ToTG Day 1 - Y we race?

Silver City, NM -> Mogollon, NM

Anatomy and physiology of a meltdown.

Today is the first day Jim started the full 5 stages of the Tour of the Gila, racing 35+.  He's raced the 3 stage race as a Cat 4 in the past so he was excited to do the full race this year.  The race has lots of climbing and Jim is a large man, but hey, he likes to climb.

Today's stage was 74 miles from Silver City to Mogollon  Jim had 3 goals.  1.  Not get dropped on the neutral roll out.  2.  Make it with the main bunch to the turn to Mogollon.  3.  Make the time cut.  Goal 1 was met easily, Goal 2 was not met, and at this point we don't know about Goal 3.

Jim probably should have been a bit concerned about his race.  On the way out, Jim, Craig and Wes took turn driving and watched 8 hours of old Zinger Race/Coors Classic videos.   Good buddy Wes mentioned that Mike Carter, a decent pro that we saw in many of those races was racing in Jim's class.  Perfect.

The day started with a tough climb for around 2 miles out of Silver City, but fortunately that was raced neutral at a reasonable pace - Jim only hit a heart rate of 185 - so Jim met Goal 1.  Then 25 miles of mostly downhill to the first feed.  Fortunately Jim was at the front when a large crash happened so Goal 4, not even known about before the race was met - no crashing.

Wes and Craig fed Jim water at the first feed and Jim was comfortable in the bunch.  There were quite a few rollers over the next 5 miles out of the area of Cliff and things were heating up, but Jim was OK.  Then back to the main road and the cross winds hit.  30mph winds today (gusts to 50mph 2nite.)  Jim fought for a while, but got dropped.  There went goal 2.  Jim eased up and let a few guys who had gotten dropped earlier catch him, then they dropped him.  No panic but 30 miles to go, alone, into a headwind.

Before the 2nd feed at mile 65 Wes, who is out here training, not racing, rode toward Jim then turned around and paced him for about 10 miles to the turn off of Mogollon.  Jim's legs were kinda shot by that point and there is 7 miles to go, all climbing, gradients up to 10%.  Just ride easy and make it to the top.

Wes had continued down the main road and planned to turn around in a bit and chase Jim up to Mogollon.  Several Cat 3 racers and a few 35+ racers passed Jim on the climb, but he could only ride his own pace.  He could not join anyone else.  He became worried that he might not make it to the top and might have to turn around and quit the race.  It didn't help his morale when he went by the 2 mile to go sign and descending riders said "your almost there."  Yeah, riding 4 miles per hour thats 30 minutes.  Thanx alot.

Around mile 2 Jim started praying that Wes didn't catch up with him.   Emotionally he was doing OK riding alone, but if Wes caught him Jim honestly thought he would start to cry.  At the 1 mile to go point Jim's legs were cramping and his morale was not good.  He had to get off the bike.  He tried to walk and couldn't so he stood there for a minute or so.  Back on the bike, feeling a little better.  Until the 500 meter to go point.  Off the bike again and seriously considering turning around and going down hill.  He just didn't think he could make it.  Back on the bike and OK until the 200 meter to go mark and he had to get off the bike _again._

Rolled across the line, drank a bunch of Gatorade and ate a banana.  Sat there for 45 minutes hoping his leg cramping would stop (it wouldn't.)  Jim and Wes descended (Craig starts his 4 stage race tomorrow and figured he should only ride the flatter stuff today and not completely up Mogollon - good choice.   Jim had to stand for the first half of the descent due to leg cramping.   That got better.  Back to the car then the hour drive back to town.

Laying on the bed back at the hotel room felt really, really good.  If this is what dying feels like, Jim say's he's ready.

As mentioned we still at this point don't know whether Goal 3 has been met - making the time cut.  The boys have George Heagerty (one of the head USCF guys) and his teammates bikes in the back of their trailer, so the release of their bikes may become conditional on where the line is drawn for the time cut.

So, this is why we race.