Fast Times at Tulsa Tough 2011

 We left Oklahoma City bound for Tulsa around 3:30 Friday afternoon. Before I get too far ahead of myself, let me back pedal to Wednesday. A couple of weeks before the Tulsa Tough, I heard that my buddy Dominik Roels was going to be in town to do the Wednesday night after work crit and then the Tulsa Tough.
Dominik was a foreign exchange student here in OKC for a couple of years around 6 or 7 years ago. He went on to race 3 years on the Milram Protour squad before taking a hiatus this season to basically travel the world.
Anyhow, the rumor was correct as he was at our local practice crit on Wednesday night. I guess a lot of guys felt the practice crit was too close to the Tulsa Tough, because the turnout was pretty low compared to the past 2 races. I think there were only 11 or 12 riders in the A group, 6 of which were Team Undiscovered, so we felt like if we couldn't control the race and get the top 3 spots, something was wrong.
After about 20 minutes into the 45 minute race, it was down to 4 riders - 2 of my team mates Rob and Brandon, Dominik, and myself. Dominik isn't in pro level shape right now, but the dude just kept coming back after our non-stop attacks. I think somewhere around 5 laps to go, Rob got away, followed shortly after by Brandon. I thought Dominik was pretty much done and attacked him with 2 laps to go and opened up about a 5 second gap. I tried to bridge to Rob and Brandon, but couldn't quite get there before the terminator came back again surging past me and almost catching Rob and Brandon. In the end, we got 1st, 2nd, and 4th.

Hanging out after the race was over, Dominik was looking for a ride to the Tulsa Tough. I was going up with Rob, and it was kind of an experiment to see if we could get 3 people, 3 bikes, spare wheels and all our gear  inside Rob's Wagon .

1 full vehicle -  Double click any photo to enlarge

It was a tight squeeze, but we did it. No external racks required. It was a fun trip to Tulsa as Rob and I asked a ton of questions about all things bike racing and discussed all kinds of things like what it's like to do a grand tour, how many pro's really dope, preferred bike equipment and so on.
Rob and I had also been talking about last years race and how when we watched the race videos, you barely got a glimpse of us. We didn't seem to be active whatsoever and we were looking to change that. We got to the Blue Dome venue in time to register and get a couple laps in before the cat 3's started. Dominik got registered without any problems. He would be racing the cat 1-2 races with Rob and I all weekend.

We were fortunate again this year to stay with Brian and Carol's friend Ann. Ann lives just a couple of blocks away from the riverside course, so it was only a 2 or 3 mile ride at most to any of the race sites.

So Friday night, the pro women were finishing up and it was finally time for us to race. There's kind of a race before the race to get to the start line in a good position. I secured a decent starting spot on the second row, and within a few minutes, we were racing.  I stayed in a good position around the top 15 or so for the first six corners. I got a good momentum run going down the long downhill backstretch, and found myself in 1st coming out of the last corner!



2nd lap glory on Friday night - Photo by Biff Stephens

 Luckily my buddy Biff got some really cool shots. The effort didn't seem too hard, so I just stayed on the front for a couple of laps.


Still on the front - Friday night - Photo by Biff Stephens

 If you notice the sky in the pictures, the weird look is not a photo effect. Before we started racing, it kind of looked like a big storm might be headed our way. I tried to stay in a decent position throughout the race, I'd say I was usually somewhere between 20th and 50th. I remember watching the lap counter and at 12 laps to go, I thought to myself "when it gets to the single digits, I need to start moving into a good position". The next time I checked it, what I thought would be 9 laps to go turned into 5 laps to go. I guess the race officials shortened the race 5 laps as a big storm was indeed headed our way. It was a pretty crazy scramble at that point, as everybody wanted to move up.
I cant remember if it was 2 or 3 laps to go when it started pouring. I got caught up in the first crash I saw happen. I didn't go down, but I pretty much came to a stop. The rest of the race was total chaos as bikes and bodies were laying all over the course in piles. I finished the race somewhat cautious ending up 28th.

Rob, Dominik and I went for ride Saturday morning on the river trail. Pretty nice. We discussed a plan for the 3 of us to work together. As it turned out, the plan pretty much went out the window as it started raining again shortly after we started racing. A bunch of guys crashed and in the end, most guys quit or got pulled. Only 38 of the over 100 starters finished. The course was a big challenge the whole race because it didn't rain everywhere. The race split in half with a group of about 20 up the road and a chase group of 18 or so that I was in. Eventually with 6 laps to go, we caught the lead group and it was all back together.
With 2 laps to go, I had moved up into the top 15, but coming into the last corner to start the last lap, the guy in front of me got chopped and hit his brakes pretty hard. I got into him and the guy behind me and lost a ton of positions. The race payed 20 deep and I finished 24th. My best finish in the 1/2's at this race, but I really wanted to finish in the money.


About 15 minutes in on Saturday - Big rain drops - Photo by Steve Stewart

Sunday I wanted to try to survive the whole race. Historically, I've never made it further than about halfway at this course. The cry baby hill section is pretty wild to ride through...Good motivation also.





Cry baby hill action - Sunday - Photo by Steve Stewart

 That's me in the middle of the photo #254. Although it didn't seem as hot this year, there were more water hoses shooting mist across the road which was nice.





Cry baby hill - Photo by Andrew Willis

 I was feeling pretty good Sunday. I was just sitting in for the most part trying to save as much energy as possible. Around 20 minutes in, I felt like I was drifting too far back, so I put a pretty hard dig in and got up towards the front. With nobody directly in front of me, I was able to go up the hill as hard as I wanted, which was probably a little too hard because I was on the ropes for the next 20 minutes. I made it to 9 laps to go before I got dropped. Rob was able to stay in the whole race and got 34th.
My cat 3 team mates did well with Brandon getting 9th, 4th, and 4th and Ryan got 14th on Sat and 12th on Sunday. It shouldn't be long before they're racing in the 1/2's.

The weekend overall was one of the funnest race weekends I've had. I learned a lot just following Dominik a few times and seeing how much different his general lines were than mine. I also got some new insight on tire pressure.

It's nice this year to start my summer break and still be motivated to ride a lot and race. I guess that's what happens when you don't try to hit every race possible. I'm already planning out my late road/cyclocross season. I think I'm going to go for a new mileage record this July as well.