Tour of the Gila - Ups and Downs, Downs, Downs

Last week we went out to the Tour of the Gila in beautiful Silver City, New Mexico. This is one of the premier stage races in the country, and an NRC event, so all the best Pro teams showed up. I competed in the Men's 2 category with two teammates: Chad and Nick. Gila is a 5-stage race starting with a time trial, then 2 mountain stages, a crit, and finally the "Gila Monster" mountain stage. The race had over 25,000 feet of climbing!!

My goal for this race was to do a strong time trial to position me well in the GC and then hold a good GC position to hopefully finish top 5. We flew out on Monday, a couple of days before the race started, to get used to the altitude a bit. Philadelphia sits around 200 ft. above sea level. The town of Silver City is at 6,000 ft. and we would be climing to over 8,000 ft. on some stages!! Dealing with the altitude was definitely going to be a challenge, as if we didn't have enough to contend with already!

Wednesday came along quickly; this was the day of the stage 1 time trial. The day before, we pre-rode the course, and we knew it was going to be hard. Right out of the gate there was a 4 mile climb, followed by a screaming descent to some tough rollers and the turnaround, then back up the steep side of the climb and finally 4 miles downhill to the finish. It would also be dangerous because the course was very windy, with strong gusts of crosswinds that could easily push a rider off the road. Fast times for the pros last year were around 35-36 minutes, so I figured a sub-37 minute time would be good. I was the third person off, so I only had two "rabbits" to catch, well, hopefully catch!

5-4-3-2-1-go! I sprinted out of the starting gate and settled into a good rhythm going up the hill. The climbing starts at a pretty low angle and kicks up as you get towards the top. I had my 30-second man in sight and passed him before we crested the climb. I was feeling good and I was spinning the pedals effortlessly it seemed. OK, one more guy to catch, let's get him. The descent on the back side of the hill was fast; really fast. My tallest gear was a 55x11 and I was spinning it out. I pounded over the rollers and caught my minute man right before the turnaround. Nothing but open road on the way back now. Returning to the base of the climb I was still feeling strong, and put in a good effort to get back over the top as quickly as possible. All that was left now was the 4 mile descent to the finish. Once again I was spinning out my 55x11 doing somewhere around 55mph when I experienced the scariest thing that ever happened to me on a bike: while in full aero tuck a strong crosswind gust slammed into my front wheel and sent me swerving all over the road! I thought for sure I was going down, and it was going to hurt. All I could do was stop pedalling, clamp the top tube with my knees and hold onto the aerobars for dear life. Somehow I recovered my bike and my nerves and kept flying to the finish. At the end I was spent, but I knew I had put in a good effort. My finishing time was 36:30, which was over a minute faster than the 2nd place finisher! I would be starting in the leader's pink jersey the next day! My time would have also placed me 25th in the Pro race, which went off earlier in the morning. I was told that the wind really picked up for our race in the afternoon, so if I had raced in the morning my time would have been quite a bit faster.

Day 2: Mogollon Road Race - 95 miles. Looking at the profile, this seemed like a mostly flat stage that ended in a 6.7 mile category 1 climb which maxed out at 19% steepness. Talking to my teammates, Chad and Nick, we agreed that we just didn't have the manpower to control every break that went up the road, so we would have to let early breaks go and hope they get reeled back in. Any breaks that went in the last 40-50 miles we would cover. The race started with a 2 mile parade lap and as soon as we started racing, a break went up the road at mile 3. Great. We watched them gain some time, and then all of a sudden the guy who was 2nd in GC bridged up. OK this break needed to come back NOW. Chad and Nick immediately went to the front to control the time gap, but nobody would help them! Seems like everybody else either had someone in the break or were content to let it go. So it was all Chad and Nick pulling the pack along trying to control the gap. The break built a lead of about 6 minutes, and at that time I knew that they weren't coming back; Chad and Nick were spent from their superman efforts and all I could do was watch the pink jersey melt off my shoulders. I tried to bridge up a couple of times to animate the pack into working, but it was hopeless. By the time we reached the last climb, Chad and Nick were gone, and I was so wasted that I suffered up the climb and lost a bunch of time. My GC position fell to 10th after this race, but no worries, there was still a lot of racing and climbing to come. I was certain I could get some spots back.

Day 3: Inner Loop Road Race - 80 miles. This race suited my climbing style much better. The course included 3 long, grinding category 3 climbs, with a very technical and dangerous descent after the first climb. Starting the day I felt good, and the pressure of having to defend the jersey was pleasantly absent. Today I could just race and ride hard, and I was looking forward to making people hurt. Again, a small break of 6 got off the front on the first climb, but I stuck in the pink jersey group; there was still a long race ahead. I felt good on the first climb and hung out about 4 or 5 back, shadowing the pink jersey. I took a feed at the top of the climb to prepare for the dangerous descent, and then disaster struck. On the first left-hand switchback of the descent, the guy in front of me locked up his rear wheel and low-sided into the pavement. I was already commited to my line and all I could do was slam on the brakes and ram my front wheel into his midsection. Over the bars I went, flying through the air and landing really hard on my back with a thud; knocking the wind out of me! I rolled a couple more times into the woods and took cover as bodies and bikes went flying past me. Shit this isn't good! A quick diagnostic check revealed that my back was pretty well tweaked, my right arm was sore, and I banged my head pretty good. Grabbed my bike - everything looked good there. Hopped back on and started chasing the pack down the nerve-wracking descent. I chased for about 15 miles with a small group and finally we caught back on in the valley. The small break was still up the road, but I was hurting pretty bad and all I could do was hang with the pink jersey group to the finish.

Day 4: Criterium. Waking up in the morning my back was still really stiff and sore from the crash. Not good. I started spinning about an hour and a half before the start of my crit in hopes to loosen up my back. I got a good starting position in the second row. This was a tough crit course: 4 corners with a short but steep kicker on the back side after turn 2. On the first lap I went to stand on the pedals to push over the climb and I just couldn't get any power from my back; it had totally seized up on me. I quickly slid to the back of the pack as we crested the climb. The next 5 laps I spent moving up on the flats of the course, just to get shot to the back on the climb. Finally the rubber band broke - I fell back and couldn't catch back on to the group. My back was on fire, and I could hardly turn the pedals over. I had to pull to the side of the road and hunch over my bike in pain and defeat... my Tour of the Gila was over.