Post a Comment On: Transplant Athlete

Right from the start, I wasn't feeling like riding. We jumped on to Interstate 80. There was a lot of construction and I followed another rider onto the active roadway with a really small shoulder. I got buzzed by a semi and then I took another look at what I thought was a closed exit ramp. It was actually the 2 eastbound lanes of 80...I quickly jumped the guardrail and had 2 lanes all to myself. Lon came by right about then and said, "What were you doing out there? There's no shoulder..." We had a headwind and the road had some pretty good climbs on it. The support van stopped at every off ramp to watch us go by, I was annoyed that they stopped. Then later, when they didn't stop, I was annoyed. Up until the day before, everything was good, I was really happy, so I knew something was up...The voice in my head was saying really bad things too. "You're slow." "You're not putting out any power." "You should just go home" I pushed on to the first rest stop, but I was really slow and I had a 150 miles to ride. I was the last person by far at the first rest stop. I pushed on to the second rest stop and Ron and the Brits were just leaving. They had had multiple flats, so they weren't having a good day either. My speed was now just 13.8 mph, so if I continued, I would be getting in around 6 or 7pm. I told Barb I would be SAG'ing to the hotel. She brought me to lunch and Susan convinced me I should at least ride from the last rest stop. There was still a little bit of climbing from the final rest stop, but there was an awesome descent as well. I took off with Kevin Kaiser. He's riding a fixed gear, so his top speed on the descents is around 25. I blew past him at around 36. He caught up to me though before town and I drafted him into the hotel. Interesting fact, when you get to the hotel first, the Tostitos bag is full...I'm used to showing up last and eating crumbs. Vernal had a dinosaur theme going, they are in the dinosaur diamond, an area where they dig up a lot of dinosaur bones.