Bear Lake going Once, Twice, Three times!

75°F
Ergomo Pro/Spin
Wasn't sure how today was going to go. I was concerned about the distance, didn't have 100 miles under my belt yet this year and my feet were really hurting at the end of last years race and I got popped with 5 miles to go. I covered an attack 5 minutes in with 2 riders and the 3 of us kept it going off the front for a couple of minutes just to see if the field would let us go or not, but they brought it back. I continued to cover a lot of attacks throughout the day. At the 30 mile mark, ET got in a 4 man move that went up the road that the field let it go and they quickly got a 1 minute gap. A little while later, Candelaria and one other rider bridged across, I heard it took them 20 minutes. The rest of the day we just covered attacks and sat in, letting the disorganized Cat 3's try to figure out how to chase. Ira Tibbets kept throwing in hard attacks over and over. We covered every single one, his tactics weren't working for him and he was tired for the field sprint. We caught sight of the break on the last lap on the East rollers and the field became re motivated to catch them. The field took its time, waiting until the very end. With about 5 miles to go, I covered several hard attacks from riders trying to get away. I was a little worried I had burned myself up for the field sprint. After I covered one attack and started coming back, another one went up the road. Patrick was behind me and gave me a push to cover it. I went again but came back when I knew I was giving too much, but the field went with me and everything was back together. Everybody was really fighting for position now. I was in the top ten the rest of the way. We came to the left turn and I went around on the right side on Tibbets wheel. We started the drag race and I went past him right away. Then we were coming up on ET and another rider that almost overlapped his wheel and nearly crashed as we were coming, and we had to go around them on both sides and the speed let up just a hair to get by safely. I felt bad that we were passing Eric in the last K after being in the break for 70 miles. Pretty soon Connor O'Leary (the UCA Leader) came around me with some pretty good speed so I jumped on his wheel. Then I noticed Patrick on my left getting some draft. At about 400 meters we were all out. I came around Connor on his right hammering, passing the 200 meter sign. The legs were screaming, but I just kept them spinning and stretched as far as I could at the line. There was one rider to my left that got me by a few inches and Patrick was just ahead of us. He took the field sprint, but Cameron managed to hang on just 10 feet ahead of us for 2nd and another rider in front of him for 1st. I ended up 6th overall, and I'm happy with that.

TTT
We got a good warm up and set out at a nice pace. Wind was pretty calm. The N end was the worst. We went to a rotating pace line and got across pretty well. I was feeling good and coming through strong on my pulls. I was focused on keeping it smooth so I didn't mess things up. Canyon (Jeff Clawson, John Gardner and Louis Riel) caught us mid way on the East side rollers. They must have put in a big effort to make the catch, because we passed them on the next hill. Towards the end of the rollers my legs were starting to get tired and weak and I wasn't able to pull as strong as I wanted to. Todd really started to come through here and do some great work. I had 2 gel packs and I forgot to eat one at the line, and I just couldn't find an opportunity to eat one on the course. I only drank 1/2 a bottle, but that is all I felt like I needed, temp was great. Bill pulled hard right before the final small climb a few K from the finish and I used it as a spring board to power up with Todd and give it everything to the line. Todd came through and started riding me off his wheel to the line, it was a great finish. 1:51:28. Ave speed 27.4 mph. Canyon caught us and passed us with 500 meters to go. They started 2 minutes behind us. We had a great time, just off the time of about 3-4 cat 1/2 teams. I was very happy with it and very happy with how well my teammates did.