Sunday, October 4, 2009

Stage 1 Complete

Before the start of the Race all crew and support members must head up the road 25 miles to eliminate major traffic issues. My partner, Robert, closing the door got the first injury out of the way by cutting his head on the bike rack. So with the injury behind us and out of the way, I knew we would have a safe trip from here on. Of course with all the planning and preparation behind us my crew took off a couple of minutes before we left. Once I saw them pull away I quickly released I forgot to pump up my tires. So I started the day with hopefully my only bonehead move out of the way as well. I did manage to find a pump and head to the start line


With the National anthem and a countdown we were underway with a full CHP escort and sirens blaring. That was cool. However 508 miles to go and the peloton was sprinting to outskirts of town. I am getting dropped of the back saying "is there a prim I don't know about?" Anyway, once the escorts end we settle down and enjoy the outskirts of a typical Santa Clarita Saturday. I saw a horse show and shooting ranges and one long 25 mile winding climb. Then I hooked up with my crew and descend a nice 54 mph until traffic slowed me down. From here the flats were nice with a favorable tailwind. The last climb of the day, called the windmill climb, was in a brutal crosswind. I guess that's why the place is surrounded by windmills go figure. I had a wheel sucker in my draft almost the last half of the climb (drafting is illegal in this race). I did my damnedest to stay clam and ride my race but I pushed it a little and managed to drop him towards the end. The rest way was all tailwind push to the stage end. I was about 1 hour plus ahead of our projection. I am not sure if this was good yet, I still have the 3 more stages to go.

By the end of the stage I felt pretty good. I managed to take back many spots from the people how dropped my but at the start.

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