Independence Valley Road Race

The course layout on this race was very exciting. It had 2 good climbs, 1 climb taking 3-4 minutes and the other around 2 minutes. Mike, Travis and Gerrit all met at my place at 6 and we took off for coffee and arrived in Tenino, Wa around 8ish. It rained the whole way down there. The forecast for the day was 100% chance of rain. We were hoping since the weather people here tend to get things wrong that they would get this wrong. It was pretty cold when we arrived and it was kinda stressful deciding on what to wear. There were a few times I almost didn't wear my rain coat. I thank the stars now I did. We all piled under one tent with our trainers and bikes and warmed up for a few minutes. I learned I need to warm up longer than 5-7 minutes when there is a climb within 2 miles of the start.



As we were rolling out to the "official" starting point it sucked. You go from dry and warm to cold and wet. The first climb wasn't so bad and everyone stayed together for the most part. The second climb is when the field was destroyed. It was also snowing and sticking.
Thanks to Jed's wife I believe for the pictures.





I was right there with the front pack but got stuck behind a slower rider on the decent and that cost me. I never did make it back to the main field. The rest of the race was survival of the fittest or craziest. There was a group of 3 of us that were rolling pretty good and we kept picking up guys that were dropped from the main group. It was Mike, Gerrit and I from Cycle U. Mike was sick so he gave me his food at the end of the first lap because he was in pretty bad shape and wasn't going to finish. First lap is done and we have picked up a few more guys so we had about 9 or so in our little group. As we head up the first climb again we lost several guys and I was feeling pretty good as far as my fitness. The first lap I couldn't get the heart rate below 170bpm and maxed out at 187bpm! Now I was cruising at 150-160bpm, much more managable. Mike was still with us coughing and sticking to my wheel. I made sure if he was going to finish he was going to stick to my wheel the whole time. He did some pulls at the front of our group but we tried to keep him behind us to save his energy so he could finish. I would say he was one of the crazy guys that stayed in. We got to the second climb and there was snow in the trees on the road and I looked down a couple times at my feet and I had snowed on them too, strange thing I couldn't feel them either. It was cold. It was hard shifting or even holding on to the bars. I made a little break on the decline and rode by myself for a bit then the group caught back up. Gerrit went off by himself and finished a few minutes ahead of us. As we came up to the finish one of the First Rate Mortgage guys that was with us took off for the sprint to the line. We weren't sprinting for anything but I felt good and went with. I was able to beat him to the line to finish 18th. The worst part of this whole race was riding another 2 miles to the cars after we finished. It was the worst experience on a bicycle I have ever had. However we finished and my hats off to Mike for being a tough guy and not wanting to quit. Thats all he kept saying the whole time, I don't want to quit. Its good to have a competitor and teammate like that.

Not sure what the next race will be but I will be doing the Tour of Walla Walla in April.