Famous last words.

"Don't worry, we'll catch 'em", says Sean. I'm not saying that words of encouragement are bad, but it just wasn't enough at Sanpete.

How I got left behind is a bit blurry now. There were four guys off the front and we kept a good eye on them. As we got closer people were starting to jump across. Some made it, others didn't. Anyway, Hoov and I ended up chasing the group of 5-6 leaders for about an hour. There was another guy with us, but he was just dead weight. Not a single pull out of him. I think he was planning on attacking and bridging when we got close enough. But we had other plans. We never got close enough. Haha! In your face wheelsucker! OK, so he did attack finally, but I doubt he ever caught on. By then we could hardly see the front group anymore. At a certain point we decided that we had enough threshold training for the day and focused on just finishing the ride.

When the really old guys caught up to us at the bottom of the hill, they dragged some guy with them who got dropped from our group earlier on. The climb towards the end turned out to be fairly flat and by then I had found enough left in my legs to try to finish with style. The aforementioned rider still kept sucking wheels from the other group, and when I led out my teammate in the last 1k, he actually contested the sprint. He didn't beat my teammate, but he did finish ahead of me. Well, not that I lost any prize money or points, but I'm nevertheless baffled when people do that. Regardless of the significance of the game, you come to expect at least appearance of fairness. A big "L" for him.

On the other side of the spectrum is our UCA leader Scott, who having already clinched the title dropped back to help us catch on. For that, Scott gets a big "W". Andre came away with the race win, while B-horn had a bit of bad luck with a blown tire and had to hitch a ride. All in all, there were some small victories along the way for me as well. Hey, I didn't cramp, so that's good.

So much stuff, so little time.

Since I have no writing skills I'll just do a Billy Joel version:

Saturday, waking up, still dark and cold out, meet Canyon team,
Packin' up, heading out, arriving in PC, still cold, setting up,
Breakfasting on cookies, driving to Feed 1, 11 am a break goes by,
Handing out bottles, jumping in the car, following the pack,
Enjoying amazing views of professional racing,
Tony and Phil fill in for Graham Watson.

Feed cars redirected, damn! Scrambling to Feed 3, where to park?
Everyone is in the middle of the road, here they come,
Water? EFS? Coke? Is that everybody? No, here's more,
OK, let's go up Suncrest, Here's Fast Freddie... pretty slow.
"Hey man, need any help?", "Yeah, they could close the road",
"Sorry dude, by this time it's already open", Freddie's cool.

Calling wife to shoot some pics when they ride by the house,
Can't, she just got out of the shower getting ready for work, bummer,
Shooting up the left side of the road, over speed limit,
Waving at cops as we pass, they just smile back, cool!
Redneck in a truck trying to pass the caravan like us,
Cops pull him over, what a heavenly day! Someone pinch me.

Down Suncrest at... well fast, movin' up the pack through Draper,
Ref tells us to get behind (again), but they let some cars through,
We're a car, so we go through too, up Little Cottonwood canyon,
Guy in a green jersey gets a tow, no refs around now,
Throwing freebies to kids, there's suffering Tyler Hamilton,
He's just smiles, no bad blood, looks ready to retire.

Pull up to Garmin/Chipotle car, hey that's Frishkorn in the back.
"Where's Pate?". "He's here too". Jokes and laughs,
Danielson's up the road, we pull up, "Need some water?",
"Put some on my back", we comply, some team car pulls up,
"You guys cut that shit out!", party poopers,
Didn't they just tow the guy in green?

Two guys in briefs dancing around, that's just wrong,
Here's the TofU devil, and there's whippin' Julie,
300 Warriors started 4 hrs before the race, some still on course,
Tanner's flat is not flat, more people, cheering, bells,
Finish! We park, mingle, listen in to interviews, hand out flyers,
What our local guys did was heroic, Nate's a stud.

"We didn't start the fire, it was always burning..."
(I doubt it'll fit the song, but you can try)

P.S. I also watched Stage 3, and supported on Stage 5. Zirbel's a monster TT-ist, but J-Lo's the man of the week.

P.P.S. 9 hr hikes are not good for training. They're mostly good for building fatigue, but awesome for the soul.

What's wrong with this picture?

I mean really.


Does this fellow think he's gonna get lost in the baggage compartment? Something particularly wrong with "I [heart] NY" or "Made proudly in the USA"? I hope the other side of his t-shirt doesn't say "Fragile" or "This side up".

I know there's a story there, but the media ain't too keen.

But wait! There's more.

Make your own and report back.