Lotoja

daveryanwyoming

The date hasn't been announced yet, but they're supposed to do so this month. Keep an eye on the official web site: http://www.lotojaclassic.com/MainPage.html

And be sure to register immediately when registration opens this spring. Last year's race filled in two days.

It's an interesting event, and this year's weather was great but after a season of racing it felt a lot more like a carnival than a road race.

All the categories coalesced into one megapeleton at the first feed in Preston and from there on out the groups were mixed, it was impossible to tell where you were and any normal race tactics were out the window. I remember one point midway through Strawberry Canyon, we were in one huge field of 2's, 3's, 4's 5's, Master 35's, Master 45's, Tandems, etc. I was at least 100 riders deep with another couple of hundred behind me riding shoulder to shoulder occupying the entire road. I looked down on a short descent and we were doing 51 mph. I thought "holy sh*t, if somebody does something stupid up there it's gonna be triage back here". Pretty tough to move up in a group like that and when small groups went off the front you couldn't even tell if they were in your race and whether you should care.

Racing in Utah and Idaho were great, but soon after crossing the Wyoming state line we started getting harassed by highway patrol officers barking at us over their megaphones. "Stay on the shoulder or you will be disqualified" well it's pretty darn hard to ride a road race on a twenty inch shoulder with a rumble strip in a group of thirty or more. If you got to the front you were stuck there and if you wanted to get up front or attack you had to wait for a wide spot at a driveway or risk getting pulled out of the race by the cops. Then when we got to Jackson there were no course marshals or traffic control and you just had to stop and wait for the traffic lights. Pretty unusual for a USCF sanctioned road race.

All in all it was a strange experience. I'm not sorry I raced and had a pretty good ride. I did much better than I expected considering the length and that my typical road races are 80 miles or less. But it sure wasn't like any race I've ever done before and I haven't decided if I'll bother to do it again.

Have a great ride if you give it a go. Maybe I'll be there, kinda depends on how I feel after a few more months have gone by.

-Dave