I always loved watching the TTT's in the Tour. It was
always one of the most enjoyable stages to watch for
me. The strength, the power, the speed, the whole team
moving as one, in perfect unison, floating inches from
each other, a sneeze away from disaster. Beautiful.
Now, after having competed with 3 of my fellow
compadres in my first ever...there's no feeling like
it man! Alarm went off at 4:45. I jump out of bed to turn it
off so fast I don't even think I gave it a chance to
reach it's full "I want to rip it out of the wall and
pound it with a sledge hammer" potential. So amped
about the event was I that before I know it, I'm out
of the shower and in the garage for the last once over
on the bike.
Fast forward to 15 min. to our 8:19 start. "Go ahead,
I'm right behind you," I tell Darin, Rod and Mark.
Throw on the helmet, grab the gloves, one last swig,
and head out. About a mile from the parking lot I pass
a rider heading the other way cussing and trying to
click in...I ask if he's ok, he hollers something
about my teammates, "Cool, thanks man!" I reply,
thinking he was telling me that they're just ahead of
me. Rounding the next turn I come upon the guys
helping Mark dust off and checking his bike out. I
look to Mark, who's by that time full into the ever
dreadful "Ouwee Dance." "WTF!?!" I ask. His jersey's
ripped, his elbow's bloody and we haven't even make it
to the flippin' start line. Turns out the guy had just
collided with Mark. I didn't see the accident but from
what I was told, the guy was flying, tucked with his
head down, and without warning, ran right smack into
the back of Mark who was pulling off the road to check
his bike. Mark took the brunt of the "attack" in the
"left rear quadrant"...arrow bars! OUCH! El Toro
strikes. It would be unanimously voted later that
Mark's new nickname is "The Matador!"
Mark felt pretty bad about it even though he wasn't
the one at fault. I guess the other rider fared much
worse and was screaming at Mark. Maybe it was a good
thing I wasn't there. Give the once over on the bike,
everything seems strait, without a word, Mark jumps on
and leads the way to the start line.
"10 seconds!" "5-4-3-2-1-GO!" and we're off. I take
the first pull. Perfect weather, great warm up,
feeling good as we serpentine our way down the course.
Working surprisingly well as a group for not having
ever ridden together, staying tight, taking turns,
beautiful. We fly into the first right hand turn. A
truck burns passed us, the flagger waves him through,
he stops, the flagger then tries to stop him, he
lurches, we slam on the brakes. SH*T! I let out an
expletive, Darin reels my emotions back in, and we
press on. First big climb, we settle into a silent
rhythm. I'm just starting to hum Promontory from the
last of the Mohican's (it just works for me) as we
level out, regain speed and hit the next climb.
Pushing my 25 I say, "Thats all, no more gears!" Just
then, Darin drops his chain. We slow, not sure whether
to continue or wait. Looking back, hearing the seconds
tick off, seeing Darin struggle, we look at each other
and just as we start to head back, Darin gritting his
teeth yells, "Go ahead guys, GO!" I can't imagine how
tough that must have been for him. Feeling like hounds
on a leash...we release.
Over the hills and through the woods, we reel in team
in front of us...we surge. The final stretch, laying
it all out diggin' deep, done.
High fives, back slappin', a few minutes later, Darin
rolls in grinning from ear to ear like the rest of us.
He hammered out the rest of the race solo just in case
one of us had a mechanical. Way to go Darin. I think
the "Toughest rider" award will have to be shared by
both Darin and The Matador, who HTFU'd and pulled his
share through the pain. You both rocked! And Rod, you
hammered brutha!
The best part, throwing back a few with Rod, Darin,
Dawn and the Matador over a perfect Chicago style
pizza pie and Zachary's, exchanging stories and
complimenting each other, laughing so hard that my abs
cramped up. I tell ya, every time I race with this
team, I come away saying, "What a great group of guys
man!" Any time, any place...I'm in.
Dawn was the perfect TTT sherpa, helping with all of
our #'s and just being there. She was also able to
snap a few shots of all of the other DBCers out there,
as well as a few great shots of Levi, who started
about 20 min. after us and was still unable to reel us
in! :0) As soon as I can, I'll upload them onto the
web site. I'll let you know when I do.
Not sure what our time was, i think it was
"Officially" around 49 and some change. 17th out of 24
I think. I think there were around 16 pro teams out
there though. :0)
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