Tour de Suds

I've lost my mind. I seemed to be having some sort of post Lotoja blues so I signed up for Tour de Suds. It is a 6 mile mountain bike race from Park City to the top of Guardsmans pass. All up hill! I convinced my girlfriend (who also finished Lotoja the week before and doesn't even own a mountain bike) to do it too. Why not? It is 200 miles shorter than the last race we did and there is beer at the end.

As we drove up the canyon that morning we were met with "winter driving conditions" warning signs. But the weather forcast called for clear and cold. Hopefully the sun would come out.

We arrived early and my friend rode around the parking lot to practice shifting her rental bike. Then we headed for the start line along with 100 other crazy people. Many were in costumes. There were hula girls, and cowboys and men in drag. One man(?) dressed as a cavewoman kept getting his long hair caught in his back tire. Ready, set, go and we were off riding up Park City Main Street.

Before long the pavement ended and the fun began. The dirt road was wet, sloppy mud that sucked in your tires and made it hard to pedal. A few people pulling trailers gave up and turned back. After a few switchbacks of sludge we turned off onto single track. Fortunately the mud wasn't so bad, but that was because the trail was snow packed. It was beautiful, slippery riding as we wound our way up the mountain. Each switchback we turned the wind blew harder and temperature dropped. The last quarter mile was on slushy pavement and the first riders were already coming down the pavement towards us, sliding and crashing.

We finally crossed the finish line (let's just say we weren't last). By then our sunny but cold day had turned into an all out blizzard. The surrounding mountain peaks were not even visible because of the sideways blowing snow. We opted to take the road down so that we could get back faster. As we rode down we stopped several times in a futile effort to thaw out our hands and to wipe the snow off of our glasses. The more we rode the colder we got. I had visions of the guy stuck on Everest that lost his nose to frostbite. I imagined what I would look like without a nose and it was this thought that forced me to pull over and stick out my thumb. We bummed a ride from a nice couple celebrating thier 36 wedding anniversiary.

We survived! We had our beers and my girlfriend is currently reevaluting her friendships.

What a great story! Thanks for the vivid images I now have (Caveman Girl just barely escaping Isadora Duncan's fate, on a bike), and for making me laugh in the middle of the day!

WOW! Great story!

If I even SAW snow, I wouldn't have been on my bike. Then again, I live in Texas and LOVE it when it's 90+F degrees outside!

It sounds like you had fun... until you froze! Thank goodness you were able to bum a ride!

What a great story! How fun in a crazy person sort of way.

V.