LOTOJA 2011

I signed up this year for a few reasons. My older brother had his leg cut off and now was going to do 206 miles with one leg and my fat dad was going to buckle down and get on a training program and do LOTOJA for the first time at 65 years old. I also have reached the point where i qualified to receive my 1000 mile club award.

My one legged brother is actually riding stronger now than he has ever ridden and qualified to race the paracycling world in Denmark so he bailed on me. My mom's health was rapidly declining at the time of registration so my dad decided that his time was better spent with her.

I knew going in to LOTOJA that considering the events that took place this year, my fitness was not what it could have been. Still, i paid my $169 entry fee and had 2 hotels booked so i figured i was going to do it. Early on, i was afraid i was going to have to do it self supported, but

eventually i was able to talk my wonderful wife into finding a place for the 4 older girls to stay and to bring the twins and strap them on while she drove for countless hours while feeding me and them between stops.

We had 8 guys from our team signed up in the cat 3/4 group and with the field that had signed up this year, we had a good chance of having a strong finish.

The temperature at the start was in the 50's which was a pleasant change from the 30's we have been starting in the last few years.

We took off a little after 6:30 and did the neutral roll out of town. We made the right hand turn into the outskirts of town and immediately a guy named Tom from USU attacked. I figured that my fitness wasn't great, i might as well go with him and try and get a head start on the

Strawberry climb. We worked together for the first couple of hours. We caught and passed the masters 45 group ahead of us and started the rollers out of Preston. I could tell that although

Tom was a little bigger than me and could do a good pull on the flats, he was not going to be good at the climb. Within a few miles i asked him how he was doing and in a strained voice he told me he was done. With that, i left him and tried to climb at a comfortable pace while still

pushing it. Toward the top of the strawberry climb, i was caught by the leaders from my group. I rode with them for about 5 minutes, but the 3 hours of early effort along with my lack of

fitness let me know that i was not going to be able to keep this pace up for another 6 hours. I knew i could not win. Kevin was in the lead group and was looking good so i told him to go

ahead and i would wait. I sat up and waited for my brother Zach and cousin John.

This was Zach's second year. He finished last year in 11 hours and some change with cramps and this was johns first time doing LOTOJA. I rolled along slowly waiting but i eventually got in to Montpellier with out them catching me. Someone came in and told me that Zach flatted before Preston. John came in 20-30 minutes after i got there and Zach eventually rolled in almost an hour after i got to the feed zone. Going hard for the first 3 hours, then sitting for an hour is hard on the legs. Zach rolled in and said he was cramping and he was done. My words were something like "I have been sitting here waiting for you for almost an hour, get back on that #$*& bike and lets go"

Reluctantly, he remounted his bike and zach, john and i headed out.

I could tell this was going to be a long day but i kept thinking back to my first LOTOJA and how Cousin Kevin and the Doctor helped me get through it after my bike broke, i cramped at mile 40 until the end and then my bike broke again and i had to carry my bike the last mile to the finish. I figured, i could help Zach finish and i would never need to do this race again.

After we got going i could tell immediately that Zach's legs were not wanting to pedal so i told john to jump on the back of the next big group that came by and just go. Within a couple minutes he was gone and i was standing on the side of the road with zach while he tried to stretch out his legs.

This continued several times over the next stretch of miles. Zach developed a case of situational Tourette's syndrome every few minutes and we stopped several times before we hit the bottom of the last climb at salt river. As we approached the climb i could see a group of cyclists on the side of the road all standing around one rider who was sitting on the guard rail not looking good. It was a group of guys i ride with and i recognized what was going on. One of them had an ice pack on his shoulders and was suffering form heat stroke.

My wife happened to drive by at this point and pulled off a few hundred yards up the road to see if they could help. Zach saw this as his exit strategy and unceremoniously withdrew from the race and went and got into the car. Yep, although my dad always taught us as kids that we as Bradley's don't quit, he quit. At exactly 103 miles into the ride, he DNF'd.

Remember the scene from the Man from Snowy river when all of the guys are chasing the Brumby's and the Brumby's jump off the cliff and go down the very steep hill. All of the riders stop there because it looks too hard, and one of the guys says "You can bid the mob good day." But then young Jim Craig rides through the group and jumps off the cliff and cracks his whip and single handedly brings the pack of wild horses in. He didn't do it for the reward money. He did it because just like me, his dad taught him not to quit. I guess that lesson was lost on Zach.

After Zach abandoned, i ended up riding with this other group of friends. I figured i still had 103 miles, i mights as well do it with a group. We started up the last climb and it was obvious that one of the guys was not doing well.

This is how we ended up getting him up the climb. we eventually got to the top of the climb and he abandoned with severe heat stroke. Chills, shaking and incoherent and in no shape to make the 45 mph descent down the backside of the climb. The warmer temps at the start made for about 10 degrees warmer than usual in the middle of the day.

I rode with these guys to the Afton feed zone where we pulled up and grabbed my feed and was ready to go. Everybody else pulled up and started eating their subway sandwiches and relaxing. When i am doing an event like this, my legs just like to keep going at a steady pace. The starting and stopping and changes in effort are much harder on them than just going. But knowing i still had a long way to go and this was a group of around 15-20 guys i waited for them to finish lunch and rode with them. We got to the Alpine feed and i experienced a similar situation. John's wife told me that john had left 5 minutes ago and that i could catch him. I figured i would just wait for them to get their food and stretch for another 10 minutes. This time i was a few hundred

yards away at the opposite end of the feedzone. As soon as i saw them get on their bikes and start rolling out, i started pedaling slowly, waiting for them to catch me. I coasted and pedaled slow for several minutes and they still were not making up any ground on me. I finally decided that i was just going to put my head down and go hard and try and catch john. I caught him at the next neutral feed zone and rode with him to the finish.

It was the longest day i have ever spent on my bike. My Garmin has an auto-pause and i actually only had a ride time of around 10:20, but my finishing time was over 12 hours. I took dead last in my category. I finished over 2 hours slower than i have in the last 3 times doing this event. But the good news is that i finished and Zach didn't so i can make fun of him for the rest of our lives.

Mitchell had a good finish in 8th for his first time riding it.

Kevin wasn't paying attention and got dropped by the lead group going through a feed.

The Robot showed that he is vulnerable to the elements and while in a two man break off the front and looking good was hit with the stomach flu....but he still finished.

John rode with me and finished his first time and decided that next year he will save the money and just have someone kick him in the crotch and go on a tropical vacation instead.

Thanks again, Megan!

LOTOJA 10

I ended up getting a different Hotel in both Logan and Jackson than the other guys on my team this year because of what Kevin did last year. I figured i would rather have it be a little harder logistically but get a good nights sleep than be awakened in the middle of the night by the fire engines again.

When we rolled out in the dark just after 6:30 it was around 35 degrees. I shivered for the first hour. About an hour and a half in, the pace picked up climbing the first climb and i got dropped by the lead group. I caught Cousin Kevin who lasted 2 minutes longer than i did and we rode together. My intention was to ride with the lead group as long as i could and if i couldn't stay with them, i would drop back and ride with Jose and Lil bills dad, who was doing it for his first time.

Still Smiling at 20 miles into the ride

As i pulled into Montpellier, somehow, i dropped Kevin. I sat up and soft pedaled for a minute waiting for him and my legs started cramping. It is a funny thing that as long as i would keep a nice consistent cadence going i would be fine, but any time i tried to speed up or slow down, i would cramp. I got the time split back to the Jose group and it was around 25-30 minutes. I knew my legs couldn't wait that long so i had to keep going. I set out doing a mellow pace and figured Kevin would catch me from behind. I stopped and waited at the top of the geneva climb and saw a group of cyclist that looked like Kevin was in it so i started descending with them. It wasn't Kevin but another guy from our team riding in a different category. I rode with them for a couple of miles and then sat up and soft pedaled some more. I had a pedal giving me problems and luckily my wife and Jenn drove by so i had them pull over. I had a spare set of pedals in the car. I have learned over the last 5 years that over 206 miles, just about anything can happen. While i was switching my pedal, Kevin pulled up. We rode together for the rest of the day. He flatted going through a construction zone so I stopped with him for that. We got that fixed and he pulled from the last right hand turn all the way to the finish to keep our time sub-10 hours, if only by a few minutes.

Like the jerk that Lil Bills dad is, he had Jose pull him the last 15o miles while he suffered, and then he jumped him at the line to come in one place ahead of Jose.

You may be looking at his outfit saying, that is a really cool helmet. I thought those are only available in the Europe and not the States, but wait, it doesn't really match the rest of his biking costume. What gives?!?

In typical LOTOJA fashion, Lil Bills Dad wanted to kill me and said it was the longest and hardest day of his life and he would never do it again, but by the next day he was already trying to figure out how he could do better next year. SUCKER!

Luckily next year, we are taking it at a much different pace.

If i can't keep up with a 60 something year old fat man and a one legged pirate, i am really in trouble.

The old man did climb all the way up to Snowbird yesterday which is a great improvement from when he tried to climb little cottonwood a couple of years ago. I can't figure out why he didn't want me to film it this time?

Thanks to the best looking support at LOTOJA. not just for Saturday, but for all year long, juggling around my rides.

Another Year, Another Couple Hundred Miles

During most bike races, at some point or another, i think to myself...."Self, remind me why we are doing this again?"
Unfortunately, during a race that takes over 9 hours, those thoughts tend last a lot longer.
Fortunately, within seconds of the race ending, i can't remember having those thoughts and can't wait to do it again.

We started at 6:37 with a lot of guys from the team in my start group.We knew it would be fast and painful and that most likely, not everybody would hold on to the lead group.
The only person from our team that could hold on to the winning move half way up the strawberry climb was the Robot. He killed it and had a great ride this year taking 5th.
The rest of us regrouped into a couple of different packs and chased for remaining 160 miles.
I dug a little too deep trying to stay with the leaders over the first climb and paid for it the rest of the day.
I spent much of the day looking at cousin Kevin or DC's butt. We eventually got into Teton Village 3 minutes slower than i did last year with a 9:46.
Despite it being a long and stressful day for the wives, Megan did a wonderful job setting a personal best for feeding me.

After seeing a bunch of friends finish and spending a little time in the icy stream, we made our way over to the Hotel.
We showered, changed and found a restaurant that would take 20 of us for Dinner.
I ordered everything on the menu and we finally made it back to our rooms around 10 o'clock for some much needed sleep.

It wasn't until just after midnight that the fire alarms started going off and we got a frantic knock on the door saying we needed to evacuate the building.
We hurried and got dressed and made our way out into a smoke filled hall, and then outside the building into the parking lot with a couple hundred other drowsy hotel guests.The fire department was called and eventually started trickling in 15 minutes later.
After about a dozen Volunteer Firefighters eventually showed up and made their way in and out of every room a few times and checked the whole building twice, they came out and announced that it was safe to re-enter the building, but if we heard a fire alarm during the night, that we should take it seriously and evacuate the building immediately.
As megan and I were making our way back to our room, I saw the hotel manager waiting at the door of Cousin Kevin and his wife, who were a couple doors down from us.
Apparently, after dinner, Jenn was either cold, or Kevin wanted a special mood set, so he lit a fire in the fireplace in his room. There was a little plaque in the rooms on the mantel that told how to light a fire in the fireplace in every room except Kevin's. Someone had stolen it so all you could see on his mantel was a little bit of glue left over from where the sign was. Unknowingly, Kevin neglected to properly open the flue and ventilate the fire so it started a backdraft and after a few hours of smoldering, the smoke eventually started seeping into the hall and rooms surrounding his room. One of the guests woke up and called the front desk, which led to a frantic manager running up and down the halls with a fire extinguisher, knocking on everybody's door and telling them to get out.
On behalf of me and the other 300 guests that were able to stand in the freezing cold parking lot in the middle of the night, after just riding our bikes 206 miles, I want to say, THANKS KEVIN!

We eventually got back to bed around 2:30 AM.

FYI: if you have a comb-over, even if you are evacuated from a building in the middle of the night, make sure your comb-over is combed-over