Third Stage and the First Day of Spring

I was up before dawn again in order to get to the start with plenty of time.  It was cold, cloudy, and rain was threatening.  There was snow on the surrounding mountains; the only thing spring like was the grass and leaf buds, but their hold was looking a little tenuous Sunday morning.  Vic had a 48 second lead over Dirk, who was sitting in the number two spot.  Third was taken by another team mate, Charles Palmer.  His lead over fourth was tenuous at only two seconds over Jerald Hunsaker from the Bountiful Mazda (BM) team.  I was further back in 5th, about two minutes and two seconds behind Jerald.  I had 13 seconds on Michael MacDonald, and after that the gaps were larger.  We took off at a pretty good clip and Jerald and Dirk took the first two hills pretty hard.  The second one was the longer of the two, and it got pretty steep near the top.  I was on their wheels and we had gapped the field pretty well, but then they relaxed the pace and most of the field got back on.  Vic was in the group and there was only one serious hill left before a long false flat and a fast descent back into St. George.  On the false flat Vic flatted and we had no wheel vehicle for our race.  This effectively put Dirk in first as the race leader on the road.  There had been no contingency plan for flats, which was very unfortunate for Vic.  A couple of us could have dropped back, given him a wheel, and paced him back to the group.  I have real mixed feelings about that whole episode.  I continued covering any moves by the BM boys.  The descent was fast, but once we reached St. George and were heading west back towards the resevoir, the pace slowed some.  I was itchy for a hard ride.  When we turned back into the canyon leading back to the finish line there were a series of small but stiff hills.  I rode off the front and was chased down by one of the BM guys.  I did it again, and once more I was chased down.  The next time, I put some effort into it, and once again I was chased down, but it took them longer to do it.  Coming over the second to last hill before a short descent and the last hill which was the uphill finish, Dirk said to go, and I did.  I was caught by Jerald and Dirk on the hill, which was interesting.  Dirk sprinted by, taking Jerald with him.  I powered up the hill in my big chain ring, taking third.  The gaps were five seconds to Jerald, five more to me, then another five to Charles Palmer, who was second going into this stage.  Mike MacDonald came off when I made my last attack, and he came in well over a minute down on me.  The gap Jerald had on Charles, ten seconds, was enough to put him in second over all.  So the final finishing order for the General Classification was Dirk, first, Jerald Hunsaker (BM), second at 41 seconds, Charles was third at 49 seconds, I was fourth at 2:44, a minute and fifty five seconds behind Charles. We also took fifth and sixth over all as well (Vic got sixth GC, and Dwight Hibbons took 5th)

The time trial came back to haunt me once again in that the biggest time gaps were accomplished in that race.  Sure, Dirk made up some time in the Criterium, which brings up some interesting questions.  I'll address them later, once I've had a chance to ask a few questions.  Vic got a wheel from a friend of his who had been dropped from the main field in the 35+ race, and managed to keep the gap to less than five minutes, which means he was riding solo for half the race and used his time trialing ability to its maximum.  He shaved off more than five minutes of the roughly ten minute deficit he had going by the time he got a wheel.  If we were a pro team, under contract, etc., one of us would have been directed to drop back and offer up a wheel, but we're not, and no one did.  There's a certain amount of ambiguity here that merits further discussion, as we will be racing again as a team at Tour of the Depot in April, the Capitol Reef Classic Stage Race in July, and possibly other races (I'll ride the Utah State Road Championships even though I don't live in Utah, just to support the team in the race).  These kinds of issues should be addressed before the race and not left to circumstance.

The good news for me is that after two stage races, I'm sitting at number two in both my five and ten year age categories (60-64 and 60-69) nationally again.  This will change from time to time through the season, but the Mt. Whitney Stage Race and Everest Challenge should put a lock on the ranking by the end of the season.