Tour of White Mountains Win
by Matthew Connors on October 12th, 2007
Over the weekend I raced the Tour of White Mountains. It was so much fun, I drove up there with my friend Brian. It was a long drive up there but we were watching movies all the way as we drove. As we where driving up there my mom calls and said that there are reports of 38+ winds. We where not ready for that at all. Once we got up there we picked up are race packets, got some food, then found our hotel room. We got unpacked and got all our stuff ready for the race.
The next morning we got up at 5:45am to get ready. The race started at 8:00am. I’m ready to go at this point. We got in the car and saw that the temp was 40 with winds of 35+ winds….It was cold!!!! So the staging starts so I got right on the line, no one was on the line so I was the first one there ready to go. The race gets under way and everyone is going so slow but I didn’t want to take off to fast. At this point I’m in the lead, then I take a wrong turn. I turned around got back into the lead, then again I take a wrong turn, so I had to get back up with the leaders. Which was not that hard. My Kenda tires hooked up great out there, they are fast. It also helps when you don’t have that much tread lift on them!
We are just crusin not going to fast then this guy takes off so I get on his wheel and he would keep looking back and I would smile at him, he was so mad. I got back in the lead and then…. I had to go pee so I stopped and did what I had to do, but I was still in the lead after that. The whole race someone would take off and Id go right with them. Well there was one guy that took off and I did not go with him. Next thing I know I was riding with my friend Tom and me and him are giving each other shit the whole time. I pull in front of him on this down hill part then I crash hard. I went right over the bars. Tom is just making fun of me as he is walking down the hill, at least I tried to ride down it!
I knew I had 15 miles to go, and I know that I’m 2nd place. I also know that it’s not over till it’s over. So at this point I’m giving it all I have. I make this right turn and there’s the leader, I know I could win at this point. With 12 miles to go I had it I knew I could do it. I did even look at him I just went for it. The miles started going by fast next thing I know I’m back at the finish line. I was in so much pain, everything hurt. Just to make sure I asked the race offical did I win he said “nice job, you did”. That was so cool! My time was 3 hours and 10 min for 42 miles with 2800ft of climing, not to bad. Fun trail- if you dont make wrong turns.
The rest of the afternoon I was so happy, I wasn’t sure if I could win it at all. I was just out there for a training ride- that was it. So to come out with a win was great. After the race was over I found out that there was 86 people in my class, that made it that much better. That was my weekend of fun. This sunday I have a 70 mile road bike race, so I will keep you posted on that.
see ya in AZ!
October 13th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Congratulations on your win! Both you and Clint kicked ass in that race, wrong turns and all. 2008 is going to be a great year.
October 13th, 2007 at 11:45 am
You guys from AZ rock! It sounds like you need more challenging races like La Ruta or Trans Rockies… that other stuff is getting too easy, eh?