Summer Update

We've had a great summer so far!  Manny, Ben, Heather and Keri all participated in the Road Respect (http://www.roadrespectutah.org/) bike ride from Logan to St. George.  Ben only road to SLC but the rest made it the entire way!  The campaign is geared towards drivers AND cyclists so hopefully we can all just get along. 

On June 11th we hosted the 3rd annual Powder Mountain Hillclimb.  Norm Bryner set a new record at 41 min 9 sec for the 6 mile, 3300 vertical foot climb.  The Ogden Standard Examiner has a great slideshow here:  http://www.standard.net/slideshows/2011/06/11/powder-mountain-hillclimb.

The racing has been great as well.  Manny took in the Utah Summer Games Omnium this past weekend.  Here's his report:



The games started out Thursday(cycling) at 10 am. It was a blistering 88 degrees already. The climb was 4 miles which I compared to the Divide. It was dang hot with no chance of reprieve from the sun beatin right down on us. The fastest time was laid down by the current record holder, Brian Jeppson, of 21:20 (record set at 20:30 in '06). He weighs a whopping buck forty wet.....maybe. I was fourth overall at 23:50 which was good enough for gold in the 30-34 age group. When I got within 200 meters to go, I stood up and put a good push in for the line. NOT a good idea. I immediately pulled over and threw up 3 times. Every bit of the bottle and a half I drank on the way up came out!! My head felt like it was on fire. I wasn't sick at all, just got super over heated. I knew that if I didn't replenish quick, the rest of the weekend could be a disaster. So I got to the car, popped some electrolyte stimulant tabs from Trace and started drinking like crazy. Felt better within an hour.

That evening was the ITT. A 5 mile out and back (10 miles total). There was a crazy cross/tail wind going out so I knew that it wouldn't be a good idea to go out too hard but that I needed to take advantage of the situation. I made the turn and the guy who started 1 min behind me was only 32 seconds (according to my calculations) behind at the turn. I'll admit, I was scared. I kept to my plan (avg 300 watts out, TH + 20 watts in) and pounded the 5 miles back into the finish line for a second overall, (21:16) 3 seconds behind first, and another age group gold. BTW, beating the guy who closed the 1 min start gap going out, by a minute twenty!! Thursday was by far the hardest day!

Friday came, HOT and windy again, with a noon crit start time. The crit was held in a new subdivision that has no homes because of the down economy. Pretty nice, smooth roads. It was a 3 corner coarse because one end was just a big sweeping turn. The two long lengths were head/ cross and tail/cross. I did my usual and attacked 3 times early with no success. each time the group just grabbed my wheel. About halfway through, 4 of us upped the tempo and worked together to find ourselves off the front. one lap latter it was down to me, another 30-34 dude and a 35-39 guy (the crit was 19-39 men, scored separate, raced together). I knew I needed to get rid of the other fellow age grouper so I made him pull the entire stretch into the wind then I attacked, 20 yards before we turned and he popped like a zit! The 35-39 er and I finished strong, worked well with one another and I managed to win the sprint and another age group gold.

Saturday was the last day and day of the 60 mile RR. I had my van packed and ready to go when my uncle said, "jump in with me and we'll just ride together." I didn't argue and quickly threw my bike and stuff into his car. 20 mins later, we get to the starting line and I didn't grab my nutrition bag or an extra water bottle (the race was self supported). I managed to rummage a probar, bag of shot rocks, and a bag of power blasts from my cycling bag. I asked if we'd get hand-ups at the turnaround and I was told yes so I didn't stress. For those of you who know me, I have to eat a lot on the bike or I bonk, so the lack of fuel was a worry. The race started and we rolled out nice and easy. I attacked once, 4 miles in, with no success so decided to sit in but stay towards the front. Again we were a group of 19-39 year olds. It was an out and back course up over a summit and down into New Castle so we had to climb both directions. 8 miles in, Marty, who didn't appear to be very strong, started hammering the climb and I looked back and we were only 4 again, 2 of us were the same as in the crit. We just kept goin pretty good and got into a rhythm and dropped 1 dude. At the turn around, 2 dudes made a good effort to bridge and got within 15 seconds. We turned the pace up and continued to pull away. Back tracking in my story, there was NO support at the turn!! I sucked down a bottle and a half on the way out and only had half a bottle to get back!! I was stressin to say the least. 85 degrees in the dead of the sun with only 10 ozs of H2O with 29 miles to go was not a comforting feeling!! I decided to only drink when my mouth got really dry. I kept it together and ran out with 4 miles to go. The finish was a 1 mile 8% climb, sort of like the old East Canyon. The 3 of us stayed together and I sprinted for the overall with 100 meters to go. That resulted in another stage gold and the Omnium gold. 5 gold medals total!! I am stoked!!!

Manny