What Are Your Iron Horse Weekend Plans?

Friday's Registration and/or Velo Swap?

Saturday's RR or Tour

Sunday's Crit?

Monday's Time Trial?

Leave a comment and perhaps we can coordinate a bit of the travel, etc.

Sunday's Rec Ride (May 18th)

Coal Bank and Molas Pass

Meet at 8:30 at Flanders Park, Dolores to carpool over to Needles
or
Be ready to ride at 10am at the Needles store (couple miles before Purgatory on the west side of Hwy 550).

This will be at recreational, not racing, pace, so please come along to enjoy these passes - a must for those in the Iron Horse! We'll re-group at the tops of all the climbs, and I'll patrol up and down the group to pace people if they need and generally provide support. The weather is going to be great, but, this is Spring in the San Juans, so be prepared with at least a wind jacket, maybe arm warmers, too. Bring enough food and water - this is about a 35 mile ride with 3 climbs.

It's going to be a great ride, I can't wait! See you there,
Michael

12 Hours of Suffering at Mesa Verde

The 12 Hours of Mesa Verde was a blast this year. Temps were more reasonable than last year which kept the dehydration cramps at bay. The course was in great shape and there was a huge turnout. The last number I heard was approximately 250 riders!! The first lap was kind of a mess with so much traffic on the singletrack. The run and short road section did not seem to be near long enough to spread out the crowd. Unfortunately, I was more concerned with saving some energy for the long days ride ahead and did not get out front at the gun. This meant I followed a line of about 30 riders (or more) at a leisurely pace for the first 1/2 lap before finally working around and getting a chance to open it up a little. After the first lap everything spread out and traffic was only a minor issue.

All of the Ciclistas that participated were in the solo class so we didn't get much chance to see each other except for the occassional "refill" in the pit area. I can't speak for Steve or Scott, but I was again questioning the sanity of the whole thing by noon. Each lap became a harder test of the mental will to keep going. I almost quit at 2 laps, thought real serious about dropping out at 3 laps, don't really remember the 4th or 5th lap, and spent most of the 6th lap just trying to get to each of the next mile markers. There was a reasonable chance that I was going to make the 6:30 p.m. cutoff time to head out for lap 7 until my deraileur cable broke leaving me in a gear that forced me to walk all of the steeps. At least it waited until close to the end to break and still allowed me to ride the flats and downhill in a big gear. At the end, I told Cat (my fiancee) that I was done racing (which is what I say at the end of every endurance race that I have ever done), but by Sunday afternoon I was already bumming that I didn't get a chance to go for the 7th lap and plotting for next year.

Final results for the Ciclistas:

Steve Wayman (Solo Geezer Class) 5 laps in 10:16:51 ; 5th place (awesome job Steve)
Scott Clow (Solo Class) 5 laps in 11:40:39 ; 22nd place (congrats on reaching your goal Scott)
Jeff Fox (Solo Class) 6 laps in 11:42:50 ; 15th place

Deadline May 15: Clothing Order

The order form at Sol Cycles has reached ten items. Racing level members have until end of business on May 15 to add an item to the order. We will send our order to Champ-Sys on Friday the 16th. If you need to submit an order via email, please email me and I will add you to the list: dlamunyon@gmail.com

50% of your order will be due May 22.

Thanks,
Doug

Rec. Ride for May 11th

Iron Horse training ride: Rico-Telluride-Rico. Meet at 9AM at Flanders Park, Dolores, to carpool to Rico. Post a comment if you want details, I'll respond to any posts by the end of the day, Friday.

Sunday Ride for May 11th

Ciclistas' 'Men of Dirt' will be riding the 12 hours at Mesa Verde. Best of luck boys.

The road riders will be in Durango for the second event in the Mercy Medical Criterium Series.

Stage 4 - The Gila Monster

Tough day in the saddle. We all finished. Got to get driving back to Dolores, so details tomorrow.

Tour of the Gila Stage 3

Make this quick, it's late and we need to sleep!

16 mile criterium (15 laps), with 2 killer rollers on the back side of the course. Very fast start. Lance and EB hung in with the pack, with Lance taking 10th! I hung in for 4 laps before being dropped with a group of 7. We kept the pack in sight for a few more laps before 4 of us couldn't hang with 3 stronger riders. Then the pack disappeared for good. Got pulled after 10 laps (3 better than last year!) and given a pro-rated time 3:47 down. Doug had dead legs, plus he got cut off at the start and had to come to a stop, so never had a chance to join the pack.

A big thanks to Michael Engleman who was at the top of the rollers cheering on Ciclistas riders every lap - it was a huge boost!

We're all hanging in there about the same places on GC. After another ice bath, I feel pretty good for tomorrow, and have set myself a pretty good goal. If I can make up 2:42 on the 3 guys just ahead of me, I will make the top 50. There is a 10 mile Cat 2 climb followed by a 4 mile Cat 4 climb to finish a 75 mile day tomorrow, so I like my chances. We'll see!

Tour of the Gila, Stages 1 & 2

It is windy here and it sucks. Otherwise we're having fun.

Stage one yesterday was a 65 mile road race, with 2 Cat 3 climbs, and about 4200' of climbing. The first occurs right at the start, from mile 5 to mile 10. It really is the crux, because if you can get over that with the pack, you can cruise for the next 40 miles. Needless to say, we all got dropped at various points along the way. Still, there are enough other riders that you usually can form groups and make headway.

Doug was the first Ciclista to get dropped, but managed to power through after the descent and catch and work with a few others. The last 15 miles include another 5 mile long Cat 3 climb and 10 miles of rollers into a nasty headwind - gusts to 45 mph!! So if you're not with a group, it really sucks.

I was the next to pop off the back, but was doing much better than last year. After the descent I started reeling in other riders, until we had a nice group of 10 to form a fast pace line. With a cross/tail wind, we were making 30 mph. 4 of us dropped the others on the climb and started passing others on the rollers. A group of six of us worked that last few rollers togther and finished about 20 mins down. That was about 15 mins better than last year for me.

Lance and EB (from Durango Wheel Club) were the last to get dropped on the first climb. Unfortunataely there weren't many others between them and the pack, and while they were able to work with a few, it was just the two of them for much of the rest of the race. They finished about 17 mins down.

As far as placing, out of 85 riders, this is about right:
EB - 43
Lance - 45
Michael - 53
Doug - 65

Todays Stage: 16.2 mile Time Trial with about 1300' of climbing. This was tough, and mostly because of the wind. It was hard for me to get any kind of rhythm going. Doug and I each passed one rider in front of us, but were in turn passed by 4 others. Lance and EB both fared much better, despite each dropping a chain! Results haven't been posted yet, so we'll have to wait and see.

Time for an ice bath, my legs are sore!

Clothing Order Sign Up

Now that we have the design dialed in, clothing orders can happen whenever our club has an order of at least ten main items (jerseys, shorts, jackets). Custom clothing orders are available to race level Ciclistas members (see below for a reminder about the benefits of joining at the race level).

We have a sign up for race level club members to order Ciclistas clothing at Sol Cycles. Drop in and sign up as you decide you need an item.

Order process:
1. Club members sign up at Sol Cycles
2. When the list has ten main items, we will send an email and make a blog post giving other members one more week to get on the list.
3. The order is submitted--one week later 50% of your purchase price is due.
4. Six weeks after order--the balance of your order is due.
5. Delivery typically happens six to eight weeks after the order is submitted.
6. Pick up clothing at Sol Cycles.

Thanks,
Doug

Racing Membership - $60 - Join club rides - Custom club clothing orders at 40% discount - Order Hutchison tires at 40% discount - Order Hammer / E-Caps products at 40% discount - Order Time shoes / pedals at 40% discount - 20% Sol Cycles discount * The Hutchison/Hammer/Time products are available through our relationship with Michael Engleman and the United States Women's Cycling Development Program. Ciclistas hopes to support the program's commitment to Dolores by using their sponsors' products.