Woke up this morning feeling totally battered even slept longer than I have the past 3 days, when I did get out of bed pretty much had a routine, breakfast, get my nutrition set, then myself, today we wrapped the two blisters on my heels super tight.
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| Huge Blisters on each heel |
When you look at the other riders staying here at the campground you can see the wear and tear of the race, everyone is moving slow and looks distraught. Once we got everything ready we drove to Kaprun, I had skipped last nights Pasta Party/ briefing, todays course is suppose to take us down the valley from Kaprun Austria to Neukirchen am Grossvenediger, Grossvenediger is the name of the highest peak in the area. Talking to one of my friends I found out that because of avalanche danger they lowered the last climb by 500ft and added some extra mileage, this is ok by me!! Again we started in a downtown area, listen to the countdown and off we went. Todays start reminded me of mondays start for the first 7 miles there was a leadout vehicle and we were constantly braking, it was a slow beginning to the day. Once the leadout vehicle dropped the race got faster, now in a stage race is you really don't know how you've recovered until your actually riding again and I was feeling pretty good on the flat stuff anyway. We rounded a corner and started climbing, this was the smaller of todays 2 climbs, I rode it until we got into the woods then noticed everyone walking, it was the hike a bike from hell, super steep, rocky and it seemed like it went on forever, just what I needed for my blisters. Here was the first time I saw how bad everyone was hurting, I think most of us just wanted to throw in the towel and go home, but we persisted and made it to the top. The descent was all forest roads and then paved roads, at the bottom was the first aid station. So here I am rolling into the aid station and there was traffic next to us riders, I'm rolling along next to a really nice Mercedes and she hits her brakes and slightly moves into me, enough for me to almost tear her rear view mirror off with my handlebar, I was able to keep control of my bike and stopped we looked at each other I straightened her mirror out and moved on. I stopped at the aid station had some water a gel and kept going, the next 20 or so miles were mostly downhill and meandered thru every little town it could, people were out everyplace cheering us on. I was feeling really good on the flats, riding with a couple other guys we formed Peleton and started working together it seemed to go by real fast, think I was at the second aid station in Neukirchen in 3.5 hours, here I slammed down a couple more gels and knew I had one more climb in front of me. The road headed up, the first 3 miles or so of the climb was all paved, things we starting to heat up as well, I think the temp's were close to 80 deg now. Someplace on that climb we passed a family that was out giving water to the riders or even hosing you down if you wanted, I took a cup of the water and kept moving. The trail had turned to dirt and the climbs got steeper and steeper, here I caught up to guy who I had been riding with allot this week, we went back and forth on the climbs, walking many parts of it, but when you look around its just so beautiful up there.
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| View from a bridge we crossed on the final climb you can see the trail on both sides. |
I knew we were gonna be climbing about 5500 ft today so I kept counting down each foot as I pedaled, it sure wasn't going moving up fast enough at times. There were always water crossing because of the snow melt, lots of rivers and creeks, at one point I saw the guy I had been riding with soaking himself in one of them, he stopped and washed himself down, no way not me it was to cold, I hated just riding thru them, I dont like riding with wet feet. This last climb seemed to go on forever, and you constantly had the ringing of bells in your head, not from exhaustion but from cattle, the mountains here are full of cattle just walking around as if they were wild, along with that comes cow pies, they are everyplace even in the middle of the single track. At one point I rode up next to a cow, it watched me closely and mooo'd as if to say "you humans sure are stupid" I mooo'd back and moved on LoL. Finally the climb started to flatten out and I passed the motorcycle guys lying the sun relaxing, thru out the race they had dirt bikes riding up down the harder sections to make sure everyone was ok each one of them a trained paramedic with a full back of supplies, these guys rode all day with those huge bags. As I passed them I asked if I had made the top, they answered yup you made it, I passed them with a big smile and as I started to descend I had a very emotional moment on the mountain, when i realized that I had done this, it was if the whole 4 days worth of hard work had hit me. I caught up to my buddy again as we entered the single track, the final few miles down were part of last years World Championship course, Bloomer switchbacks on steroids. He let me go ahead as he was a roady and didn't like this stuff, I started having fun now, unlike monday this single track was very ridable, I started passing people on it, there really isn't allot of single track to ride over here.
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| A picture of some of some of the single track taken from a cable car. |
The single track followed the cable car down, so were constantly crossing underneath it, then we would dump out on a two track and back to single track all the way to the bottom, once at the bottom, I hit a paved road and knew it was over, the course worked it way thru the town and finally there it was the finish line, of course one last climb! I crossed over and waved a fist, I had done this!! and it felt great, my cousin was waiting for me, we took a few pictures, I picked up my finishers jersey and walked around shaking hands with the many friends I had made this week. I was more known for my bike than being an American, everyone loved my Olympic Edition S-Works 29er.
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| at the finish with my medal and jersey |
I hadn't really done this myself, there were a hand full of people who helped me, first off my cousin Trautel and here husband Dietmar, they were unbelievable as crew, each day my bike was washed my laundry done, they made sure I was rested up for each stage, they also took care of all the logistics as far as the camper was concerned, I cant thank them enough!! My coach Art Fleming, neither of us knew if I could do this but he made sure I was as prepared as possible, and had my nutrition in order and it all worked great, now I want to see Art get his 10th Leadville 100 buckle this year. My love Pat, she put up with me having to ride daily and was there on the course with me all the time, I really wished could have been here with me in person, but it just didnt work out, you helped me allot these past 4 days, more than you will ever know, i miss you and cant wait to see you again! And a big huge thanks to Ernie and the guys at Cycletherapy for making sure i had a bike to ride when i had none! And for those of you that didn't think I could ever finish this including my own Mom :) here is a special image just for you!
In the end 104th out of 140 that started my class my total time was 25:05.13,4 , almost 200 miles and some 28,000 ft of climbing in the Alps, what a great experience its been, A goal I set back in december, accomplished :)
After going back to the campground and showering i headed back to town with some German friends at the campground for the after party, they took us all to the top of one the mountains by cable car for one final dinner and a beer, I havent had a beer in a long time and this one tasted extra special, we looked at some of the images from the past 4 days on a big screen then some of the video and called it a night, we were to tired to go listen to the band.
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| Restaurant at the top of the Montain |
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| Last Pasta Party Dinner |
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| My friends Armand & Paul |
Mountains have always had a way of bringing out the best in me, they have been a challenge for man since the beginning of time. From my finish in the Leadville 100, skiing and now Bike 4 Peaks, they make me push myself, my body and mind to a place only mountains could take me. I have Dig Deep tattoo'd on my arm but in reality I don't need any type of reminder, when confronted with a challenge its a natural ability I posses these 4 days have been more of a mental challenge than anything physical. I'm not a fast mountain biker, but I can go like the Everready Bunny and go and go, quiting is always an option, it's constantly on your mind, but the ability to Dig Deep takes over and you work your way thru whatever the challenge is, in this case one day at a time, one spin of the pedal at a time and one step at a time, you block out the pain and move forward! I learned allot about myself this week, I'm in a good place, surrounded by good people and just like the race I now move on with life again 1 hour at a time, 1 day at a time, 1 year at a time!
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