High Uintas-Rick and the hubs rule!

This weekend was the High Uintas Stage race in Evanston, WY. The first stage is an 80 mile road race from Kamas, UT to Evanston, WY on the Mirror Lake Highway. Its basically Iron Horse with a downhill (about 5000 ft of climbing). Rick--the biggest glutton for punishment I've ever met--also decided to join in the fun (this was to be his 3rd road ride of 2009).

The hubs and I headed up to Rick's in Park City on Friday night. While the boys went to drop cars in Evanston, I cheffed up our pre-race dinner, a little whole wheat pasta with baby broccoli and a bolognese. I did the Dave L boil the broccoli with the pasta (yes I know I was skeptical--but I'm a convert--I still believe in the necessity of sauce though). I "made" cookies (from pre-made immaculate bakery cookie dough, shhh) for dessert.

We got up to grey skies on Saturday morning. Not a good sign. We headed over to Kamas and all started our respective races. The hubs and Rick's group passed us on the flats (Hi Steve!) which was fun. The women's race was pretty mellow till the road went up. I persuaded Carmen S from Colavita to come to the race (since she had to be in SLC for other reasons), and she took off when the grade got steep. A group of 4 of us tried chasing her down to no avail. I was shelled out of the chase group on the steep part of the climb and was a minute down from the chase group and 2 minutes down from Carmen over the top of the pass. I put it into high gear on the descent and passed the chase group. I was hoping the group of us could work together to try to catch Carmen, but it was not to be. Out on the million miles of flats, I just put my head down and tried to keep the speed up. I had resigned myself to 2nd place till I thought of Johnny Drama and the fact that negativity can breed bad outcomes.

While I didn't think there was any chance in hell I'd be able to catch Carmen I told myself I was going to catch her and I did with less than 10 miles to go. I was really psyched and I think she was pretty psyched not to be riding solo anymore (since her 1st words when I saw her were "I've been so bored!"). We shared the work to the finish which got a little hairy as there was a downpour in the last few miles. It was a little confusing about where the finish was but I think I had a little better view of it than Carmen and so I ended up winning. Despite winning the road race, Carmen won GC with a time bonus for the QOM and a solid minute over me in the TT. I was happy with 2nd.

The hubs finished right after me (though with a better time since he started behind me) and he had a BIG SMILE on his face. I was super proud of him because he set realistic goals for himself and handily accomplished them! He didn't blow himself on the climb and then he hammered into Evanston. The best part of all is that he actually ENJOYED the experience which was huge....Even with the pain, even with the elements---he had fun.

Rick gets the hardman award of the year. Rick has been doing crazy endurance running races but had only been on his bike a few times. He crested the summit a little later and he got hit with some serious precipitation. Rain + 10,000 ft=no bueno. I think there may have been a dash of sleet and hail thrown in there for good measure. Anyway, this guy is NEVER cold and he said he was shaking pretty hard. Yeah, can you say tough? To be shaking, wet and borderline hypothermic and STILL ride 50 more miles? If things don't work out with law, Rick should go on Survivor. Turns out MANY people had to get yanked out of the race because of hypothermia. Damn. So many people had issues that they organizers decided to make the stage race include ONLY the road race and the time trial--and to make the crit a separate race.

After the race, Rick, the hubs, Carmen S and I piled into the subie to head back to the cars parked at Kamas. There was a traffic jam from HELL on the highway and it took forever. While we had planned to hang at the paradise Leta cabin with Richie and Renee, they were still stuck in SLC, we were exhausted and I actually needed to hit a bike shop. With all this adversity facing us, we just caved in and headed back to Rick's in Park City. To truly cap off the ridankulosity for Rick, when he took his dogs out, he got stuck in ANOTHER downpour! The guy is tough as nails. I don't even know how he could walk because I personally felt like someone had taken a baseball bat to my knees like a non-paying mafia debtor.

The hubs and I inhaled most of the food in Rick's house while he was stuck in hurricane high uintas part II. We tried to call. We did what we could. He came back and we ended up getting pizza and movies and enjoying some serious couch time. While we were sad to miss out on the Leta cabin, we had a great time hanging with Rick.

I got up at the CRACK this morning to go ride a freezing wet time trial. We had to park on a super muddy dirt road. I'm not complaining but it was a little bit of a fray. Anyway, my warmup consisted of walking my bike down the muddy dirt road to the start line. Oh I guess you can call the first 5 miles of the TT my warm-up too. But I can't claim any excuses because I think most people were in the same boat. Except for the people who were wearing gloves because they probably weren't blowing on their hands to keep them warm during the TT. Nice.

It was a different course from years past---a pretty stiff headwind on the way out and what didn't feel as fast as it should be on the way back. I thought it was a really good course though. Just wish it was a little later in the morning.

The crit seemed like it was going to get cancelled. But 15 minutes before we were supposed to start, the officials told us to get dressed (I was still in Skins). That meant get dressed, change brake pads and change pedals. Yeah-total professional-that's me. So I kept to today's warm-up strategy (of now warm-up). Carmen and I got away on the 2nd lap. There was some more confusion about which lap we were finishing on so we just agreed to finish together. It was a strange weekend of racing--but still fun. There are a great group of women here in Utah and its always fun getting to hang with a lot of them--especially the supercutey yin and yang twins PB and Tayler.

While it was not a typical weekend of racing--it was highly enjoyable. The coolest part was seeing how studly the hubs and Rick were, and how much they enjoyed the experience. That was awesome and I'm really proud of BOTH those guys!

A few hours to unpack and do laundry before leaving on a work trip tomorrow which will turn into a racing trip by the weekend (Manhattan Beach Grand Prix). While I'm sad to leave the hubs, he will be joining up with me in the OC Disorder at Johnny G and Jen's. ERIN is going to make the southward trek from the Cruz which is Saint-like for some definite hilarity. I can't wait.