As some of you know, I've been preparing for this 9-day stage race since the fall. Well, I did it. And here's the recap. It's a long one. Sorry. But it was 9 days of racing!
Day 1
52 km. Windy. I attacked about 5 times that day. No one wanted to crank up the pace. Lots of inexperienced riders and lots of crashes. Felt really aggressive after the taper and just wanted to bring the pain. 1 km from the finish the race moto stopped to the left on the road in front of us, but didn’t block it. Ended up we were supposed to turn right 90 degrees(wasn’t marked at all) but it wasn’t clear and I went straight. By the time I got turned around and back on the course, I was at the back. Still had enough power to sprint through the pack and finish in the 20s. Sprinter won. Softened things up for him because the sprinter that had to mark a couple of my attacks (see pic) couldn’t hang.
Day 2
100 km. 150-meter climb soon after the neutral. Team had a pact with another team to crank up the pace on the climb and TT together after the descent. I was the first to crank it up. Went hard for about a minute, blew by a couple of ‘glory seekers’ who had taken off a little earlier (they shot back through the pack so fast it was dangerous). Finished and found my place in line. Other guys took their turns, but it was too smooth. As I’d told the team captain the night earlier, a smooth paceline up the climb wouldn’t break up the race. So we started attacking, slowing down and attacking again. That really broke things up. By the time we got to the top of the climb, it was around 12 or 13 guys. Rode the descent hard and started TTing pretty hard. The former track pro who wins the race every year attacked. I didn’t even see it. But he ended up motorpacing the race officials’ cars in for the win 27 seconds ahead of our group. (lots of people saw it…there was a protest later…which was ignored. Somebody important obviously wanted him to win) Anyway, I attacked a few times to keep people working in the pack. Probably could have ridden away if I really committed to it, and had I known it was that guy up ahead, definitely would have committed myself to it. Still fresh at the sprint and although my sprint is horrible, still managed to get 6th. Here's a pic from the news (the race got a lot of coverage here.)
Day 3
116 km. Awesome climbs (two going up 250 meters) at the start, but the damn things were neutralized. Fast pace. Pretty flat after the big climbs. Teammate went at 5k to the finish. Got caught at 1k on a steep bridge. He was basically stopped (spent) and shot back through us with people yelling. (proud of him for giving his all though). I then got on the front and hit it. Broke up the group a little. Field sprint. Came in 20th. Team sprinter got nipped at the line for the win and got 2nd place.
Day 4
92 km. Still felt fresh and ready to work hard. Attacks at the start. But they came back (or so we thought). I attacked a couple times, but made the mistake of listening to our team captain and slowed down when I felt great and was motivated to get away. A couple short climbs broke up the field a little bit, so about 40 or 50 of us came into the finish together. No one wanted to work, so I cranked up the pace at 5 km (not really an attack…just trying to get the pack moving). No one followed my wheel. Totally weird. So I just kept going and got a gap of about 150 meters. If I remember it correctly, I was going about 45 or 46k into an unfortunate headwind. It felt fast for me but doable. At 2 km to go, had to decide if I was going to commit and try to hold it to the line or drop back and try to help our sprinter. Decided to slow down and get back in the pack. Don’t regret the move because I got the pack pace up and other teams couldn’t slow down at that point. And our sprinter had just stayed tucked in the whole time. Gobbled up 3 or 4 riders at that point (where did they come from?). Uh oh! Sprinter got it…but one rider had managed to stay away (unknown to us) and win by 90 seconds.
Day 5
114 km. Team captain wakes me up at 6 am and tells me to do a solo attack that day. I think I mumbled “OK”. Great idea but a day too late! Didn’t feel very good. Dinner wasn’t appropriate race food (lots of fried food but had to eat it as the restaurant was owned by a team member’s mom). Terrible race. Flat. Dangerous. Slow. Lots of crashes. Teammate got taken out right in front of me. Officials decided to neutralize the race to 70 km. Told the captain he could forget about my ‘long solo breakaway’. Got in the front at 1 km. Turned right with a teammate at 500 km where a race official was standing and waving us in (we knew there was a right turn…but it was about 50 meters after this turn, which ended up leading into a damn parking lot). Got back onto the road and sprinted in while cursing. Our sprinter had a bad day (I think we all suffered from low energy due to the previous night’s dinner). But another teammate did actually sprint in for 3rd. Was sure to eat tons of good race food for dinner.
Day 6
110 km. Another nice climb of 300 meters but was neutralized. Damn! Race started with a short 70 meter climb. A group immediately attacked. I was on the front so I just rode tempo and bridged to them. When I got contact, everyone behind me slowed down. I just kept riding tempo to the top of the climb, with one rider getting my wheel. A couple of teammates got on the radio and told me to slow down. I just kept going at a reasonable pace, making people have to work a little to catch up. Good course to attack on but no real hills. Narrow roads with lots of turns to get out of sight, but they opened up about 20 km to the finish with a headwind. I knew a break couldn’t make it. I did some work on the front and noticed that I had super form. Got me thinking. Then our team captain let me know at the evening team meeting that I “didn’t seem like the threatening rider I had been before the race.” That was pretty much it for me.
Day 7
110 km. Woke up ready to stop listening to our team captain (who has about 1% of the racing experience I do) and to race like I know how. Although there was a headwind, the course suited me (7 or 8 50-meter hills after the neutral ended). Like the day before, super legs. From the gun, I attacked. I got brought back. Another attack from someone else. It got brought back. I attacked again and got brought back. After about 5 km, a teammate (young and strong MTB pro here) attacked and bridged to 2 riders a little up the road. I saw a 200-meter flat section followed by a little riser. I knew it was my chance. I attacked with all I had. Went about 15 seconds, looked back and no one marked me! Couldn’t believe it and actually smiled. I knew someone had ****ed up. Put my head down and bridged to them pretty quickly. Got on back, got my breath and started taking my pulls. I was pulling hard and the guys were getting a little ******, but I knew we had to get away quick before the pack realized what was going on. The make-up of our breakaway was me, my teammate and 2 guys from another team, one of whom is a former pro track sprinter.
10 k into the break, a teammate got on the radio and said the peloton was working to bridge to us. I lifted the pace even more. A couple minutes later, he told us that he had made a mistake and the group the peloton was bridging to wasn’t us. It had been a group that had gotten away trying to chase us! At that point, I was feeling pretty confident. We were flying and out of sight. I knew we weren’t going to get pulled back. I was 90 seconds out of yellow, and no one in the break was near that, so I just started killing it. My goal was to get my boy the win and me in yellow. I was hitting 47-50k on the flats and 35-37 on the climbs. Legs were almost saying to me, “Is that all you got?!” Actually, I did most of the work on the climbs, but messed up and gapped my teammate on one. After I slowed up, he got back on, and we commenced to throw down. Was a little worried he was fried, but he came back and started killing it after a couple minutes. Left the large, open parkway type road we had been on and got on a ramp to a small, two laner. It was pretty last second as the race official cut onto it and we had to dodge the lane dividers a little to get on. Strange, but we just kept following the officials and I was happy to be on a smaller road where we couldn’t be seen.
Lots of people lined that road and were cheering. Really cool! The last decent hill was about 10k from the line. I tried to ride it pretty smoothly at tempo pace, but one rider from the other team just blew up big time. Waited for him for a few seconds but had to keep going. The pro track guy got back on to us, screamed a little bit, and didn’t pull through after that. We didn’t really worry though. Just kept plugging away. Got about 2k from the line and my boy turned and sort of blocked the other guy, so I went for it. Whew, my legs weren’t having any accelerations and I couldn’t get away. Didn’t really want to get away either as I wanted my guy to win. So I got on the front with 1km to go and wanted to start an early sprint (so our boy would have a better chance against the track pro). Worked out perfectly! Track pro had to start his sprint early and my guy came around him with about 75 meters to go! We won! I punched the sky so hard my wedding ring flew off. (luckily I found it later and am still married).
Then it was just time to wait. We waited. And waited. And waited. 6 minutes, 37 seconds later, the pack comes in. Our sprinter takes it.
What a day! Our team captain couldn’t believe it. Told me he hadn’t thought I could do something like that. I told him, “Man, I’ve told you before I can TT.” People were shocked. I was worked over. Felt terrible really. But proud. It was the race of my life.
THEN, as we were getting ready for the awards, the news came in: we had taken a wrong turn during the race. It turned out that the ‘strange’ turn the official cars and moto had made was not part of the race. The road we were directed to was part of the course, but we were supposed to go up to the next set of exits, take a ramp, then ride on a short section back to the road but further up it. So basically, the peloton had to do 2.9 km more.
I was (and still am) devastated. Every other team protested, of course. And instead of giving us a time penalty equivalent to 2.9k, right under 4 min. at the speed we were traveling (which I was hoping for), we lost the entire gap. But then and ironically, the race organizers still awarded us for our placings. I couldn’t smile on the podium. This just ruined the race for me.
Day 8
108 km. We actually had a climb this day, 250 meters and steep. I was totally worked over from the day before and knew all of my riding would have to be defensive. It was raining and treacherous. When we hit the decisive climb, all hell broke loose. Eventually, our lead pack formed, and it was 10 of us. One team was just killing it on the front. It was a fast pace, but I could hang. Had enough power that I could have attacked/countered if I needed to, but we were 35 km from the line. So I just rode in the group. After a long descent, things started to change though. There was a driving rain and a crosswind. We were TTing really hard (or at least it felt that way to me). I really had to dig deep, although I’d been feeling decent on the climb. But I still took my pulls. About 10 km from the line, there was a touch of wheels and one rider went down in front of me. Whew, dodged a bullet there. Hit a short riser about 3 km out and a crazy thought to attack appeared, but I didn’t do it. More than likely would have blown. Managed to get ‘the motorpace’ guy’s wheel for the sprint. Was quite happy with that. But his sprint sucked! Came across the line in 6th. Decent finish and good effort, but I just felt indifferent. Here's a pic (yellow visor) with me next to 'motorpacer'.
Day 9
70 km. Rain again. Cold. Didn’t want to race at all. Tired of this excuse of a race. Just wanted to be safe and finish. Team captain told me to attack on a long shallow climb when I was blocked by about 20 riders. Great tactics right?! Race split up with about 50 of us at the front. Mind just wasn’t there. Sprinted. Finished. Our sprinter got nipped at the line.
Went to the final awards ceremony. Found out I was receiving the “Best Foreign Rider” award. To me, it just said ‘**** you’ on it. By the way, the award didn’t exist until the last day. Clearly, it was made up for me as a way to make me feel ‘great’ about what had happened.
Now I’m at home, and I’ve shared the story with everyone. My wife thinks that ‘the strange turn’ was intentional as it was clear we weren’t coming back and that I would be in yellow. A few other people have the same idea. For me, I’m not 100% sure. I’ll say that it’s definitely possible. And an American pro buddy who raced here for a couple years had similar experiences (with organizers telling him straight up that he just couldn’t win as it would discourage Korean riders). Foreign riders were actually barred from the Tour de Korea 2 years ago because people feared him. Granted, the turn could have been made just out of sheer stupidity. But the course wasn’t a complicated one that day. We were only on one road for a really long time before we were supposed to turn off, and we weren’t going 200 km/hr or anything like that…. Why did the officials take the turn at the last moment? I’ll never know for sure. But they ruined my tour and pretty much ****** on all the work I’ve done to prepare for this thing (in earnest since November…up to a 105 CTL last month).
Don’t know if I’ll do the race again. I won the thing. I can win it again if I put in the effort. Just don’t know if I want to expose myself to anything like what I went through again. Before that experience, I was hoping to be able to tell foreign riders, “Hey, come do a nine-day stage race here. It’s epic, and you’ll love it.” But not now.
What did I learn about doing a 9-day stage race?
-You have to eat, and eat, and eat. If you don't eat a lot and eat the right foods, you're going to be in bad shape. Another thing, and this is related, when you eat a lot, you're gonna be hitting the can big time. One day, I went 3 times and we aren't talking little stuff here. This was the same for everyone, by the way.
-This one's obvious. You get really used to riding, so when you stop (like me this week) it's a little weird.
-You really start to get sensitive to other people's riding. I knew when certain guys were having a good/bad day. I couldn't tell you why if you asked me, I could just tell.
-Certain riders and teams really start to **** you off after a while. There were actually a few shoving matches during some races.
-Good bike handling can really help in a long stage race. Even though some guys weren't that strong, they could get into good positions and really help themselves out. Likewise, we hit some pretty treacherous stuff out there. I had my share of close calls, but my ability to ride saved my hide and helped my placings a bunch of times.
-You need support...as much as possible. We had four people supporting our team of 7. 3 guys that could drive in a caravan (not as easy as you might think I heard) and a girl that handed out Endurox and gave us pre and post race sports massages and a full on hour-long evening massage if we wanted to pay (like $15). Other teams looked at us with jealousy, but we raced well and won more than any other team (and well, in our eyes, won the race).
Day 1
52 km. Windy. I attacked about 5 times that day. No one wanted to crank up the pace. Lots of inexperienced riders and lots of crashes. Felt really aggressive after the taper and just wanted to bring the pain. 1 km from the finish the race moto stopped to the left on the road in front of us, but didn’t block it. Ended up we were supposed to turn right 90 degrees(wasn’t marked at all) but it wasn’t clear and I went straight. By the time I got turned around and back on the course, I was at the back. Still had enough power to sprint through the pack and finish in the 20s. Sprinter won. Softened things up for him because the sprinter that had to mark a couple of my attacks (see pic) couldn’t hang.
Day 2
100 km. 150-meter climb soon after the neutral. Team had a pact with another team to crank up the pace on the climb and TT together after the descent. I was the first to crank it up. Went hard for about a minute, blew by a couple of ‘glory seekers’ who had taken off a little earlier (they shot back through the pack so fast it was dangerous). Finished and found my place in line. Other guys took their turns, but it was too smooth. As I’d told the team captain the night earlier, a smooth paceline up the climb wouldn’t break up the race. So we started attacking, slowing down and attacking again. That really broke things up. By the time we got to the top of the climb, it was around 12 or 13 guys. Rode the descent hard and started TTing pretty hard. The former track pro who wins the race every year attacked. I didn’t even see it. But he ended up motorpacing the race officials’ cars in for the win 27 seconds ahead of our group. (lots of people saw it…there was a protest later…which was ignored. Somebody important obviously wanted him to win) Anyway, I attacked a few times to keep people working in the pack. Probably could have ridden away if I really committed to it, and had I known it was that guy up ahead, definitely would have committed myself to it. Still fresh at the sprint and although my sprint is horrible, still managed to get 6th. Here's a pic from the news (the race got a lot of coverage here.)
Day 3
116 km. Awesome climbs (two going up 250 meters) at the start, but the damn things were neutralized. Fast pace. Pretty flat after the big climbs. Teammate went at 5k to the finish. Got caught at 1k on a steep bridge. He was basically stopped (spent) and shot back through us with people yelling. (proud of him for giving his all though). I then got on the front and hit it. Broke up the group a little. Field sprint. Came in 20th. Team sprinter got nipped at the line for the win and got 2nd place.
Day 4
92 km. Still felt fresh and ready to work hard. Attacks at the start. But they came back (or so we thought). I attacked a couple times, but made the mistake of listening to our team captain and slowed down when I felt great and was motivated to get away. A couple short climbs broke up the field a little bit, so about 40 or 50 of us came into the finish together. No one wanted to work, so I cranked up the pace at 5 km (not really an attack…just trying to get the pack moving). No one followed my wheel. Totally weird. So I just kept going and got a gap of about 150 meters. If I remember it correctly, I was going about 45 or 46k into an unfortunate headwind. It felt fast for me but doable. At 2 km to go, had to decide if I was going to commit and try to hold it to the line or drop back and try to help our sprinter. Decided to slow down and get back in the pack. Don’t regret the move because I got the pack pace up and other teams couldn’t slow down at that point. And our sprinter had just stayed tucked in the whole time. Gobbled up 3 or 4 riders at that point (where did they come from?). Uh oh! Sprinter got it…but one rider had managed to stay away (unknown to us) and win by 90 seconds.
Day 5
114 km. Team captain wakes me up at 6 am and tells me to do a solo attack that day. I think I mumbled “OK”. Great idea but a day too late! Didn’t feel very good. Dinner wasn’t appropriate race food (lots of fried food but had to eat it as the restaurant was owned by a team member’s mom). Terrible race. Flat. Dangerous. Slow. Lots of crashes. Teammate got taken out right in front of me. Officials decided to neutralize the race to 70 km. Told the captain he could forget about my ‘long solo breakaway’. Got in the front at 1 km. Turned right with a teammate at 500 km where a race official was standing and waving us in (we knew there was a right turn…but it was about 50 meters after this turn, which ended up leading into a damn parking lot). Got back onto the road and sprinted in while cursing. Our sprinter had a bad day (I think we all suffered from low energy due to the previous night’s dinner). But another teammate did actually sprint in for 3rd. Was sure to eat tons of good race food for dinner.
Day 6
110 km. Another nice climb of 300 meters but was neutralized. Damn! Race started with a short 70 meter climb. A group immediately attacked. I was on the front so I just rode tempo and bridged to them. When I got contact, everyone behind me slowed down. I just kept riding tempo to the top of the climb, with one rider getting my wheel. A couple of teammates got on the radio and told me to slow down. I just kept going at a reasonable pace, making people have to work a little to catch up. Good course to attack on but no real hills. Narrow roads with lots of turns to get out of sight, but they opened up about 20 km to the finish with a headwind. I knew a break couldn’t make it. I did some work on the front and noticed that I had super form. Got me thinking. Then our team captain let me know at the evening team meeting that I “didn’t seem like the threatening rider I had been before the race.” That was pretty much it for me.
Day 7
110 km. Woke up ready to stop listening to our team captain (who has about 1% of the racing experience I do) and to race like I know how. Although there was a headwind, the course suited me (7 or 8 50-meter hills after the neutral ended). Like the day before, super legs. From the gun, I attacked. I got brought back. Another attack from someone else. It got brought back. I attacked again and got brought back. After about 5 km, a teammate (young and strong MTB pro here) attacked and bridged to 2 riders a little up the road. I saw a 200-meter flat section followed by a little riser. I knew it was my chance. I attacked with all I had. Went about 15 seconds, looked back and no one marked me! Couldn’t believe it and actually smiled. I knew someone had ****ed up. Put my head down and bridged to them pretty quickly. Got on back, got my breath and started taking my pulls. I was pulling hard and the guys were getting a little ******, but I knew we had to get away quick before the pack realized what was going on. The make-up of our breakaway was me, my teammate and 2 guys from another team, one of whom is a former pro track sprinter.
10 k into the break, a teammate got on the radio and said the peloton was working to bridge to us. I lifted the pace even more. A couple minutes later, he told us that he had made a mistake and the group the peloton was bridging to wasn’t us. It had been a group that had gotten away trying to chase us! At that point, I was feeling pretty confident. We were flying and out of sight. I knew we weren’t going to get pulled back. I was 90 seconds out of yellow, and no one in the break was near that, so I just started killing it. My goal was to get my boy the win and me in yellow. I was hitting 47-50k on the flats and 35-37 on the climbs. Legs were almost saying to me, “Is that all you got?!” Actually, I did most of the work on the climbs, but messed up and gapped my teammate on one. After I slowed up, he got back on, and we commenced to throw down. Was a little worried he was fried, but he came back and started killing it after a couple minutes. Left the large, open parkway type road we had been on and got on a ramp to a small, two laner. It was pretty last second as the race official cut onto it and we had to dodge the lane dividers a little to get on. Strange, but we just kept following the officials and I was happy to be on a smaller road where we couldn’t be seen.
Lots of people lined that road and were cheering. Really cool! The last decent hill was about 10k from the line. I tried to ride it pretty smoothly at tempo pace, but one rider from the other team just blew up big time. Waited for him for a few seconds but had to keep going. The pro track guy got back on to us, screamed a little bit, and didn’t pull through after that. We didn’t really worry though. Just kept plugging away. Got about 2k from the line and my boy turned and sort of blocked the other guy, so I went for it. Whew, my legs weren’t having any accelerations and I couldn’t get away. Didn’t really want to get away either as I wanted my guy to win. So I got on the front with 1km to go and wanted to start an early sprint (so our boy would have a better chance against the track pro). Worked out perfectly! Track pro had to start his sprint early and my guy came around him with about 75 meters to go! We won! I punched the sky so hard my wedding ring flew off. (luckily I found it later and am still married).
Then it was just time to wait. We waited. And waited. And waited. 6 minutes, 37 seconds later, the pack comes in. Our sprinter takes it.
What a day! Our team captain couldn’t believe it. Told me he hadn’t thought I could do something like that. I told him, “Man, I’ve told you before I can TT.” People were shocked. I was worked over. Felt terrible really. But proud. It was the race of my life.
THEN, as we were getting ready for the awards, the news came in: we had taken a wrong turn during the race. It turned out that the ‘strange’ turn the official cars and moto had made was not part of the race. The road we were directed to was part of the course, but we were supposed to go up to the next set of exits, take a ramp, then ride on a short section back to the road but further up it. So basically, the peloton had to do 2.9 km more.
I was (and still am) devastated. Every other team protested, of course. And instead of giving us a time penalty equivalent to 2.9k, right under 4 min. at the speed we were traveling (which I was hoping for), we lost the entire gap. But then and ironically, the race organizers still awarded us for our placings. I couldn’t smile on the podium. This just ruined the race for me.
Day 8
108 km. We actually had a climb this day, 250 meters and steep. I was totally worked over from the day before and knew all of my riding would have to be defensive. It was raining and treacherous. When we hit the decisive climb, all hell broke loose. Eventually, our lead pack formed, and it was 10 of us. One team was just killing it on the front. It was a fast pace, but I could hang. Had enough power that I could have attacked/countered if I needed to, but we were 35 km from the line. So I just rode in the group. After a long descent, things started to change though. There was a driving rain and a crosswind. We were TTing really hard (or at least it felt that way to me). I really had to dig deep, although I’d been feeling decent on the climb. But I still took my pulls. About 10 km from the line, there was a touch of wheels and one rider went down in front of me. Whew, dodged a bullet there. Hit a short riser about 3 km out and a crazy thought to attack appeared, but I didn’t do it. More than likely would have blown. Managed to get ‘the motorpace’ guy’s wheel for the sprint. Was quite happy with that. But his sprint sucked! Came across the line in 6th. Decent finish and good effort, but I just felt indifferent. Here's a pic (yellow visor) with me next to 'motorpacer'.
Day 9
70 km. Rain again. Cold. Didn’t want to race at all. Tired of this excuse of a race. Just wanted to be safe and finish. Team captain told me to attack on a long shallow climb when I was blocked by about 20 riders. Great tactics right?! Race split up with about 50 of us at the front. Mind just wasn’t there. Sprinted. Finished. Our sprinter got nipped at the line.
Went to the final awards ceremony. Found out I was receiving the “Best Foreign Rider” award. To me, it just said ‘**** you’ on it. By the way, the award didn’t exist until the last day. Clearly, it was made up for me as a way to make me feel ‘great’ about what had happened.
Now I’m at home, and I’ve shared the story with everyone. My wife thinks that ‘the strange turn’ was intentional as it was clear we weren’t coming back and that I would be in yellow. A few other people have the same idea. For me, I’m not 100% sure. I’ll say that it’s definitely possible. And an American pro buddy who raced here for a couple years had similar experiences (with organizers telling him straight up that he just couldn’t win as it would discourage Korean riders). Foreign riders were actually barred from the Tour de Korea 2 years ago because people feared him. Granted, the turn could have been made just out of sheer stupidity. But the course wasn’t a complicated one that day. We were only on one road for a really long time before we were supposed to turn off, and we weren’t going 200 km/hr or anything like that…. Why did the officials take the turn at the last moment? I’ll never know for sure. But they ruined my tour and pretty much ****** on all the work I’ve done to prepare for this thing (in earnest since November…up to a 105 CTL last month).
Don’t know if I’ll do the race again. I won the thing. I can win it again if I put in the effort. Just don’t know if I want to expose myself to anything like what I went through again. Before that experience, I was hoping to be able to tell foreign riders, “Hey, come do a nine-day stage race here. It’s epic, and you’ll love it.” But not now.
What did I learn about doing a 9-day stage race?
-You have to eat, and eat, and eat. If you don't eat a lot and eat the right foods, you're going to be in bad shape. Another thing, and this is related, when you eat a lot, you're gonna be hitting the can big time. One day, I went 3 times and we aren't talking little stuff here. This was the same for everyone, by the way.
-This one's obvious. You get really used to riding, so when you stop (like me this week) it's a little weird.
-You really start to get sensitive to other people's riding. I knew when certain guys were having a good/bad day. I couldn't tell you why if you asked me, I could just tell.
-Certain riders and teams really start to **** you off after a while. There were actually a few shoving matches during some races.
-Good bike handling can really help in a long stage race. Even though some guys weren't that strong, they could get into good positions and really help themselves out. Likewise, we hit some pretty treacherous stuff out there. I had my share of close calls, but my ability to ride saved my hide and helped my placings a bunch of times.
-You need support...as much as possible. We had four people supporting our team of 7. 3 guys that could drive in a caravan (not as easy as you might think I heard) and a girl that handed out Endurox and gave us pre and post race sports massages and a full on hour-long evening massage if we wanted to pay (like $15). Other teams looked at us with jealousy, but we raced well and won more than any other team (and well, in our eyes, won the race).
