Ah, what to say about CO2UT 2024?

First, the 125 mile course is still exceptionally hard and even with less sand and less bumps this year, I felt quite beat up by the time I reached the pavement.

Second, I really am pleased with a top 20 finish. The week preceding the race I failed my Tuesday intervals workout and completely skipped my Wednesday workout in lieu of a nap. The sinus infection and cold I got two days after returning from Mallorca completely exhausted my system, and I was pretty close to telling Tina to travel to Fruita without me. It was only on Thursday that I started having energy again and even Friday’s pre-race ride did not feel amazing.

But, I resisted the urge to switch distances and still lined up at 7am with Tina and all the others. I burned through quite a few matches in that first hour as I caught and lost the lead group while navigating around other riders. And because of my sickness, my matchbook was still very tiny. I lost the lead group, dropped a chain, had my shifting go to absolute shit, fixed my shifting, and then spent 3.5 hours riding solo.

By the mid-point, my system was pretty cracked. A headwind on the way back to Fruita just wore me down until two chaps finally caught me. Thankfully I latched on and was able to recover enough to do a nice paceline with them.

Eventually I lost them when I stopped at the last aid station to lubricate my chain, which was sounding like death. The last 25 miles felt like a death march as I limped the remaining way back to the finish. Tina, who I had not seen since mile 8, finished 30 seconds behind me with our friend Eric Jones.

But 19th Overall is not too shabby considering how I felt just three days earlier. And Tina got 2nd Place for women. Not too bad at all. Guess all that training is paying off. @desertgravel #co2ut