Tour de Moore......

JUST ONE PAUSE, HESITATION, REDLINE……will cost you dearly……

Randall and I, lined up this morning at 8:15 with some the biggest “dogs” of the southeast Masters (40+) cycling circuit…… LeDuc, Blackington, Canon, Johnson, Humphreys, Ruscoe, Moore, Mead, etc etc….. ( I think Randall was the 3rd oldest and I was like the 7th….. well at least of the finishers)

But nothing… and I mean nothing had prepared us for what was to be a blistering pace. 80 started only 55 finished the 2 lap race of 54 miles……..

The course basically rolls down for the first 12 miles……… before a slow long ascent culminating with, what we thought, was a slight 2 mile climb back to the Start/Finish…….. were we wrong….. well not exactly ....more on that later.

Whistle and we are off….. within seconds we are pushing the big chainring and the 12 tooth cog elbow to elbow, hip to hip with 80 very determined cyclists spread entirely across the road going 30+ mph…….

You know how most races start with a bang and the pack tries to rid itself of the riff raff and then backs off and settles down……. no settling down was in the cards for today…….

I told Randall that we needed to be near the front at the finish of the lap as it would go on the climb, and if need be, we could drift back and stay in contact…… that was the plan…. the execution, however was something different….

We spent considerable effort in fighting our way up through the pack… which was next to impossible and so at about the 13 mile mark I made a move up the outside going up a climb finding myself doing such a good job that I ended up creating a break of 4 riders… another 4 riders were off the front and we started to reel them in, but in the end the peleton saw that this would not be good and shut us down …. bad move on my part as I was redlined with only 2 miles to go before the climb up to the start/finsh….. calm down… settle in…. relax…..

I see Randall and once again tell him to move up….MOVE UP!...

We bottom out at the small creek, and pass the horses who look at us with perked ears shaking their heads at the stupidity of MAN…..

LeDuc, Canon, Johnson are moving up the right going the front….. I see LeDuc out of the saddle….too far back…….. this is it…… a 3 tier climb…..not steep at all…….. “actually not much of climb” ( I think that is what Randall said …. well before the race)….. The pack of something less than 80 is being strung out ….. we are too far back….. relax….. spin…spin……. still in the big ring as we are going up the climb at 25mph….. lactic acid burn in the quads….stay in contact…… where’s Randall…. he must me right behind me….. go… go……. gaps forming…… go…go…… around the bend up the final rise……… Morgan is coming back…… I go around….. gap in front of me…. only 15 ft to the next rider…. the pack is strung out up ahead………crest the hill……..…….heading down for 100yards to the hard right hand off camber turn (remember the man hole cover)….. roll through the turn ……the pack is already over the rise…. out of the saddle … chase …. chase………. 40 yards to bridge…… in the drops .. pick up 2 riders we collectively chase…… losing ground…….. pick up 3 more riders …. .chase…. chase…… in the drops giving it all we can….rotating pace line…… we now have 9 guys….. only 5 working….. not too smooth……. chase ….. chase …. losing ground……

look at my watch…… mile 36….. chasing now for 9 miles and the pack is still a quarter to a third of a mile ahead (we have been averaging almost 27mph and could not close the gap)….. our group of 9 is down to 7….. 5 of us doing a rotating paceline……….. losing ground with each mile ....

I am thinking how many were there ahead….. 40? 50?? Bad day…….. Funny how you can just blow a whole race in a 4 minute climb……. By the way…..no climb is easy when being raced……….especially as the defining moment of the race…. how deep can you dig, when it counts.......

As the 7 of us settled down into a more comfortable paceline, I look over my shoulder to see if there is a pack behind us that will reels us in……. but just road…… just empty blacktop…… we do a gentleman’s sprint (meaning we all spin in together across the finish line) actually they slowed up and let me cross it first….maybe it was respect for doing my share and being the oldest of the bunch……. or maybe just too tired to bother with another rotation of the cranks........

I head down the road and come back after a short spin to watch the others come in… and here comes the next group with Randall sprinting in about 4th position for the line……….

He, like me, got gapped on the climb to the Start/Finish and he thought he was OK as there were riders around him and he could see me 3-4 bike lengths ahead…. he paused to catch his breath before the right hand turn, dove through the turn, and looked up and we were gone………….

We both had great efforts….. I did end up in 11th for the 50+, but only 35th overall (disappointed no matter we were racing with 40 yr olds, you have to race whoever is in your race)…… Randall was 18th (I think)……..

Epic day…… Very, Very Fast……..

One pause, One hesitation, One redline at the wrong time………. that is the difference.