Tour of the Depot - Third Stage and a 420 mile drive home

The day opened up with broken clouds and snow on the ground, but the streets were dry.  It was a chilly 37 degrees at the start, but there was no wind to speak of at all.  For some reason several riders failed to show up for the final stage, and I was moved up from fourth to second because of it.  Our club had so many talented riders in it and we were out in force, so the race became, much more than yesterday, a club ride with others invited along.  We took turns taking flyers off the front with the idea that as one was close to being caught, another would go.  It sort of worked in that there were plenty of miscues, but then we aren't able to really train as a group since most of the club lives in the Salt Lake City area, and Vic and I live in Las Vegas.  Still, it was instructive and I'd love to be able to really run this routine again.  My entire racing career, with one brief exception, has been as a solo rider in the field, either because I had no team mates in the race at all, or because there simply wasn't anyone who could really assist me in a meaningful way.  Riding with this team is a brand new experience for me, because we have tremendous depth and I am just one of them.  There is a lot of shaking out going on yet.  But I digress.  The course was an trapezoidal shaped course with a sloping downhill into a 90 degree turn, a longish uphill grade through turn two and continued up to turn three, then it leveled briefly before two more right hand turns and back downhill again.  The finish was on top just after turn three.  We went for 20 miles and I wished it went for at least 40, as I felt like I was just getting good and warmed up and we only had a lap left to go!  A couple of the 35+ guys took a flyer with one of my team mates going up the hill the last time.  The team mate folded, but the two younger guys had the advantage of not being chased seriously right away because of our guy up the road.  Bad move, because they took first and second.  Dirk Cowley took third (and first in the 55+), Bill Pinckard from Las Vegas took 4th (and second in the 55+), I took 7th (and third in the 55+).  When all the dust had settled, Velosport Racing (FFKR/SportsbaseOnline p/b Tour of Utah) took 1st, 5th, 7th and 8th overall, and 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in the 55+ race.  Dirk thought we should have done better.

I got a bump from this finish and am back in third place in the US Cycling national stage race rankings in my five and ten year age category.