AtomicMiles: High Uinta Classic

Today was the High Uinta Classic that went from Kamas to Evanston - 80 Miles. My friend Matt and I left at 5:30 am to drop my truck in Evanston and then back to Kamas for the start.

The population of Kamas quadrupled this morning as the RAGNAR runners were finishing their running race (Logan to Heber). Main street in Kamas was a bit crowded. My sister Kara was doing this race with her relay team. I looked for her but didn't see her.

The provided race numbers seemed very big to me. Maybe all bike events are this way, but it felt like we had a sail pinned to our back.

Matt and I raced in the competitive citizen category. We were the first group out around 9:30 following all of the racers doing the 47 mile route. The pace started out easy 13-15 mp

h. The first 20 miles was gentle uphill with some rollers. About 5 miles into the race a guy in front of my nearly ate it as his chain slipped. After that, I moved up towards the front of the peloton. I didn't know if Matt moved up with me. The peloton caught up to several groups including some women groups. About mile 20, I felt like I had hit a wall - I dropped back a bit from the group that I had been riding with . The road steepens at mile 22 and I was worried. To my surprise, mile 22 to 29.5 (summit) went better than I thought. I got out of the saddle and passed up a bunch of riders. As I came over the summit, the guy told me that I was 79th over the top (which includes all the 47 mile riders that started earlier). I was hoping to do better.

I was all alone coming over the summit and most of the descent. at mile 35 my chain came off. I was pretty ticked that I had to stop and fix it. It's also a quick way to dirty up nice new white handlebar tape.

Shortly thereafter I hooked up with a rider named Aaron from Draper. We worked together all the way to the finish line. We were doing 30+ mph at first but as we got closer to the end, our speed gradually came down to 22-25 mph.

At mile 50 was the final feed zone. Some lady wasn't paying attention and hit me in the face/chest with a water bottle as I was riding by--not a big deal.

We picked up a lone rider who was on a Scott bike. It was nice to have a third person in the rotation. We added another guy on a Merlin bike. We rode as four for a while, but eventually the latter two dropped off leaving Aaron and I to work towards the finish.

Somewhere around miles fifty the Cat 1,2,3 lead car passed us. A group of 8 or so rides came up on us quickly. At that time, we were doing about 27, and I guess the Cat 1's were doing around 33. Aaron tried to hop on the back of their group, but he couldn't accelerate enough to stay with them. We surmised that the Cat 1's had taller gears on there bike than we did. I ride with a 12-27 cassette. There were numerous times I was spinning out. Anyways, it was cool to see the Cat 1's. I told my friends that one of my goals was to make it over the summit before the Cat 1's caught me. So I was happy to have made it to mile 50 before they caught me (they started 30 minutes after me.)

I finished just over 4 hours. I'm waiting to check official time, but it should be 4:04 minutes. It is respectable, but not spectacular. I was hoping to be in the 3 hour range.

I ran into Todd (eat sleep mtb blog). He raced with the Cat 4's. He broke away from his group at the summit and soloed all the way until 1 mile left. The guy turned himself inside out and nearly made it.

While waiting for my buddy Matt to come in, we heard that a car had pulled out in front of some riders and 3 guys hit the car--one suffering a broken collar bone. I felt bad enough that I left my friend, but then I was concerned that he was involved in the accident.

Matt came rolling in and had been left to ride most of the flat alone. He rode a bit with a guy named Fernando from Vegas, but the majority was on his own. I take my hat off to Matt who has never biked any distances even close to 80 miles. Driving from Evanston back to Kamas, we had had to stop on the freeway because Matt thought he was going to blow chunks. Luckily he didn't.

Overall, it was a sweet event. The ride over mirror lake was awesome and beautiful. I will definitely be going back to do some training rides on that pass.

The ceramic bearings in my Mavic Ksyrium ES's were awesome. There was a noticeable difference. I'm going to see if the bearings are available for my Reynolds.