# LOTOJA 2012 Race Report



## guymon (Jul 20, 2010)

LOTOJA 2012 Race Report

A few of you have asked that I provide a full report of my first LOTOJA experience. More than anything I wanted to put my ride down on paper so that I have this to remember. LOTOJA is a 206 mile single day bike race. The longest single day race in the USA. Back in May I found out that I had gotten in to this years LOTOJA. I was very disappointed not to get in the previous year, they only allow 2000 riders to do this ride so it’s a lottery selection process to get in. This ride had been on my bucket list for a few years. As preparation for this ride over the last 6 months I had ridden over 3800 miles and done numerous rides of 100 miles or more. My most difficult ride prior to LOTOJA was the California Death Ride- a 130 mile ride with over 15,000 feet of climbing. I had been told that LOTOJA was easier than the Death Ride. A sentiment I completely disagree with. Although LOTOJA has only 8,000 feet of climbing what made it so much harder was the fact that LOTOJA was a race for me not just a survival ride.

I had 3 main goals for LOTOJA; finish the ride, complete it in under 10 hours, place in the top 5 of my category. I knew those were lofty goals and I would have been happy with achieving just one of the three. Alison and my 2 boys were going to provide support for me at the stops, refilling my bottles and nutrition ect. That was a big sacrifice for them and I am extremely grateful they agreed to support me- it is a stressful crappy job. The night before the race I popped an ambien at 9:30pm to help me sleep as I knew I would be too amped up to get to bed easily on my own. I woke up on my own at 3:45am and couldn’t get back to sleep so I decided to have an early breakfast of my pre-ride oatmeal rather than try to eat right before the race. I was luckily able to lay down and sleep for another hour before it was time for me to gear up and head out. LOTOJA has riders leave in waves of 50 riders at a time, my race was against those 50 riders, Cat 5 licensed riders. Each wave was released 3 minutes apart. When I arrived at the start I looked around at the other 50 cyclists I knew I was riding with serious riders, no fat guys, no mismatched riding kits, lots of money in sweet carbon bikes, and most of these guys looked to be in their 20s and 30’s, uh-oh. As the clock hit 6:52am we were off, the first 3 miles were escorted by a race support car and the speed was held at around 20mph. No problem, this felt easy and actually a bit slow. After 3 miles the car pulled off and we were on our own, there was a group of around 7 riders with team Adobe who took turns at the front and I was quite content sitting on their wheels, the pace had increased to around 24mph but still felt comfortable and easy, we were quickly passing stragglers from other waves ahead of us. 

Around mile 15 we started to see numerous riders on the side of the road fixing flats, over the next 5 miles we passed at least 60 riders with flats due to what I later heard were tacks thrown out in the road. Must have been the terrorist Frenchies (Tour de France 2012 reference). I was concerned but there was nothing I could do about it and luckily I made it through the entire ride without incident. There are 7 designated rest stops on this ride and my plan was to keep my stops to under 5 minutes total and skip the first stop in Preston altogether. I was hoping my bladder would hold until mile 80, the Montpilier rest stop. I knew that if I ever lost contact with the lead riders from my group I would never latch back on, their pace was too fast to ever try to chase down once I had lost their tire. The ride was relatively flat the first 36 miles and our group of 50 stayed together for the most part. In Preston at rest stop 1 the separation really started to happen, those who weren’t racing stopped for a break and the rest of us rode on. Our initial 50 was down to like 30! A few riders from other groups that started earlier jumped into our line and we were off again. Some of these new riders I noticed were not as steady in the line as our original group, lots of twitchiness, and inability to keep a steady pace. This made me a bit concerned, I had some premonition/inspiration or just generally not so great feeling so I decided I would pull off the line for a bit and almost immediately the guy to my right touched the wheel of the guy in front and went down pretty hard, at least 5 others went down with him. Not good.



The climbing started around mile 30 and this was a long climb of over 20 miles. It was similar in length and difficulty to Bogus Basin, a climb I am very familiar with. Unfortunately sustained climbing is not the strongest aspect of my riding. I was working harder than I wanted to stay on the wheel of the lead group, by midway up the climb the group had shrunk to about 15 of us. At this point for the 2nd time of the ride one of the riders right next to me touched his front wheel to the bike ahead and went right over the front of his bars and took another few riders down with him, lucky they weren’t going too fast, I knew they would all be fine. Just a mile before the end of this climb there is a plateau or “false summit” where they were handing out water bottles, no stopping just a quick bottle change. At this point I had lost the wheel of the lead pack by about 100 yards, somehow I managed to bridge up to them before the road started going up again for the final mile. At this point my heart rate hit 170 and I knew I had spent too much energy trying to stay with these guys. I had to let them go and give up one of my 3 goals. It was a sad moment watching 9 riders roll away. I flew down the backside of that climb hitting speeds up to 45 mph. I was in a very large paceline and once again was noticing a few nervous/twitchy riders in the group, I decided to follow my instinct and pull to the left of the paceline as we were flying along at over 30mph. Once again a rider less than 3 feet away from me tapped the wheel in front of him and went down hard, sparks flying off the bike from the pavement. I looked back for a second and saw at least 8 other riders down and a few bikes flying through the air. Luckily up ahead I saw an official race vehicle and notified them of the carnage. I was a bit spooked but feeling very lucky/blessed. I was now going into Montpelier where I was to meet my family for the first time around mile 80. Man was I happy to see them, I was also happy to relieve my bladder for the first time. They quickly gave me new bottles, a pbj sandwich and I was off. I was actually still feeling pretty strong at this point.

There were still 2 significant climbs in the next 40 miles. The first was not too bad and for some reason the first climb seemed easy. By the time I got to the second climb (Salt River Pass) at mile 100 the temperatures had hit 90 degrees and I was suffering. I decided I would just slowly grind it up over the hill and just make it over the top. My average MPH reading was now around 19 and I knew I was in jeopardy of losing my 2nd goal of finishing in under 10 hours (20.6mph). I was not a happy cyclist at this point and I had been riding solo for the entire climb. Once I made it over the summit I flew down the hill and arrived in Afton where my wife and kids fed me reloaded me and encouraged me to get going. As I left this feed zone I saw ahead 200 yards ahead a group of 5-8 rider going at a pretty good pace, I was alone and I dropped my head and worked to close the gap. I did not want to ride solo for any more miles. I got within 40 yards of them but just couldn’t close it down. At this point I slowed down and prayed for a paceline to catch. About 2 minutes later a big dude in a DNA kit from Draper UT pulled alongside me and we chatted a bit and I jumped on his wheel, he was obviously feeling better than I was. Next thing I know there’s another 4 guys that hopped on our wheel and we had a true paceline averaging 24+mph. As we rode along we picked up more stragglers and more riders latched on and by the time we hit the next feed zone of Alpine we had a group of 30 flying along. I learned about rumble strips during this section of the ride. They are not fun to ride on at speeds over 15 mph on a road bike. They are actually pretty scary and it is very easy to drift into them especially when riding in a rotating paceline.

In Alpine I found my family got off my bike and sat on the pavement and drank a thermos full of chicken and stars soup. (a great choice in the middle of a long ride) My gut was feeling horrible, nothing sounded good to me and I could barely keep down anything I ate. My nutrition plan of 300 calories per hour was out the door. My stomach hurt and I was trying my best to keep drinking my bottles of perpetuem so that I got some liquid calories and kept my hydration at a reasonable level. The heat/sweat had taken my electrolytes out of my system faster than I was getting them in and we couldn’t find my electrolyte tablets. I knew I was in trouble but I only had 47 miles to go. I put that mileage into my average ride perspective and realized that was less than an Emmett loop, hey that’s easy I can do that I thought so off I went with some encouraging words from my family. Go Dad! The DNA guy pulled out at the same time and we continued to ride together. He told me this next section was a killer, this was his 3rd time doing the ride. I just had to ask him “WHY?” Another speedy group of 6-8 riders joined us and began to push the pace. DNA guy told me to leave him as he was starting to fade and I jumped on with my new speedy friends. I learned to love relay riders, these guys were only riding 50 mile legs and were far less spent than I was, I was happy to let them sit at the front and push wind for me, for the last leg I just continued to look at the miles left slowly drop and kept thinking of a ride that compared to that length. I knew I could finish this ride strong and had been riding so fast my avg speed had increased to 21.5 mph. I was sure I was going to finish under 10 hours. Then the road turned uphill again and I got out of the saddle to push hard and it was at this point that both my hamstrings began to twitch, I was cramping bad and every time I pushed hard on the pedals my cramps stopped me. It was at this point that I was saved by an unexpected feedzone stop. I pulled in, chugged 2 bottles of gatorade poured another bottle of water on my head got back on my bike. I had lost my speedy group but quickly found a few riders to share pulls with to bring me home. My muscle cramping though not totally gone had decreased enough that I was averaging over 21 mph all the way to the finish.

To say that I was happy to see the finish line was a huge understatement. I have never suffered more on my bike. My stomach pains had gotten really bad over the last 25 miles and I couldn’t even think of eating anything and struggled to even drink. I crossed the finish in a total time of 9hrs 48 minutes, 21.1mph (11 minutes of stopped time). 11th place in my wave of 50. I am very happy with my race and proud of the accomplishment. The ride finished close to a very cold stream where I quickly sat down and tried to reduce the swelling that I knew was coming. My knees never hurt me on the ride, my whole body was sore and my butt was numb but no one area was excessively miserable other than my stomach. Did I have fun? No! Am I proud of my accomplishment and individual effort? Absolutely. Will I do this ride again….. Don’t ask me today. I am very grateful to my sweet family who sacrificed their weekend to support me. I am also thankful for all my riding buddies who I have spent many miles on the road encouraging and pushing each other.


----------



## bigskychuck (Jul 14, 2008)

Thanks - that's very informative. I almost signed up for this year, after failing to get in 2 yrs ago. Between the death, the flats, and the crashes you saw, it sounds like a bit of mayhem! Are there always so many crashes, do you know?


----------



## royta (May 24, 2008)

Nice job guymon. That's an awesome showing for a first LOTOJA! My first LOTOJA was last year and I was much slower (11:05 race time, 10:22 ride time). My only defense is that by race day I barely had 12 months of road riding under my belt. This year I did much better and took 4th in the 5100 group.

Luckily, no crashes next to me.


----------



## guymon (Jul 20, 2010)

Royta- awesome job- 4th place. How cool to podium there. Impressive. Bigsky-not sure if crashes like that are common, I am sure that they are less common when your goal is just to finish the race (a great accomplishment in its own right) but I think that when you mix tire athletes, 200 miles and fast moving pacelines of 20-50 guys you are bound to have some crashes. Sucks but I didnt feel scared the whole time, just attentive.


----------



## royta (May 24, 2008)

guymon said:


> Royta- awesome job- 4th place. How cool to podium there. Impressive. Bigsky-not sure if crashes like that are common, I am sure that they are less common when your goal is just to finish the race (a great accomplishment in its own right) but I think that when you mix tire athletes, 200 miles and fast moving pacelines of 20-50 guys you are bound to have some crashes. Sucks but I didnt feel scared the whole time, just attentive.


I definitely exceeded my expectations. I felt strong all day. I did suffer from cramping on inside of right thigh for the last 50 to 60 miles though. Only five minutes of stopped time. One minute neutral group stop just before the Strawberry climb for a reason I will not disclose, one minute each at Montpelier, Afton, and Alpine, and one minute to pick up my phone that popped out of my beto bag just before the bridge at Hoback Junction.

I'm MORE impressed with YOUR time though. Awesome job for your first year, especially since it sounds like you're older. I'm a young buck at 39.  Work on shortening your stopped time, and work on your nutrition and you'll be killing it next year! Congratulations! It's definitely something to be proud of.


I saw the results of two crashes. I saw a guy being tended to between Logan and Preston. It happened within 10 seconds of us getting there and probably caused by touching wheels. I also three riders just in front of me one minute after I left Alpine. There were three riders about 50 yards in front of me. I looked away for a split second and when I looked up, one of the three was down in the middle of the lane. A neutral vehicle was literally right behind him and pulled up to within two feet of him. I asked a rider next to me what happened and it too was the cause of wheels touching. Hold your line and don't overlap and the problem is solved. There was no sidewind in either circumstance, so no reason to form an echelon and overlap wheels.

There was a third crash, the one with the gentleman going over the guard rail. I went by the bridge before the police and ambulances showed up. Terrible tragedy.


----------



## bigskychuck (Jul 14, 2008)

My big problems in not trying to get in this year were that I lacked a support crew (and ride home). Is there enough neutral support that you can ride it without a support crew?

Thanks


----------

