5,755.6 mi on SLR9
PLATINUM Medal at Tour De Tucson. I made platinum with 21 minutes to spare!
-Botched first water bottle handoff w Justin but I didn't end up needing it.
-Got second water bottle from Phil but lost my pelaton. Had to about kill myself to catch them again. I caught them by Moore Road.
-I started to cramp at about 95 miles so I started to stay in the saddle as standing seemed to trigger them. I also had to avoid hard acceleration but happily most of the guys around me didn't want to push that hard either.
-Larry W had trouble with his Garmin and had to fly blind and missed platinum by 1 minute!
-Fred went out too fast and blew up then got a flat later so it was a bad day for him.
-Somewhere along Oralce (60 miles?) I came upon a peleton of very strong riders who were helping one of their older members to get his platinum. They were a perfect peleton for me because they slowed on hills so I didn't have to work as hard on hills and that gave me more watts for the flats and downhills where I was able to stay with the peleton. I stayed with them the entire way back EXCEPT for the 2-3 miles they dropped me when I slowed for the water bottle exchange with Phil.
I was very lucky today. Perfect weather (45 to 75 w 62 degree average). Perfect peletons, just the right speed for me. I bet I didn't lead for more than 2-3 miles the entire course.
-If this is the end of my racing days with Perimeter I ended on a high note. I've done 3 El Tours of Tucson. 2007 I got silver, 2012 I got gold, and today in 2017 I got Platinum.
PERFECT DAY.