Shivwits! What did you say?

 

Stuart was looking for someone to do the Fall Tour de Saint George again this year. I wasn't really excited to do it. But, mainly only because it's the third trip down to Saint George in four weeks. I decided to do it anyway. Stuart says he probably would have bagged it if I hadn't gone.

We drove down Friday evening and stayed with Grandma and Grandpa again. It turned out to be a very nice day. Weather was supposed to be a little warmer. As it was I had to wear a vest and arm warmers and was still borderline too cold at the start. But, all that stuff came off by the end of the ride.

The climbing is worse than my glossed over memory told me. I did okay though. Got a flat right at the summit before dropping into Veyo. It took me 11 minutes to change the tube. So, at the feed station in Veyo I didn't stop and the one near the Shivwits Indian Resevation I decided to stop only very briefly to pick up a couple of snacks.

Right at the start I saw a couple of guys on a carbon Calfee tandem. They made a joke to everyone in general about their being dropped now. But, we would be fighting for their wheel later on. I didn't see them again until the steep downhill at the 18 mile mark just outside of Veyo. They went screaming past me. I made a goal to catch them.

About 17 miles later, just after the second feed station I finally got on their wheel. I stayed with them until the feed station at mile 52. Riding behind them helped a lot I think. I left them behind after the feed station because they were taking the 100 mile route and our paths were splitting soon. As it was they didn't catch up to me before the routes split.

They had the metric distance riders move onto the river bike path for about 5 miles which was interesting. My knee started to hurt me and ached for about the last 10 miles or so. Stuart says it's the IT band. It's probably because I haven't been stretching.

I finished in a decent time considering my flat. Came in 2nd out of 18 in my age group and 13th out of 100 overall with no one older coming in ahead of me. I averaged 12.4 MPH for the first 1:10 (the climbing), then 22.24 MPH for the rest of the ride.

Stuart got off course again. I'm not sure he will be doing this ride next year.