However, between
mile 75 and mile 108, you’re going up.
It felt so good to finally be with the guys, we climbed
steadily up the Geneva climb and waited about 20 minutes for the last rider in
our group. That made one of us (no
names) a little ansty about moving on.
Much like being the slowest skier in a pack, the slowest
climber comes to the top and doesn’t get a rest – as soon as he gets to the
top, the rest of the guys take off!
We descended a bit and then began climbing again.
Andrew drilled it and Tai and I followed just behind him up
the final climb of the day to the peak of Salt Creek. Another set of PRs.
108 miles in and I felt WAAAY better then last year
(infamous photo of last year at this point – “Lord, please let it be over.”)
That was last year, this year was different!
Next section:
50 miles. Goal: get to Alpine for the right turn into the
Snake River Canyon and the final push to Jackson Hole.
Mostly flat with wind. Andrew and I hammered with a friend of Tai’s
named Ken. The three of us rotated and averaged
22-25mph all along a beautiful valley.
We met Vicki and Lakeyn and
loaded up on food. Grabbed Tai and the
gang of 7 and we were off.
Last Section:
50 miles.
Getting to 160 miles and
feeling good means you’ve made it. You
still have a Harvard ride to go, but the scenery is breathtaking.
The valley climbs steadily,
and Andrew, Tai, Jose and I set a great tempo, climbing 1-2% for 25 miles.
About 25 miles to go and the
Tetons come into view. It gets really
hard to think about anything but the finish line.
Rather than being exhausted,
Andrew takes off to get a Strava segment on a climb and Jason and I stupidly
chase after him. We descended together
and waited for the rest of the group to roll the last 15 miles together through
Jackson and then out to Teton Village.
The horse smelled the barn
with 5 miles to go and Andrew took off.
I turned to Tai and asked if he wanted to go with him. All I got in return was a grunt! So Todd, Tai, Jose and I held a steady 22mph
and let our big buddy go.
There is nothing like going
to the edge of your physical limits and finishing!
Andrew has done 7 of these
and bagged a special honor!
Staying an extra day in Jackson Hole ain’t so bad…
Wake up to this…
Ran into this guy on the bike path...
See this on the way home…
Who's in for next year??
