Misty's Take on El Tour de Mesa

When I sign up for events I never anticipate anything other than racing and doing it to the best of my abilities. As Tour de Mesa approached I found that I wasn’t nearly as ready as I thought I would be, given the fact that so many things factor into training. It has been a tad on the cold side in the mornings so I hadn’t been riding as much as I probably should have been, I also found that “life” got in the way of my long Saturday rides and to top everything off I ended up getting a cold a few days before the race. 

All this aside I decided that I was just going to ride how I felt if I felt good then I would ride hard and if not then I would just enjoy the scenery. Thankfully I was able to recruit my good friend Jim to tag along to keep me motivated. It was a great day for a race, the weather was perfect and I was feeling better, as we waited at the start and watched the riders pile in my nerves started to heighten, you never know what lies ahead.

They counted down and we were off.  It’s always a little scary in the beginning as riders dash in and out trying to find the pace they want or a good draft. Things went pretty smooth as we screamed down University at 30 miles an hour, making it through all the turns and finally onto Hayden.  Then things started to get a little squirrelly when the group split a little and there was a lot of tire touching and bumping, enough to make me back off knowing that at Shea we would want to hang with the group as long as possible. 

After reaching the top of Shea I was pretty sure I had lost one of my lungs on the road, but knew that there is always a great downhill to recover. We caught on with another small group to pull us along the Beeline. I don’t what it is about that stretch but it seems like it lasts forever. One last climb up Usery Pass and we were home free, and making pretty decent time. I knew I wouldn’t hit platinum but given the circumstances I was very happy with my time, there is always next year to try again. All in all it was a great day and a great ride !!!