New Years Day Epic Ride

Well I finally found some time and energy to write so here goes nothing. The Elite team decided to have a ride on New Years day and it was going to be epic, but I didn’t know it would be this epic. I went to my grandparents for the holidays though and was not sure if I would be able to make it. I convinced my parents to wake up early and drive back so that I could ride and they finally surrendered. We had to wake up at 6:30 after staying up till 12, so that was tough, but luckily I got to sleep in the car.

We were the first to arrive at Coach Laura’s house and I got ready. Soon enough Steve Cozza, Ryan and Ethan showed up. We got dressed and sung happy birthday to Ethan and then yelled at him when he decided that he needed to change his tire.

We headed out towards Calistoga Road and met up with Gavin Chilcott, Rich Sangalli and a group of guys from the Dewars Team. We went to the top of Spring Mountain and the others turned back while my father, Laura, Steve, Ethan, Ryan and I continued on. We continued over Howell Mt. and I found some sweet goggles on the side of the road. I wore them for about a mile before I discarded them for my trusty Specialized sunglasses and we began a sweet descent down Ink Grade. We got stuck behind a car, but luckily or maybe unluckily she let us go.

I took off with Ryan on my wheel and we continued to burn up the road for about 4 miles. At one point I looked back and asked him where everyone was, I thought that we must have missed a turn. We continued to cruise until we hit a left hand turn and bang, I was on the floor in a second. I hit some gravel and ended up rolling onto the pavement while Ryan went over his bars behind me. I got up slowly hoping that I had not cracked my frame. I had a bunch of holes in my clothes, but everything felt alright; well at least nothing was broken on me or my bike. I knew that I had a lot of road rash, but I did not feel like looking at it until the end. After some minor bike repairs with the help of Steve and my dad we headed off. We still had about 3 hours to go so it was going to be a battle.

We loosened up and then found ourselves setting a good tempo into Middletown. We stopped at a grocery store and I had to walk around with the back of my shorts torn open. We ate an awesome sandwich and guzzled down some coke and then headed back to the races. We had the opportunity to head up Western Mine Road which is a dirt climb for about 3 miles. The last time I had gone up this climb it had been 105 degrees and the road was dusty and slick and I had bonked like no other. Today I was riding for redemption and I took off with a steady pace and the dirt was pristine. I don’t think that it could have been any better and Steve, Ryan and I cruised up it together.

We got to the top and then there was a long descent down Ida Clayton Road. It was time to get back on the horse and forget about my crash that had happened an hour or so ago. I followed Steve and had some fun. The views were incredible of Mount St. Helena and it seemed that we could see forever.

We finished the last climb of the day along Franz Valley and I still felt decent which was good. We even pushed the pace at the very end of the ride and I was thinking to myself “We could have just gone easy, why are we doing this now!” It felt great to finish the ride with all I had left though, like a race. I rolled into Coach Laura’s lot with my wheel going flat. Now it was time to clean all that road rash. OUCH, cleaning it was worse than riding for 3 hours with it. I learned today that it is not worth it to push the limit on descents in training. Road rash is not fun, but I was super lucky that nothing worse happened.