Hugo: barely lived thru this Long Road Race

On the Hugo Road Race website it says, "Long Live Long Road Races". Well, I just want to quote our own sage Kevin A "the good news is that there's a Crit tomorrow!" Halfway between the Front Range and Kansas is the farming community of Hugo, CO.

A few Blue Sky Velo road racers enjoyed the views (fortunately no tornados this week) and felt the pain of the hot, long, dry, painful, straight roads (with multiple crashes nonetheless) for 3 1/2 hours (nearly 80 miles).

It would have been nice to have some cloud cover today.... instead I certainly wasn't the only racer to end up with cramps due to the heat and dehydration (despite 4 bottles).

The SM3 race went something like this: slow. small break. bridge attempt (x6 - 5 of which were the Barrimee). still slow. crash. pace jumps. crash. race splintered, everyone riding in small groups or solo (biggest group is less than 15 - nearly 70 started). mile marker 35 (45 miles to go).

Barry got a soft landing from 5 or so guys in the crash so only got a small scrape. Horatio (in the 35+4's separated his shoulder after a similar crash). I tried my best Lance impression and rode into and back out of a ditch to avoid the crash. But neither one of us ever saw the front of the race again!

Click to see my TrainingPeaks File Viewer of today's power file - believe me, NOT very interesting and a far different file than what I could post 6 weeks ago! I guess 4 weeks of barely being on the bike after the Gila might have some effect on fitness.....

The reality is the race probably would have been just as hard if I had bridged up to the front group immediately after the crash rather than helping form a small chase group and then slogging it out with them for 35 miles. Its those split second decisions that can affect the next 2 1/2 hours of a race. If I had treated that bridge attempt like the sprint for a Tulsa worthy prime I could have pulled back into the group and saved my energy for the next break.

Who's up for a nice long mountain ride right about this time next year?