LOTOJA (which stands for Logan to Jackson)
http://lotojaclassic.com/main/index.html is the longest
one-day USAC-sanctioned race in the United States.
This year marked its 20
th
anniversary.
The race was created by two
avid cyclists in Logan, Utah to mimic the one-day European classic races.
The race starts in Logan Utah, passes through
Idaho, and finishes in Jackson Hole, Wyoming after 206 miles.
It has grown over the years to include riders of all
abilities. There are more people that
want to participate in LOTOJA than are able to ride so the organizers use a
lottery system to choose who gets to ride.
I was lucky enough to get selected to do the ride my first year of applying
in 2011. I loved my 2011 experience, and
I could not wait to participate again. I
applied again in 2012 but was not selected.
So, when I was selected for this year’s ride, I couldn’t wait.
Overview of the Ride
As mentioned above, the race begins in Logan, Utah. The first 33 miles are flat and usually very
fast, while you ride to Preston, Idaho.
From Preston, Idaho you ride approximately 8 miles or so until you turn
off the main road. At the turn off, it
basically starts a 22 mile climb up and through a canyon called Strawberry Canyon. After the summit of Strawberry Canyon, you
ride another 18 miles to Montpelier, Idaho, 10 of which is a screaming
downhill. From Montpelier, you ride 45
miles to Afton, Wyoming climbing over two mountain passes (the Geneva Summit
and Salt River Pass). From Afton, you
ride 33 miles through Star Valley, Wyoming to Alpine, Wyoming. Then you ride 47 miles to the finish, much of
which is through the Snake River canyon.
The following is a general map of the ride with elevation. The ride starts out at an elevation just
under 5,000 feet and the highest point of the ride is approximately 7,800 feet.
2013 LOTOJA had 16 separate race categories (Men’s and
Women’s categories) and 17 different Grand Fondo type categories (which LOTOJA
calls its cyclosportive groups). The
registration process for LOTOJA is similar to RAMROD. You sign up in April and are notified by
early May if you have been selected in the lottery. In order to ride with teammates, you all have
to sign up for the same category. There
were four of us that signed up on a team from Puyallup, myself, Rex Batson (who
some of you have met), John Rushton, and Kevin Dunn. We entered one of the cyclosportive
categories. Most of these categories are
gender and age specific. The only one we
all could sign up for together was the Men’s/Women’s Open group. When we signed up, our start time was set for
6:30 a.m.
The race organizers alternate the race start times and the cyclosportive
start times every three minutes. The
race and cyclosportive groups follow the same route out of Logan for approximately
6 miles then they split-up with the cyclosportive group riding approximately 3
miles longer. The two courses join back
together just after Preston, Idaho. There
were over 2,000 riders that participated.
Each race is a self-contained race. For example, there were five Category 5
races. Each one of those races was a
race unto itself. This means the race
leaders in one Category 5 race cannot draft or work with any other riders who
are not in that race. This of course
goes out the window for any rider who gets dropped out of contention for a
podium position. Once you lose contact
with the main group, you have very little chance of reconnecting with them on
this course. So, what happens is after the
first half of the race, many race riders have been dropped from their groups
for whatever reason. At this point, race
riders and cyclosportive riders work together traveling through Star Valley,
known for its cross/head winds, and finish the race. I thought the 6:30 a.m. start time was a good
time because it would put us in the middle of all of the other riders. I thought our chances of picking up a good
group to work with would be increased going out at that time. Unfortunately, our start time was bumped back
to 7:30 a.m. and we would be one of the last groups to leave.
In 2011, I finished the ride in 11 hours 30 minutes. There is also a race within the race on the
last big climb. The 3.4 mile climb is
timed for the king/queen of the mountain contest. I climbed the last climb in 21 minutes 15
seconds in 2011. To give you some
perspective, the Cat 1 racers finish the race just under or over 9 hours. The king/queen of the mountain records time
is under 13 or 14 minutes.
I hoped to improve on my 2011 times this year. I also wanted to finish the ride in less than
10 hours, and I wanted my king of the mountain time to be under 19
minutes.
One of the things I like about cycling is learning how to
train and ride better. In 2011, I had
trained really well but was still relatively new to cycling training. My taper for the ride went well. Unfortunately, things did not go as well for
me this year. I tried to mimic the taper
I did in 2011 but my schedule did not allow me to do things exactly the
same. Accordingly, my training was not
as consistent the last month or so, and I probably should have allowed more
recovery time than what I did. In
addition, a week or so leading up to the ride, I started developing a cough. Going into the ride I did not feel as strong
as I had felt earlier this summer, and I was not too confident.
My confidence was not helped the day before the event when I
did a light ride to stretch out my legs.
I really didn’t ride very hard but I started to feel awful. I was starting to feel flu like symptoms and
a chest cold developing, and I began to wonder if I would be able to ride the
next day. Fortunately, Saturday morning
I woke up not feeling my best, but good enough to ride.
There were approximately 2,000 riders who participated in
this event. Roughly half of them raced
it and the other half were in the cyclosportive group. In the Men’s/Women’s Open Class, there were total
of 221 riders, consisting of three groups.
Our group was the last of the three to leave and we had 57 people in it. The other two members of Rex and my team missed
our start time and left with the group after us, so Rex and I did not see them
the entire ride.
The following is a picture of Rex just before we started.
The weather was warm for Logan. It was in the mid 60’s. For the most part, we had overcast skies
(except of course for the hardest climb of the day when the sun was beating
down on us). Thunderstorms were
threatening throughout the day, but never materialized. The weather was very northwest like the whole
day. In other words, we had great
weather.
I knew the change from our originally scheduled start time
of 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. would be a significant change. It meant we would have less chance to find
good groups to work with later in the race.
We had a decision to make. We
could sit in our group the first half of the race and hope to find a good group
or hope Rex and I were strong enough to work together the second half of the
ride or we could push our pace early in the race hoping to catch up with some
better groups and hope we didn’t burn ourselves out. I decided that if I was going to have any
chance to ride under 10 hours, I needed to create my own opportunities. So, I decided I would push the pace early. Rex followed my lead.
First 33 Miles to Preston
We started promptly at 7:30 a.m. The first 6 miles of the ride to Preston,
Idaho was a neutral start. We had a pace
car that was supposed to go 20 miles per hour lead us through Logan. I was the lead rider with Rex drafting right
behind me. I got close to the pace car
in order to draft. I think this made the
pace car driver a little nervous because he kept speeding up. We probably averaged closer to 23 miles an
hour instead of the 20 we were supposed to be going. This start was nice as the Logan Police had stopped
traffic at the cross streets and we had an unimpeded ride out of Logan. The rest of our group was drafting behind Rex
and I. When the pace car left us, Rex
and I started riding comfortably. We
quickly left the group behind. We were
working together alternating pulls. I
kept wondering whether we should sit up and get back in the group. After a mile or two, we came upon some riders
in a group that had left before us. One
of them had a mechanical problem, which is why we caught them. The four of us started to work together and
then were joined by a couple of riders who rode up to us from the main
group. With six of us, I thought we had
a strong enough group to push the pace a little.
We were working as a group at about 25 miles per hour. This only lasted a mile or so when two of the
other riders decided the pace was too quick and dropped back. The four of us that remained decided it
wasn’t worth the energy expenditure so we sat up and waited for the group to
catch us. When we got back into the
group, there was a team of eight riders on the front of the group who did not
want anyone else to pull. Their
reasoning was that they didn’t know the rest of us and did not want an
accident. As a result, Rex and I drafted
the last 10 to 15 miles to Preston. We were
probably averaging about 22 miles per hour.
It felt like to me we were going much slower than when I had ridden that
same stretch in 2011. However, our
pushing the pace must have done something because in checking our split times compared
to the other groups it looks like our group had one of the fastest times to
Preston.
There are feed stops along the way. Some of the feed stops are supported by the
LOTOJA organizers. Other feed stops are
supported by rider crews. Preston was
the first feed stop, and it was supported by our crew. My brother-in-law was nice enough to provide
support for us. We stopped just to get
some water bottles. When we stopped
there was a group of about 10 riders from our group who did not stop at the
first feed stop. I was only stopped for 30
seconds or so and I took off to catch the group that did not stop. It was my misfortune to get stopped by
traffic and I had to wait seconds more to let the traffic clear. I rode hard to gain the group and was gaining
on them. I looked behind me and I could see Rex about
half a mile behind me doing the same thing.
I decided to sit up and wait for Rex to catch me. When I do this ride
again, I will not stop at the Preston feed stop in the future.
Rex and I started working together again, and we started
pushing the pace. Just outside of
Preston, there is a very small climb, which is probably more accurately more of
a large roller instead of a hill. What
you can’t see from the front side is the backside of the little hill is a steep
downhill that takes you into a river valley.
At the end of the downhill, you turn toward Strawberry Canyon and the
first big climb of the day. Rex followed
me up the uphill and then I followed Rex down the downhill. We easily topped 40 miles per hour and passed
many riders. We made up quite a bit of
ground on the group that did not stop at Preston. We then carried our momentum into the turn
that takes you to the Strawberry Canyon Climb.
Strawberry Canyon Climb
We turned towards Strawberry Canyon and the longest climb of
the day. The first few miles after the
turn are relatively flat to a slight incline (think slightly tougher then the
Orting trail. You then start
climbing. I would compare this part of
the climb to riding towards Carbonado ranger station after the one lane
bridge. There were a lot of long rollers
but you are constantly gaining in elevation with many false flats. After a couple of miles, Rex and I caught the
group who didn’t stop in Preston. Soon,
due to the pace, the group thinned out to five of us, and we were passing many
groups of people. All of these people
were riding in the cyclosportive class.
All of the race groups had left before us, or just after us. Because their route was three miles shorter,
the main groups were out ahead of us. We
did not see a main race group all day.
The five of us were riding quickly toward the mouth of the canyon
and the last nine miles where the real climbing starts. I am not sure if it was my fitness (likely), the
elevation, not feeling well, or all of them combined, but I started to feel
terrible. I became a little alarmed because
it was a pace I should have been able to keep.
I realized I just wasn’t at my best.
I told Rex that I needed to back off the pace (we were only into the
ride about 47 miles at this point). Rex
looked strong so I told him to have a nice ride. He smiled and followed the other three riders
up the canyon, slowly pulling away from me.
I did not think I would see Rex again the rest of the day because it was
a strong group I dropped off.
I backed off the power and spun a little bit for the next
couple of miles; I quickly recovered and then started to put together a really
good climb up the canyon. I must be a Cyclopath
when a climb can help me recover. This
is a great climb because the canyon is closed to traffic during LOTOJA so you
can use the whole lane. I was weaving
through riders as I passed quite a few of them.
This climb reminds me a lot of Skate Creek road except that
there are a couple of sections where the incline ticks up to 7% for 2 to 3 miles,
which is similar to the last couple miles of The Climb.
For those of you who are reading this and have not ridden
with me, I am larger than a typical cyclist.
I’m 6’ 3” tall, and in 2011, I rode LOTOJA at about 210-215 pounds. This year, I was not able to get down to my
lower riding weight, and I rode LOTOJA at 230 to 235 pounds. Most cyclists do not like being passed. They especially do not like to get passed by
a Clydesdale like me. As I rode by, I
got a lot of surprised and disgusted looks my way. I love that.
All of the time I spent doing the long climbs with the Cyclopaths
and those I did on my own really paid off.
Even though I wasn’t feeling my best, it still felt good to climb. About a mile from the summit, there is the
second feed stop supported by the LOTOJA crew.
I pulled up to the feed stop and saw Rex. He had just finished filling his water
bottles when I rode up, so he waited for me to fill my water bottles and we
were off again. Rex had followed the
other three riders up the canyon. The
other three riders did not stop at the feed stop like Rex did. We would find out at the end of the day that those
riders were really strong.
We rode the last mile to the summit and crested it with two other
strong cyclists. Rex led the way on the
fast descent. We were consistently traveling
at speeds between 47-50 miles per hour.
We picked up another cyclist on the way down. The main descent lasts about 5 miles. You are then kicked out into a valley and
some larger rollers, which eventually take you into a flat stretch. We were traveling so fast the rollers seem to
flatten out. When we hit the valley
floor, we soon picked up several more riders as we rode pass them. We had a group of about 10 riders as we
headed toward Montpelier. This is a
really flat part of the ride. We had a
little wind to deal with, but with 10 people trading off pulls, we moved fast
without having to work too hard. We were
holding approximately 26-27 miles per hour.
When Rex and I arrived at Montpelier, we were on schedule to
complete the ride in less than 10 hours.
Pushing the pace had gotten us with a strong group of riders and we were
both feeling good at this point. And
then, things fell apart.
Montpelier was another feed stop. For the bike racers, they had their own
support teams. For the other riders, the
support was provided by the LOTOJA team.
When you pull into these feed stops, there are numbered stations (like
pit stops) where a rider has prearranged for his or her support to be. There are dozens of riders and hundreds of
spectators. It is controlled chaos.
Rex had to use the bathroom.
I told him I was going to fill my water bottles and asked him to come
get me when he was done. I didn’t
realize that he did not hear me. The
place for me to fill my water bottles was around the corner from the honey
buckets Rex was using. I filled my water
bottles and waited for Rex. After
several minutes, I went to look for him.
I didn’t see him anywhere. I rode
by the honey buckets calling out his name.
When I did not hear a response, I decided he must have left. This took more time than I had wanted to be
at the stop.
After leaving Montpelier, the course puts you on highway 89,
which takes you through the Salt River canyon.
There are two big climbs in this canyon.
One climb is the Geneva Summit climb (about a 7% climb for 2 miles); the
other climb is the Salt River pass climb.
Much of the time, the canyon is gradually climbing. Again, most of this ride is comparable to
riding to the Carbonado Ranger Station with gradual climbs, the occasional
rollers, and plenty of false flats.
My wait in Montpelier also meant I missed the group of
riders Rex and I had ridden in to town with.
I latched on to a new group of two to three riders. We worked well together and were riding
strong through the canyon. After about
10 miles, we came to the Geneva Summit climb.
This climb is similar to climbing White Pass, but the main part of the
climb is only 2 to 3 miles long. I was
feeling better, and I really climbed this well.
I probably passed a couple of hundred riders (I mention this not to
brag. Most of the racers and the stronger
climbers would have been in groups that left before me. Accordingly, those I was passing were likely
not the strongest climbers participating in LOTOJA. I mention it to give you the visual of this
large guy motoring up the climb. Again,
the looks I got were priceless). About
half-way up the climb, I caught up to Rex.
I should have stopped and ridden with him, but I had such a good rhythm
going, I told him I would wait for him down the road.
Rex was really feeling the mishap of our Montpelier
stop. When Rex didn’t hear me tell him I
was going to fill-up my water bottles, he came out of the honey bucket and thought
I had left him. So, he took off to try
and catch me. He burned some energy
trying to do so. So, when I caught up
with him, he wasn’t feeling so good.
The Geneva descent is fast.
I remember briefly looking down at my computer at one point and when I
saw I was going over 51 miles per hour, I quickly decided I had better not look
down any more and watch the road. After
the very fast descent, you are again traveling through the Canyon toward the
Salt River pass climb. As mentioned
above, the whole time you are climbing in elevation, but the elevation is
gradual.
As I left the descent, I sat up and waited for Rex. He wasn’t too far behind me. Once Rex caught up to me, we latched on to a
group, which was not particularly strong.
We rode with this group for several miles. There were a couple of riders in the group
that worried me. They were weaving a
little too much for my taste. So, when I
had the opportunity to jump on another group I took it. Rex was right behind me, but I didn’t realize
he was still suffering from trying to catch me.
He chose not to make the jump. I
was up the road quite a bit before I realized he was not with me. That was the last time I saw Rex the whole
ride.
After leaving Montpelier, the next feed stop is on top of
the Salt River Summit. In 2011, I badly
managed my drink and food. I was
drinking my calories in a concentrated drink mix. This did not work well for me, and I had
started to have stomach issues. I had reached
the start of the climb out of water on a very hot day, and my 2011 climb was
miserable.
I did not want to repeat that this year. But, I am not very smart because I again
misjudged how far away the climb was from the Geneva Summit decent. I drank too much of my drink thinking the
climb was closer than what it was. So,
again, I came into this climb not quite as strong as I could have. However, I felt a whole lot better this year
than I did in 2011.
My main nutrition this year were homemade rolls that I made
(the receipt I got out of the book Feed Zone Portables http://www.skratchlabs.com/collections/food/products/feed-zone-portables). The rolls did a great job, but after 100
miles I get sick of them. My nutrition
was quite good the whole day, but about this time, I was ready for some
different food.
At this point in the ride, we were about at mile 100. I had another decision to make. I could either take this climb easy and
recover again getting ready for the last half of the ride or ride the hill for
the best time I could get. The smarter
thing was to climb easy and recover, but I am not that smart. I decided to give what I had on the
climb.
I rode with the group that I had jumped on after leaving Rex
for some time. I jumped off that group
onto a slower group in hopes that Rex could catch up to me. After riding with this new group for a several
miles, I saw the sign that said 1km to the king of the mountain climb—The Salt
River Pass Climb.
King of the Mountain Climb
For those of you who have ridden Cayuse on RAMROD or even
the Triple Bypass Ride, the Salt River climb reminds me a lot like Cayuse. The difference is the Salt River Climb is
much shorter, only about 3.4 miles. We
reached the Salt River climb at about 105 miles into the ride. The climb is totally exposed to the sun. Most riders are low on water and food because
the next feed stop is on top of the climb.
The Salt River climb is the highest point of the ride at about 7,600
feet. The climb is hot and there is a
lot of suffering that takes place on this climb.
I started dropping off the back of the group I was
with. I think the last rider in the
group thought I was dropping off the back because I could not keep the
pace. He was trying to be nice and was
joking with me and said something like, so you are not going to be Lance
Armstrong up this climb. I told him
probably not. What he didn’t know was
that I was dropping off the back to provide some space between me and the group
before crossing the timing mechanism.
The course funnels the groups over the timing mechanism in sort of a
chute where you can only go one rider at a time. I wanted to make sure I was not slowed down
by the riders in front of me.
I took off climbing fast powering my way up the climb. Many of the riders were gearing down getting
ready to survive the climb. The lower
part of this climb initially climbs for a short time then flattens out for a
stretch. Then it starts getting steep. I wanted to go really hard on the lower
flatter section before my weight started working against me on the steeper part
of the climb. I can’t describe the look
on the face of the rider who was joking with me as I dropped off the back when
I went by him. It was pretty funny.
I really pushed hard on the lower climb. The race organizers claim that the grade on
this climb gets to be 7-9%. Later in the
ride, one rider would tell me his Garmin registered 13% in places. After the first part of the climb, the rest
of the climb is steeper. It is not
necessarily the grade that makes this climb difficult, but all of the circumstances
described above. I was surprised to see
several riders stopped gasping for air near the top.
Just like the Geneva Pass climb, I passed dozens of riders. I really climbed the bottom of this climb
well. I started fading the last mile to
mile in a half when the grade ticked up and my legs were really feeling the
prior 100 miles. Towards the top, I was
passed by a relay rider, which means he was only riding a section of the whole
ride and was fresher, so I didn’t feel too bad.
It did motivate me, so I kept pace with the relay rider and eventually
passed him back before the top. I had no
idea how fast I was climbing because I didn’t check my time before I
started. I thought it was probably slow,
but I finished the last 1 km of the climb fairly strong. My time turned out to be 19 minutes 46
seconds, a little better than my 2011 time.
I waited on top of the Salt River Pass for Rex for a few
minutes, but then decided my legs would start to cramp up if I didn’t start
moving again. So, I took off towards
Afton. What I didn’t know was that Rex almost
caught up to me when I sat on the slower group waiting for him before the last
climb. He was only about a minute behind
me before I started the Salt River Pass Climb.
It took him a little longer than me to finish the climb, but I probably
just missed him at the top. Once he was
on top, he had a flat tire issue, so he lost a half hour or so at this feed
zone.
After the Salt River descent, I joined a few other riders and
we headed toward Afton. The other two
riders could not hold more than 20-22 miles per hour when they were on the
front pulling. I was able to hold closer
to 26-28 miles per hour. This stretch
was similar to the stretch we did on the triple bypass ride just before
reaching the cut off to highway 12.
Slightly down hill and fast. The
only difference was we had more of a head wind in LOTOJA and I think we had a
tail wind the day of the triple bypass ride.
I took some longer pulls just to help us move a little faster.
This was the beginning of Star Valley. Star Valley is a long valley that has strong
cross winds and head winds. If you are
lucky, sometimes you get a tail wind. We
were not that lucky. The problem with
Star Valley is that it is difficult to ride it yourself. You are often better off sitting in a large
group even if they don’t go as fast as you would like because it is better than
trying to do it on your own. This is
really where you determine how fast you will finish. If you can get with a group that can maintain
a fast pace, you do well. If not, you
are sort of the mercy of the group.
Afton to Alpine—Star Valley
Afton was the next feed stop. My brother, who lives in Afton, was there to
give me my support. I had a peanut
butter and jelly sandwich that tasted really good. I chatted for a minute or two, and then took
off again. I would later learn, due to
Rex’s tire issues, that I reached Afton about 45 minutes before him.
There were cross winds and at times head winds through Star
Valley. I caught a group in Star Valley
and rode most of the way with them. It
was a group of about 10 to 12 riders.
Instead of a normal pace line, most of the riders were attempting a pace
line to combat the cross winds. The
problem is that the shoulder on the road through this stretch becomes narrow
due to rumble strips. I definitely need
to improve my pace line riding, but I thought what the group was trying to do
was counterproductive. I would have
rather had a normal pace line where I could have put some of my power to
use. Instead, I thought what was
happening neutralized my power. We ended
up traveling about 22 miles per hour. I
thought that I remember riding this at more like 24-26 miles per hour in 2011. I believe we also had a tail wind in 2011,
which we definitely didn’t have this year.
For me, riding through Star Valley is my least favorite part
of this ride. Star Valley is a rural
farming community. It is beautiful country,
but because you are in a pace line, you have to pay attention to the person in
front of you and really can only look around once you get on the front.
This part of the ride is all about the group you ride
with. When your group works well
together, it can be a lot of fun. If your
group is not that strong or if you get stuck riding by yourself, it can be a
long ride especially when the winds are strong.
For whatever reason, probably because I enjoy the climbing
in the first half of the ride, Star Valley seems to go on forever for me. It is really only 34 miles long, but it seems
much longer. I was happy to see the sign
for the city of Alpine knowing my ride through Star Valley was coming to an end. It was a great feeling to reach Alpine
knowing I only had approximately 46 miles to go. This is like a trip to South Prairie and back
from my house. I later found out that I
would reach Alpine 50 minutes ahead of Rex.
Alpine to Finish
After refueling, I started up the Snake River canyon. This part of the ride is breathtaking. You follow the Snake River, which is 100 feet
or so down in the canyon from the road. This
canyon is much more scenic than the prior canyons we had passed through. Traffic is not stopped in this canyon for the
riders, but it has one of the best shoulders we would ride on all day. If you are not careful, the scenic nature of
the canyon can lull you into forgetting what you are doing. The ride itself reminds me of riding the Gig
Harbor area. It has a lot of long
rollers and you are slowly climbing your way towards Jackson Hole.
I hooked up with another rider, Dan, who was part of the
group I travelled through Star Valley with.
We were worked well together and were making good time. We were passing many riders until I had bad
luck again. I felt my back tire get
squirrely and knew I had a flat. It
appeared to be a slow leak. Dan talked
me into hitting it with some CO2 in hopes of getting to the last feed station
where he thought they would have bike support, which was about 20 miles away. Dan said he had done this earlier in the
ride. I took his advice and we met up
with some more riders.
We started a pretty good group and were working well
together. The air was holding in the
tire, but after about 8 miles, I had to stop to hit the tire again with CO2 and
lost the group. I made a push to catch
them, and did, but only could hang on for 5 minutes or so after catching them
until I had to fill my tire up again. I
was unable to catch the group gain. I
made it to Hoback Junction, the last feed zone, but there was no bike support,
so I had to change the tire myself. I wasted
quite a bit of time messing around with my tire instead of just stopping and
changing it in the first place. Another
lesson learned for a future ride.
From the last feed stop in Hoback junction, you ride into
Jackson and have approximately 26 miles left to go. This part of the ride was uneventful. I kept a steady pace and hooked on to another
group. The best part about this ride is
a few miles from the finish. If you look
up on the horizon, you can usually see the Grand Teton Mountains in the
distance, which is really an impressive sight.
It is quite scenic and provides a good reminder of how close the finish
line is. Unfortunately, we were not able
to see the mountains this year due to the cloudy weather.
The last several miles you weave through some back roads and
neighborhoods. Finally, you come out on
the last road to the finish. This road
is long and the finish line is counted down by signs starting at 5k.
Results
The finish for me was bitter sweet. I finished the ride in 10 hours 56 minutes
about an hour after my goal. It is always
an accomplishment to finish this ride. However,
I would have liked to have done a little better. I really look forward to this ride, and was
disappointed I was not at my best. But,
it is also what I enjoy about cycling. I
know I won’t always be at my best. I
also learn things about myself when faced with some adversity. It is also what I enjoy about training. Sometimes things work and sometimes they don’t
work, which makes riding and training for me fun.
It was also fun to do the ride with my good friend Rex. I wish we would have done better at
communicating with each other. The one
thing I didn’t think we needed to worry about was communicating with each
other. Rex and I have spent many hours
riding together. Rex finished it in 11
hours 28 minutes. Overall, Rex was happy
with his performance. Other than bonking
and struggling through the Salt River canyon, most of the ride went well for
him.
How I did really depends upon who you compare me with. Only 2% of the cyclosportive class finish
under 10 hours but about 40% of those who race it finish under 10 hours. If you compare my results with other
cyclosportive class riders, I was a better than average. If you compare my results with those who
raced it, I was below average. In the
group that I left Logan with, I was 4th out of 57. In the mixed participant’s group I was 25th
out of 221 (although 9 of those that finished ahead of me were part of relay groups). In all of the riders who were in the
cylosportive class, I was 110th out of 862. To give further perspective, if you look at
my time compared with all those who raced it, about 64% of them finished faster
than I did.
I did a little better on my climbing. I was in the top 8% of the cyclosprtive
riders for my King of the Mountain time (63rd out of 804). If you compared my time with all of those who
raced LOTOJA, I would have been in the top 1/3rd of them. If only LOTOJA had weight classes, I might
have won something-:).
I think I enjoy LOTOJA so much because it has something of
everything. You really need to be a
well-rounded cyclist with plenty of endurance to do well. It is also just a very scenic ride without
much interruption. You basically clip in
at the start and really don’t clip out unless you stop at a feed stop.
I hope to be able to participate in LOTOJA in the future and
improve on my time. I learned more about
this ride this year and ways I need to improve.
The group of three riders that Rex and I caught up to and Rex followed
up the Strawberry Canyon climb finished the ride in 9 hours and 37 minutes. The irony is we found the group we were looking
for, but could not stay with them early.
LOTOJA is a great road race/ride. I have already started thinking how I might
train a little different and places where I need to reduce my time to ride it
under 10 hours. I can’t wait to ride it
again.
Rob Critchfield
