Stage 4 The Gila Monster Road Race 71.8 miles

The Gila Monster Road race was basically the first stage in reverse but instead of starting at Fort Bayard where we finished Stage 1 we started down town and cycled out past Fort Bayard before doing the 4th category climb out toward Mimbres. Unlike the first stage we stayed together out onto NM 35 and up toward the continental divide.

I placed myself in the middle of the pack and apart from one hairy moment where I switched off for a second during the neutral roll out of town the race was uneventful. We had a couple of little breaks off the front but they never seemed to get too far away.

As we made our way toward the continental divide we caught up with the women's pro race and they were neutralized while we rolled passed them. As we approached the continental divide we went through the feed zone and I grabbed a bottle off Wendy. At the top of the feed zone it was clear that guys at the front were going to use the feed station as an opportunity to force a break. I had been warned about this from a local rider who had done the race before but I still ended up working hard to catch back up with the front of the pack and I am sure a number of riders were dropped.

It turned out not to matter as the women pro caught us back up and we were neutralized for a long time while they allowed a gap to open up. Anyone who had been dropped caught back up and at one stage the peleton all agreed to stop and take a pee break which was a nice relief. Not far from the base of the Sapillo climb the referee gave us a green and the race was back on.

The Sapillo descent was scary but the Sapillo ascent was going to be a killer. The gradient went from a manageable 4% at the bottom to a leg searing 17% by the top. Unsurprisingly the group exploded and we all fell in to our own personal hell as we tried to make it up the climb after 4 days of racing. On this side of the mountain we were really exposed and I poured water over my neck to try and cool down. I had decided that I was going to ride at my own pace and not try to hold to anyone during the climb.

There is not much to say about the climb other than I knew it was going to be hard and it was. I did pass a couple of the pro women and when the road levelled out I was surprised how strong I felt. After the hell of the climb the fast descent through the Gila forest was a blessed relief and I really enjoyed ticking off the miles toward the finish.

The Finish Line

This relief was short live because the last 2 miles to the finish were again up hill. Although I could put some power down on the descents any uphill gradient really, really hurt. I saw the 1 mile to go sign and then the 1km to go. Just after I had registered the fact that I only had a 1000m to go a car horn sounded and the Men Pro lead out car overtook. Here I was with only several hundred metres to go and I was possibly about to be overtaken by Lance Armstrong or Levi Leipheimer. I half entertained the idea of slowing down to try and get in the same camera shot as the winner but in the ended decided to keep going at what was by then a very slow crawl toward the line.

Kristin Armstrong wins the women's stage and GC

I must have looked like a drooling mess to the loads of spectators all ready to cheer Armstrong across the line. While they waited for the celebrities they were forced to watch the painful sight of this Cat 4/5 rider suffering slowly over the line. For me it felt great to be passing under the big SRAM finish arch with all those fans cheering and a couple of minutes after I got off my bike the winner passed me followed immediately by Armstrong. This was very surreal. I had just finished a major (for me) road race only minutes in front of the most famous and successful cyclist in modern times. I only hope that I can get hold of some video footage to prove the fact.

Me limping across the line

...followed by Lance......

...followed by Levi....

Wendy and I hung around to watch the prize giving and I managed to get Levi's autograph on my Tour of the Gila jersey which already had Kristin Armstrong's and Floyd Landis's autographs. Taking stock of my body I felt pretty good. I was not as drained as I was at the end of Ironman but I am not sure that I could have cycled another foot uphill. I thought I had finished in the top 25 or so but it turned out that I had finished 40th on the stage. Still this was only 12 minutes behind the leader and several minutes in front of Lance :-). Just like stage 1 the times were again a lot faster than last year and that includes being held up for 10 minutes by the Pro Women repassing us.

and the crowds go wild

In the GC I moved up yet another place to finish 34th overall, just under 25 minutes off the leader. Although I had managed top 15 finishes in the 3 other road races I had done those races had smaller fields and ended in much shorter bunch sprints. It was clear that the caliber of the other riders was much higher than anything I had experienced before at the Cat 4/5 level. So overall I am very pleased with the results. The whole experience was raised to a much higher level for me by the last minute arrival of Armstrong, Leipheimer and Horner. The presence of Armstrong gives me a story that I will dine out on for the rest of my life and I look forward to asking Ben when he is older whether he remembers when his dad raced with Lance Armstrong in New Mexico.

Unfortunately we were already checked out of the hotel so no ice bath today but I did have a craving for McDonald's and I had my first big mac in over 2 years. As always I have to say a big thanks to Wendy and Ben for helping me out so much with the race and acting as my support crew. It was hard work doing so much travel and Wendy had to keep Ben entertained as well as driving all over New Mexico.

Stage 3 Silver City Down Town Criterium 16.2 miles

When trying to prepare for this race I entered 3 local races back in VA. 2 were shortish road races but the third was a Criterium in Richmond. The Crit was probably the scariest thing I have ever done. The high speed corners with some riders failing to hold their line resulted in several touching wheels and a couple of people being forced off the road. There must have been 4 or 5 big crashes during that first Crit so I was a little apprehensive about the Crit stage of the Tour of the Gila.

The Crit took place in the centre of town. The Cat 4/5 men went off at 0815 and we had to do 15 laps of the course which was a little over 1 mile long. The course was fairly traditional with four 90 degree left hand turns. The start finish straight was wide and fast with a big fast sweeping corner at the starting end (lined with a tyre wall) and a fairly narrow turn at the other end. The back side of the Crit had a short steep climb and then a rapid descent into a fast left and then the even faster left back onto the starting straight and hopefully not into the tyre wall.

I cycled from the hotel down to the start line and en route I tried to get in a number of hill repeats in order to warm up properly. During those hill repeats I could really start to feel the effects of Stages 1 and 2 in my legs. It is important to warm up well for Crits (and Time Trials) as they start off so quickly and if you are cold you can easily get left behind before you have a chance to warm up. Before the start of the race I watched the 3/4 women finish their race and chatted with another 4/5 man who had never done a Crit before.

I was feeling reasonably happy as I lined up until I heard the referees asking that anyone who had not signed in sign in. I had completely failed to appreciate that I needed to sign anything. I knew the Pros signed in but I didn’t realise I had to. I have never signed in for a race before but I guess that a stage race is different. I rushed over to sign next to my number and then before I knew it the gun was going off. There was no get set and the gun took everyone by surprise as 70 guys struggled to clip in and get going.


The race started off fast, as expected, but nothing that I couldn’t hold onto. I found out from Wendy that a number of riders did get dropped in those first couple of laps. I knew I wasn’t fast enough to win any of the sprints so I tried to keep myself in the top 20 or so hoping to avoid any big crashes at the back. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were no crashes (at least that I was aware of) there were of course a couple of close calls but the race was generally pretty clean. The two sections that I found the most nerve racking/exciting were the crest of the hill on the back straight where I was putting a lot of power into the pedals and as the back of the bike was unweighted the back wheel would squirrel a bit and then the very fast left hander on the finish straight where this giant tyre wall was trying to suck you in.

Before too long we were on the last lap and the pace went crazy. I sprinted hard and managed to finish 24th. Although generally I was not too tired the last sprint had left me feeling a little sick for a couple of minutes. We crossed the line at 38:13 which meant that we had averaged about 25.5 mph. The Pros were not due to start until after 3pm so we had plenty of time to go back to the hotel take an ice bath, change and come back to watch their race.



Back on our corridor at the hotel it looked like team Ouch were in their team brief and outside were 7 very shiny very new Kuota bikes lined up against the wall.


Floyd Landis on the way to line up


First corner


Lance working hard

The Pros race was pretty impressive to watch. Although they had to do 40 laps they still averaged 27 mph. Lance did a lot of work during the race trying keep Levi in the lead. Apparently Levi's tyre came off with only a couple of laps to go and he had to get on Chris Horner’s bike to finish but I didn’t get to see any of that drama. A crash toward the end of their race upset all the organised lead outs and the race was won by a relative unknown, Van Uden, from Land Rover – Orbea, he looked pretty pleased with himself.


Van Urden takes the win



That night we celebrated Ben's first birthday and he made short work of his cake.

Although I finished with the pack I still moved up the GC one place to 35th and I was 0:14:22 off the leader. 3 Stages down and only one to go but the last stage was the infamous Gila Monster.

Stage 2 Tyrone Individual Time Trial 16.15 miles

This was a tough time trial with the altitude, climbing and false flats but I knew it was an opportunity to claw back a little time on some of the other riders, after all TTs are triathletes bread and butter.

One of the coolest things of the day was the fact that Lance and Levi were doing exactly the same stage as me. In fact their start times were less than 2 hours from mine. Lance was 10:45 and I was 12:39 and yes in a TT the slower riders normally go first. As the race leader Levi was only a few minutes after Lance and just like yesterday's stage there were very few spectators and the whole event was very low key despite the participation of the two the best cyclists in the world.

When it was my turn the people that had come to support Lance had gone but I still had a guy counting down to my start time and someone holding my bike steady which was a first for me. I came out of the gate charging and within about a mile I caught the guy who had started 30 seconds ahead of me. Before the turn around at just over 8 miles I had passed another 3 riders. On the way back I was really starting to feel the burn but I knew this was my event so I kept pushing and passed another 2 riders and if I had had another 200m I would have passed one more guy.

I really enjoyed the time trial and finished in 0:43:35 which was the 16th fastest time and it moved me 3 places up the General Classification (GC) to 36th, 0:14:18 off the leader. I also managed to finish within 10 minutes of Lance who finished in 0:34:22. Levi set an amazing course record at 0:32:29. Back to the hotel for the usual ice bath, to eat a whole bunch of calories and to try and get some rest.

Tour of the Gila Race Report

Epilogue…..

Since Ironman UK I have eased back on my training but have tried to keep up a reasonable level of fitness. My wife has started to catch the bug and has completed 2 marathons and her first triathlon. I have resurrected this blog for one last post as I wanted to do a race report for the 2009 Tour of the Gila (again like all my race reports it is very long).

Last year while training for Ironman I found I really enjoyed the bike riding, especially the faster group rides with local roadies. I also found that after a few weeks I was able to stay with the A group at most group rides. This all led to a desire to compete in a road race and having really enjoyed watching the Tour de France for several years I really fancied the challenge of competing in a stage race. Last year I was registered for a couple of rides but for one reason or another I was unable to actually race and most of the 2 day stage races on the calendar were not open to me as a Cat 5 rider. With only a short time to go before leaving the States I was determined to try and get in a big road race.

Trawling through bikereg.com I found the Tour of the Gila, a 5 day stage race for the Pros and a 4 day stage race for Cat 4/5s. The only problems were that:

1. It is in New Mexico (hardly local).
2. It is one tough course with plenty of climbing.
3. It is all done at elevation ranging from 5000 to 8000 ft.

Despite my reservations I soon decided that the potentially once in a lifetime opportunity to compete in a 4 day stage race outweighed any worries I had and I signed up. In order to train for the race I replaced some of my running sessions with bike workouts. I hoped to get in some hill rides at Skyline Drive but unfortunately I only managed to achieve trainer workouts with a bunch of phonebooks propping up the front wheel. Before I knew it Wendy, Ben and I were driving through the desert of New Mexico heading for Silver City. The race was Thu 30 Apr through to the 03 May but I managed to arrange a meeting in Tucson at the beginning of the week which meant that we could fly in the weekend before the race and I could preride the course and try and do a bit of acclimatization.

When we arrived in the host town of Silver City NM we found a very quiet little sleepy hollow. I picked up my bikes from the LBS, where I had had them shipped, and while I was there I overheard half a conversation about a local news story that someone famous was possibly coming to town. I didn’t think anything more of it at the time and went out to ride part of Stage 1. I was pleased to find that the altitude was not hitting me too hard. I did have a very slight headache and found oxygen a little bit harder to come by but I was still able to pedal away. The scenery was amazing but the climbing was relentless and the descents were by far the most technical I had ever seen and in places really scary. When we got back to the hotel I found out that the local news story was that Lance Armstrong and his team Astana mates had decided to make the Tour of the Gila his come back race in preparation for the Giro d’Italia. Needless to say this was very exciting and had the whole town buzzing.


Sunday I rode what would be stage 4 of the race, known as the Gila Monster. This involved the category 2 climb from Sapillo Creek to Pinos Altos which was a real bitch. That evening I again checked the news and it turned out that the cycling governing body, the UCI, had heard about Armstrong’s plans and had invoked a rare rule that banned international teams from competing at national class events. Oh well it was exciting while it lasted but I guess the ‘Lance Effect’ would not come to bare on this race. Monday morning I rode the Time Trial course (Stage 2) which again was far from flat with a cat 4 climb on the way out and a cat 3 climb on the way back. The first 4.5 miles of the TT were all uphill.


Monday and Tuesday were spent in Tucson before heading back to Silver City NM on Wednesday to register for the race. While we were in Tucson I ended up in TriSports.Com getting some supplies. Chatting to the manager he told me that he had heard that Lance was back in the race. Checking online it turned out to be true. Lance Armstrong, Levi Leipheimer and Chris Horner where all going to race but to get around the rules they had to do it as individuals and would be forming up as Team Mellow Johny’s (Lance’s bike store in Texas).

Stage 1 Fort Bayard Inner Loop Road Race 64.2 Miles

I lined up with the other 70 or so riders for the start of our first Stage. Looking around me I noticed that the group looked pretty serious. There were some very fit looking guys and a lot of nice bikes. The Pros were starting back in town and had to do another 15 miles on top of us. We started out at a reasonable pace but after about 10 minutes of climbing things suddenly turned nasty. The pace picked up significantly and before long the group started to split. I just about managed to hold onto the lead group but I was right at the back and my heart rate was already red lining. I knew it was only a matter of time before I got dropped and within a few minutes the elastic snapped and I was falling off the back of the group.

Here I was 15 minutes into a four day stage race and I was being dropped. I managed to keep going and before I got to the summit I could see some other riders who had been dropped. I decided to keep going at a steady pace and try and catch more riders on the butt clenching Sapillo descent. The plan worked and with a bit of a hair raising descent I found myself with about 5 other riders. I was still knackered and just held on at the back of the group trying to get my breath back. We had about 15 miles of steady ascent to go to the Continental Divide at 6720 ft and then 20 miles down hill before the final kick in the teeth, a 9 mile cat 3 climb back to 6800 ft. Before long I got my breath back and was able to start taking turns at the front. I was back in my triathlon comfort zone of high zone 2 low zone 3 heart rate. We started to pick up other riders who had been dropped from the lead group and before long we were in a group of about 20. About 14 of us organised into an effective pace line with about 6 guys loafing on the back. We really rattled along and before the start of the last climb we had the lead group in sight.


When we hit the last climb the same thing happened again. I made the initial split but was soon dropped again. I had a about 8 miles of solo climbing to go. This was a bit of a lonely time but I guess the Ironman racing helped as I didn’t feel too dispirited. After a while grinding out my own pace I started to feel stronger again and before long I caught the next two guys who jumped on my back wheel. When we go to the flats I felt really strong and pulled the two riders the last 5 miles to the finish. Rather disappointingly the guy I had just pulled for several miles decided he needed to sprint for the line and finished ahead of me putting me in 39th place overall.

Me getting dropped on the last climb

I felt pretty good. I finished the stage in 3:07:42. A lot of guys were saying how fast the stage had been and when I checked last years results I saw that the winning time for Stage 1 had been 3:12:00 so we had clearly been shifting. My Garmin told me that we had averaged 21.1 mph and with 4220ft of climbing that was not too shabby. About 30 minutes after we finished the Pros came in in a mass sprint.

Pro's mass sprint

After a giving a quick interview Lance and Levi jumped on their bikes and cycled the 5 miles or so back to their rental house. I am fairly certain that it is rare that you will find someone as famous as Armstrong cycling along the road like this, shooting the breeze and without a police escort.

I went back to the hotel reasonably happy with how things had gone and got myself an ice bath which I would come to hate by the end of the week. Tomorrow was the Time Trial and in theory this event would suit me better.