Pre Valley of the Sun 2013

I made this a two-part blog post because I recently learned that people don’t like reading things that look long because you’re stupid and lazy. I mean people, not you.

VOS was the first race of the year for me and I think I’m off to a very good start, at least fitness-wise. First off, I need to thank the literally billions of people that helped get me here.

Alex for helping me build my new bike, last minute, the two days before the race. Not a good idea to race an un-ridden bike, but screw good ideas. It’s that dumb ones that make millions on things like the spork.
Todd from downstairs for helping me glue my tubulars, last minute.
Will for supplying the last minute tubular tires.
Kim for the last minute ride to the bus station. It would have sucked to ride my bike there carrying my other bike and pika pack in that blizzard.
Boulder Center for Sports Medicine for the last minute threshold test the other day. And for the great, but super secret, advice that will make me #winning this year.
Scott for dropping off a last minute Curve Chrono suit. The fastest there is.
Adelaide for a very nice note and care package for the race, which included a hot chocolate packet that I’m just about to make, last minute before I go to bed. #diabeetus.
Trevor for finding me a ride to the race, last minute. The morning of.
Taylor and his dad, Dean, for driving me to and from the time trial, last minute. And for bottle feeds. Dean also helped feed bottles to me during the road race and took some great pics during the crit. Check out his website.
Tricia for finding me a  last minute place to stay for the race.
Cammie and Andy for supplying said last minute place for me to stay, and for all the great food.
Rob for providing rides to the road race and crit courses, last minute.

One amazing thing about bike racing that I’m constantly re-learning and re-remembering how dependent you are on other people. This weekend was a very vivid reminder of that. I’d be lost without the help from friends and strangers. We all would.

I planned VOS very last minute, if you couldn’t tell. I’d wanted to do this race, despite it being fairly boring and dumb, ever since January. I want to get things started out early this year and have some good races in my legs before Redlands, where I’m planning my first peak and final day victory on that super hard circuit race. It’s now been said, and therefore will (or will not) happen. But probably will. At least there’s a good chance. Like greater than or less than 73%.

So when I heard Valley of the Sun was going to be a team race with Rio, I got rul excited and booked a ticket. But in all that excitement, I failed to read AND hear the words “Tucson Bicycle Classic.” To me, it sounded a lot like Valley of the Sun. So when I found out that VOS was not on the team schedule, I had to scramble for a place to stay and rides to the races. Like I said before, very last minute. The building the bike part? That was just dumb. But the parts were delivered in time, and all that shiny SRAM Red and Zipp blingity blang, were just itching to get on the Specialized and crush some fools.

Tuesday: Wake up way too early at like 6:30 because someone’s stupid watch alarm went off. Ride to Sprouts for nine pounds of beets. Ride to bank for loan for sexy bike parts. Ride away from bank pissed off. Ride to work. Sexy, unpaid-for, bike parts show up at work. Gawk at sexy bike parts with coworkers for better part of an hour. Go for short bike ride on TT bike. Work until 9PM to make up for tomorrow and Thursday. Go down into office basement/bike work shop room and begin assembling the Assassinator of Dead Weights. Get home at 10 or 11PM, can’t remember. Juice beets until midnight.

Wednesday: Wake up early. Go to work. Drink too much beet juice and have upset stomach for four hours. Ride to BCSM for threshold test. Go back to work and build bike with Alex. Ride back to BCSM for team appreciation night and eat a lot of miniature cupcakes and talk to Neal about how dumb my training has been my entire life. Get a ride home with Trevor, but first to Sprouts to buy 16 pounds of beets. Get home. Juice beets until neighbors pound their ceiling/my floor. Go to sleep after midnight.

Thursday: forget to set alarm. Wake up late at 7:40. Go to work. Wonder when 7:40 became “late.” Instal tubbies. Work some more. Build bike with Alex. Ride home. More bike work including taking the bars and stem off to later swap with better ones, which I pack for the trip. Pack for the trip. Get dropped off at bus stop by Kim. Ride bus. Fly. Wake up on landing, thinking I’ve arrived at the airport on the bus. Realize how tired I am. Get baggage from baggage claim. Wonder where second bike is. (Frontier is FREE to fly with bikes if you get the classic ticket, or just $20 per bike with the economy ticket. Fuck you every other airline). Continue to wait for bike to show up. Pace up and down deserted baggage claim area. Curse Frontier. Glare at random people. Start getting really hot and sweaty in my puffy down jacket because I’m in Phoenix and it’s still 70 degrees outside at 12AM. Second bike shows up. Drag everything to the taxi area. Concentrate on arms not getting rul big. Get confused about taxi pick up area. Curse taxis that won’t stop for me. Get on taxi. Curse taxi driver for getting fake lost and driving the miles up. Too tired to haggle once we reach the house. Find key and enter friend of friend’s house (Cammie). Put pre-made beet juice in the fridge. Go to sleep.

Friday (day of the time trial). Wake up too early. Start calling friends of friends of friends to find a ride to the race, which is 50 miles away. Holy shit I should have planned this better. Already exhausted and the race has yet to begin.