Mt Hood Cycling Classic: Stage 4; Queen Stage

Well shit.  That was hard.  It all started by covering the first 5 miles in 8:08 and the next 5 in 7:52 in a balls-out descent from the start line.  Yes, a 38mph average for the first 10 miles.  Even as we were descending it I knew I'd hate climbing back up it, but I knew I had to finish this stage.  I'd made it this far and even if I had to crawl to the top of that hill I was going to finish.  Sadly, I didn't know how close to the truth this would be.


After 4 races to this point by legs were pretty well loaded so it was always a matter of how long I could stick with the group, not if I could stick with them. The goal was over the first climb, reality had another idea for me: 24:25.  Yep, first rise/kinda climb of the day (which no one knew about), boom, alex off the back, again.  I knew that I had to hang on to wheels as long as possible but no matter what my brain told my legs to do it wasn't happening.  Ok, survival mode:  hang onto the caravan as long as possible.  Over the next few miles I played accordion with the caravan, leeching onto every single wheel I could but when the road pitched up for real I knew it was all over.  There I stood, staring a 5 hour solo ride in the face.

Turns out you have a lot of time to think without distractions when you're off the back of a race like that.  I began to wonder whether it looks worse for the team if I drop out or if I finish way back.  I tried to ask this to a teammate helping out in the feed zone but think I said "is it better to drop out or quit?".  Turns out I wasn't really thinking clearly.  All the feed zone people laughed and someone yelled "just keep riding!"  I did.  Boosted by that I railed the descent and caught a few shelled Masters who I rode with for the next 40 miles. Then my legs couldn't even hold the pace of 4 Masters riders.  I slunk back in shame.  Then there was the insane descent from Lolo Pass.  The climb was brutal but the descent was insane.  Imagine an 8' wide road just cut through the trees and into the side of cliffs, overgrown on all sides with 4-6% slopes on the way down.  At one point I looked down and was doing 40+ mph.  Rough gravel patches, overgrown sides, high speeds, cliffs and no one in sight, probably not the best decision ever but I was actually enjoying myself.  Then the road started going up again.  The enjoyment stopped.  To make it even more demeaning, I got caught by the Cat 3 peleton which started an hour and twenty minutes behind me!  Yeah, bad day.  My legs were so toasted at this point I rolled up to the last follow car and asked if I could just sit in the draft.  The volunteer didn't know any better and let me sit on.  45 minutes later the official finally caught on and yelled at me.  I yelled back something about "just give me a time penalty (jerk!)" and moved out of shelter.  Honestly, if I hadn't had that 15 mile haul in finishing would have been a heroic feat.  To the Cat 3 follow car driver, you are a saint.

From there it was just a grind up the last 20k.  Lots of climbing, lots of slow.  I did take advantage of the chilled Gatorade at the illegal feed zone (meh, give me another time penalty) halfway up the climb.  Fueled by cool, sticky, sugary goodness the climb seemed a bit more bearable.  And I made it, over an hour behind the stage winner but I finished.  Can't say I'm super proud of my result or even my performance but I finished.  My only concern is I hope I didn't make sponsor Laurelwood Brew Pub look too bad.

Stage result:  102; 1:11:43 behind the leader
Final GC:  103; 1:52:10 behind the leader

I may post a few reflections about this race sometime this week, we'll just have to see if I can forget about it enough.  Thanks again to all for reading and the kind words and support this weekend, they all helped!