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| 3rd Year of P2P |
Well its been a week sense I rode my 3rd Park City Point2Point bike race. For the record, I ride/race lots of different events each year, but point2point is the pinnacle of my racing season. In my mind,every other event is training ground for his race, every time I feel I can't push a bit harder on another 5:30 am ride in the middle of summer here in Las Vegas...I think about P2P, I don't know why my year and mind is always drawn towards this event...well maybe I do.
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| Brad at 7am start |
Up until I rode my first p2p back in it's first year in 2009 I mainly raced shorter events like the Utah Intermountain cup series in which events consisted of two or three laps of varied courses ranging between 7-12 miles long at which you bust off the starting line and stay pegged at 90% the entire race. Now these are fun races and I enjoyed racing them, but you often drive a long distance for a race that might last 1 to 2 hours and then you get to wait another 1-2 hours for the awards and so you get the picture(long day) and then you drive home...all day event and your on the bike maybe 2 hours!
Once I raced my first p2p I knew that I had found something different, this was mountain biking...You still get that off the start jitters and but you get to ride your bike all day. But I believe p2p is in a class of it's own...Park City is that difference...it has a never ending supply of breath taking single track to ride...no where else have I found the quality and quantity of trails that Park City possesses to ride. I also think that what makes this particular event extra special is that so many of my good friends with the same passion that I have in this hobby/obsession also participate in it. I look forward each year to seeing old friends and making new ones...okay now about this years race.
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| Brad at the start |
Times for past years of P2P
2009- 10 hours 42 minutes
2010- 11 hours 48 minutes
2011- 10 hours 38 minutes
Just so you know my goal was 10 hours this year, and I really believed I could do it, I had started early in the year riding, raced more events than ever to build my stamina for P2P.
I watched everything, well almost everything I ate for the last last six months(I even became vegetarian) to give me that edge...I became the lightest I've been in almost 20 years, 173 pounds so I could climb mountains with those little guys. I went into race day having done all things in my control to break the 10 hour mark!
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| Alex Grand and Tinker Juarez coming in at PCMR |
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| Tinker Juarez, Mountain Biking Legend and 50 years only came in 2nd this year |
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| Josh Tostado |
Race day started out with a brisk start temperature of 33 degrees, everything I had been watching said a low of 45 so I came to the start line well under dressed, along with many others I spent the first 60 minutes of the morning trying to feel my toes and fingers.
I started off with the 9-10 group which took off way fast, I rode with Keith Payne for the first 3 minutes and I backed off. I wanted to ride fast but P2P has a habit of breaking you down over the day and I knew that all to well so I slowed a bit and dropped to the back of my group, but i couldn't ride to slow because you have another group right on you tail chasing you down...loved the re-route of round valley this year.
Then we headed up skid row headed towards Deer Valley and ultimately to Silver Lake, all was going as planned feeling good and eating and drinking as per plan and really enjoying all that Park City has to offer.
I made my way to Silver lake where the first real aid station was located and also where my sweet daughter Sammi was waiting for me with food and fresh bottle of Carbo Rocket to keep me going...I can't really tell you what it means to a rider to see a friend or loved one at a aid station, those brief words of encouragement are priceless...more on that later.
We made our way to the top of the mountain, to bow hunter and then down to mid mountain for a short time and then headed up to Shadow lake, this is where this race starts eating people, you have now been riding your bike somewhere between 4-6 hours and the 7,000-9,000 feet of climbing is starting to hurt a bit or a bunch depending on who you are...I made it around Shadow lake great this year, no walking and even speaking to a few people along the way...as I was coming down the long 30 minute downhill into Park City I ran into fellow team mate Ken Costa, Ken and I rode into the finish line together in 09' as we talked we were telling each other that indeed the 10 hours was within reach...in fact we might even do 9:30 or something crazy like that...we rode into Park City's aid station right about 2:00...I had 3 hours to finish this thing...easy pickings...right?
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| Lolly at PCMR |
Okay I have to digress for a minute here for a minute...Lolly works this aid station and has every year...Yes, I look forward to riding this race...but I know Lolly looks forward as much or more to running her station...she takes it seriously, every year she talks about what went well and what the riders were asking for...she works hard to make sure that thses riders get what they need and fast...I love that she loves it...it's hot!
And can I say it's a bonus to see my loving wife there to encourage me to kick butt on those last 20+ miles...
Okay all I can say is once you leave Park City to head up Spiro....you are headed to a point of no return...and you defintally get a energy rush leaving that aid station...but it quickly fades...very quickly!
There is not much to say here other than this is where I really struggled to move at any pace...I thought i had that 10 hours in the bag....all the way to the last mini aid station at the Colony I thought I might make 10 hours...I didn't even stop I just kept on riding....I was watching my Garmin and I knew I had to hit the finish line at 5:00 to get 10 hours...keep going I would tell myself, the re-route was better this year...but that doesn't mean it didn't suck,because it did...But some where before getting on Rose bud heading down the canyon I watched as 5:00 came and went...what do you do....keep pedaling. The last climb up the canyon to get on Holly's was the death of me I really struggled to keep riding and now my goal was gone I really had to stay focused on getting this this done... if you keep turning over those pedals every event eventually comes to a end.
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| 10 hours and 38 minutes!!! |
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| See you next year.... |
You may wonder why people go through this kind of torture...because it keeps you alive, it makes you want to be better and enjoy all that this world has to offer. And I think we also believe that if we work harder next year, skip that one cupcake and ride a few more training rides it won't hurt next year and we will kill it and we will break 10 hours with ease...I don't know...but I will let you know this time next year!
