The first day kicked off with a 70 mile route which passed Enchanted Rock and climbed up the Willow City Ledge. The sun was shining and everyone was in high spirits as the beautiful roads seemed to never end. Traffic was practically non-existent making the day that much more enjoyable. My legs felt good and I seemed to be on par with the strong riders. Day two brought a double ride. The first ride would consist of a 10-mile motor pacing session with three other teammates which we conducted on the flattest piece of road we could find, a whopping 2.5 miles long and not entirely flat. Who would have thought that finding a flat road in TX would be difficult? Well, if you've ever been to hill country...you know just how difficult it really is. We made the best of it and I logged 20 miles, 10 of which were about four inched off the bumper of a truck at an average speed of 33mph. Quite a challenging workout but very good practice at pushing a big gear. And yes, I went "old school" with the 2005 Team Dayton kit that day (can't wait for the FGX Racing kits to arrive).
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| Yes, it hurts... |
Ride number two for the day consisted of a 40-miler from the ranch at endurance pace since the legs were a bit tired from the morning motor pacing session. Day three brought a 40 mile recovery ride and an evening cookout at the ranch. Day four was another long day consisting of an 80-mile ride to the west of the ranch, the first 50-miles of which had us heading right into a nasty headwind. I was proving to be in good shape and was sitting on the front doing a lot of work. The Texas wind did its best to break me and came close on one occasion toward the end of another long pull ending on a tough, gradual uphill grinder. After a brief break, it was back to the front.
With a little over 20 miles to go we headed back east to the ranch and were greeted with wonderful tailwinds. After enjoying the ease of the ride for a few miles there was mention of doing some sprinting. So a few minutes later, I laid down the first attack off the back...all the way on the opposite side of the road. It was a clean break and I settled into the saddle at 400+ watts and stretched my lead. Eventually I drew out a bridge and counter attack. By then, I had dropped my pace to something more reasonable to allow for a little recovery. I ended up riding with Darius, one of our teams sprinters and the leader of our training camp. After a brief chat, I wound it back up to 30mph and led Darius out for a sprint. It is always fun when you are at 500+ watts and a sprinter comes zipping around. As the guys all took their shots sprinting and bridging and attacking, the miles flew by. Eventually we turned for the ranch since we had been paralleling the major road the ranch was off of. We cruised in with Darius and I adding on some more mileage past the ranch. 80 miles total on the day with 49 cattle guards. In preparation for Saturday's race, Friday was a recovery ride with a few efforts to open up the legs. We started very early and were greeted with hundreds of deer grazing, several of which jumped fences and crossed the road in front of us. Despite the long week, the legs were feeling good and not overly fatigued. Training was paying off. 250 miles down, only 72 left for Saturday's race. Here's a few more photos from the training camp...
All photos courtesy of Etsu Taniguchi
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