The bike course obviously started from the reservoir and made it's way 22 miles into St. George before the 45 mile loop started that we would do twice that day. 112 miles is a long way to ride but this course was set up so great that it was easy to break the whole thing up into more manageable bites. All you had to think about was either 22 or 45, what you had already done or what you still had left to do didn't matter.
The weather trend over the previous few days had been calm in the morning, really windy in the afternoon and then the winds would die down again into the evening. Knowing this I had debated about pushing a little harder on the first loop to get as far into the bike as possible before the winds started up. Kati suggested that this was not a good idea since then I would only be more tired and have a head wind. She was probably right. So I took the first 22 miles relatively easy to save myself for the difficult climbing that lay ahead and I got passed like no one's business. This is also when I realized that I had forgotten to put sunscreen on in T1. That mistake was either going to be inconsequential or absolutely disastrous as there was no shade or cover of any kind on the entire ride. For the first 22 miles I was averaging 16.6mph (All these average speeds I didn't know until after the race) and felt really strong.
For the first couple of miles of the loop there weren't really any hills to speak of until it turned northwest onto highway 91. From here the road conditions deteriorated and got a little rough. Then the turn onto Cr-3184 met us with less patches and tar but worse chip seal road surface, this was our lot all the way up to highway 18. There were three significant hills on the Cr-3184 section of the course. One race report that I read called it the Three Bears because there was a baby bear hill, a momma bear hill and a daddy bear hill all within about 10 miles of each other and each one significantly worse than the last. Baby hill was a longer climb of about three quarters of a mile at a steady 9% grade with a little 13% bump up, momma bear hill was shorter but way steeper. It went about a half mile but was hitting around a 13% grade at it's steepest. When I got to the top of that hill I actually pulled off to the side of the road and got off my bike to make sure that I had my full range of gears because for thinking that I was in granny gear I was grinding on those pedals pretty hard. Unfortunately I was in granny gear and that hill was really just that steep. Then there was Daddy hill. This climb isn't called "The Veyo Wall" for nothin'. This sucker went for 1 mile, the first half mile was steady around 8-9% with a bump up for the last half mile that peaked somewhere around 11-12% and then got even steeper right at the top, this thing was long and the first time that I started to break a sweat all day. Luckily there were crowds at the top that were cheering us on and keeping the motivation going. After I topped out there was a right turn onto highway 18, one more long 5-6% climb and then it was all downhill from there to the start of the second loop. The descending was uber fast. At one point I topped out at 44mph without pedaling. Even at this speed there were still racers that were putting their all into it and passing me at what had to be around 55mph. One of them learned that this was not a good idea because at the last aid station before the second loop started there was someone laid out on the concrete with an ambulance next to them. I can't even imagine the road rash on that guy.
With the start of the second loop I still felt great but noticed that there was a crosswind that was coming in that I would soon be turning into. I started talking to myself and saying that the next 15 miles were going to suck until I got back onto highway 18 so I needed to get ready for that. It was also at this point that Fat Cyclist passed me. I paced him for a little while until my heart rate got too high and I had to tell myself that this was stupid. Beating Fat Cyclist was not my ultimate goal for the day, finishing the race and having a enjoyable time doing it was, so I let him go.
The second 45 mile loop, in my eyes, went just about as well as the first except for the three bears. They were much tougher this time. Not only for me but obviously for others as well since there were people walking up some of them. I had determined along time ago that there was no way I was getting off the bike and walking any hills on this course so I clamped down, steadied my cadence and went griding up the hills. On momma hill I had to get out of the saddle to get some weight on my legs to push down the pedals and on daddy hill I had to alternate between sitting and standing to give different muscles a chance to pull their own weight up. Topping out on Veyo Wall for the second time was such a great feeling. I knew from here I was at about 90 miles and that most of the rest of the way to the end was down hill. But the race coordinators had one more surprise up their sleeve for us.
I bombed down the descents again reaching 44mph and spun my legs so that they wouldn't lock up on me before the run. At the end of the second loop we didn't get to continue on into town but had to add on an extra little loop on a bike trail through a neighborhood. We also had to do this loop at the start of our first loop and I hated it. The loop was less then a half mile, had some steep descents into sharp turns that were just asking for someone to crash on. The difference on the second loop was that we had to ride down a good descent, do the loop and then climb right back up that descent that was about a half mile long and went about 9%. Remember this was after we already had 110 miles on our legs. After this final climb I made my last turn and had a slight descent into T2.
Dismounting my bike at T2 was really the only snag that I had on the bike and I do mean a "snag" literally. When I went to kick my leg over the seat I caught my tri shorts on my seat mounted bottle cages, ripped my shorts and ended up getting caught by one of the volunteers before I went all the way over.
The bike leg went far better than I could have expected. Being from Texas there was really no way to train for the hills that I would be faced with on race day. The race reported to have 4,500ft of climbing but on my long rides where I purposely climbed as much as I find I was only able to fit in about 2,800ft. This was obviously a concern going into the day. I also thought that there would have been a number of times where my mental strength would start wain and that I would have to pull myself up by the boot straps and be my own drill sargent. It never really happened. I can only guess that it had to do with the fact that I was never really alone on the ride, there were always other people around that were still pedaling so why couldn't I keep going?
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