GC Connection: Hell of the North

Tanner and I braved the wind and cold, but no rain, Saturday at the Hell of the North race. It is a 5 mile rectangle with one of the long sides of the rectangle on dirt. It was hard. Somehow I decided racing 35+ with Steve and Mitch would be a good Idea. It was for about half the race.

Mitch and The Hornet went off in the first minute and built a solid early lead. All Steve and I had to do was cover the attacks. All was good and the group had dwindled to 9 chasers until the 4th lap when my legs decided to stop working and I let a small gap open on the dirt. Game over. I almost got back on with the Hornet and his teammate after they flatted and I hitched a ride. However, I couldn't hold them so I rode the last 3 laps alone to finish 11th. I still struggle to respond to all the accelerations of road racing. I'm doing OK then all the sudden the lights go out and I'm done. I do much better with the steady efforts of MTB and Cross. I guess that's why road racing is just training for me. I still had fun and got to mix it up with some fast guys. Mitch and Steve battled to the end and finished 6th and 8th I think.

Tanner had a much better time of it. He and 2 other strong juniors, Ski Utah teammates, rode together for the entire race. They attacked Tanner a few times, but decided to wait until the end. Tanner was smart and didn't go the front and just followed. The attack of the strongest kid , Chase Pinkham, shed his teammate on the last dirt section and he and Tanner sprinted for the win. Chase beat him by a couple of bike lengths, but Tanner did well. Chase is a solid cat 3 and a very strong finisher. It was good to see Tanner do well in his first road race. He's going to race cat 5's at East Canyon and should do really well.

Kevin Wilde on our team did very well in his first road race to solo to a 2nd place finish in the 5's. Good job Kev.