Sons of Bishops

Back in Early July I emailed Stuart and suggested we seek out another organized ride/race to do together this year. He in turn suggested we do the Salt Lake City to Saint George relay on 21-22 September with an 8 man team. I was feeling pretty good about my cycling this year so in a moment of weakness I agreed to do this.

I was a little anxious to know exactly what I would be doing. After looking at the leg breakdown, I knew there were some legs I didn't want to do. It seemed like I could do most if I had to. But, I really prefer to do just flat or SLIGHTLY downhill.

I bought myself a really good light for riding in the dark and a safety vest and continued my good training. We met the Sunday before to plan out who would ride when and iron out some other details. After this meeting I kinda decided to probably ride a total of 6 legs instead of the bare minimum three.

The team was: my brother in law Stuart Porter; his brother Jason; his son Cody; his sons in law Landon Ball and Clayton Starnes; Clayton's father Ric; and his brother in law Justin Pitcher. The title of my post comes from the fact that two of us (Ric and me) are former Bishops and Justin is currently serving.

I didn't have to start until about 2:30 in the afternoon in the Highland area. We had Ric Starnes starting and Stuart doing the climby leg over Suncrest. Stuart passed me the baton and continued riding with me for the third leg as well. I think that was a good idea. And we should have tried harder to continue the practice. During our leg we really pushed each other and put in a good time. We put our team (Sons and Brothers) 20 minutes ahead of our closest competitors.

I stayed with Ric and Clayton Starnes for the fourth leg. But, we didn't really work together much. I was kinda tuckered and lagged behind a little. Stuart says we still would have done better working together. I believe him. We still put another minute into our lead over those other two teams.

We were doing well and still ahead of those closest competitors (On Your Left and Richfied Riders) until the sixth leg. Landon Ball was riding and had some pesky trouble with flats. Precious time was lost and we never re-gained our place. Later on right before my last leg, Stuart's light battery died and there was a protracted delay in getting another rider on the road.

I rode from Highland to Elberta and then from Salina to Richfield and then from Kanab to 7 miles outside Fredonia, AZ. My light worked great. On my last two legs I stayed even with OYL and RR and then put one more minute into them on the last. The most difficult thing about this race isn't the miles it's the hours and the logistics. I couldn't really rest during the night partly because I was anxious and partly because there was a lot to do to make sure everything went smoothly.

After my second ride into Richfield (right at 10:30pm) my stomach started giving me problems. This sort of thing happened once before after a ride where I consumed some EFS gel (I now think the granola bars might be the culprit.) I got all crampy and could have used a bathroom, especially later in the ride. If not for these problems I think I would have also ridden into transition 11. Justin took the leg into T11 and then Stuart into T12. On both of the those legs we put 10 minute into our rivals. So, all in all we gained at least 40 minutes against them and then lost it all.

It was fun cheering each other on. When we got near the end we were once again closing on OYL and RR and Stuart was really pouring it on. He closed the gap. But, was unable to catch.

The picture above appeared on the SaintGeorge.com website :

I remember seeing the photographer. I turned my head away so that my light wouldn't shine into his lens in case he wanted to take a picture.

Everything went well. The course (on highway 89) was pretty good. But, not the safest, especially at night. We had a guy in Gunnison express his “concern.” He was moreover frustrated with cyclists and threatened to have the cops “gather us all up.” Yeah that wouldn't be a logistical nightmare.

We came in 9th place at about 23 hours for the 462 mile course. I rode slightly less than 80 miles at a slightly faster than 21 mph pace.

When we got into Saint George we took a little break at Grandma and Grandpa's house to shower. Then we had lunch at Olive Garden (while fighting our fatigue.) And then we left for home. Stuart got into Cedar City and couldn't stay awake. I hadn't really slept because I was afraid of Stuart's condition. I got some No-Doz type stuff and then drove the rest of the way home. Stuart and I kept each other awake having a nice chat.