Gregg Shores Mega Monster Report 2/16/11

CoreTechs Cycling Team covered itself with glory last Saturday. In Monterey that is. Congrats to Devon and everyone who went down to Ft Ord. An hour on the bike, win, top step of the podium. How can life get better?

A few miles to east, CoreTechs was having a different racing experience at the Mega-Monster Enduro on lonesome hwy 25. This event is like a TTT: 51 miles south, turn around, 51 miles back. The team was just me and the Ringer (a friend of ours, as a junior he raced with guys like Lance, George and Fast Freddy, but lately his racing companions are... less distinguished). Mark Dames was out sick. Smart move.

The concept of this ride: Bicycles can fly. No traffic, no stop signs, no big climbs, good tarmac, if you've ever caught a tailwind out there, you know you can go fast for a long way. The forecast was for sunny, warm weather. Wind 5 mph from the west. So, neutral and perfect.

It was warming up nicely by the time we got to Paicines. No mass start here, you roll when ready, and that's when your clock starts. We were the very last team to set off. The race rule is TT style: no drafting off other riders, but everyone else was long gone anyway.

We set off south feeling good, but soon the breeze felt way too strong. A stiff south wind? For 50 miles? That wasn't in the game plan. This wasn't flying, more like swimming upstream. But this was a race, we were committed, we gave it everything we had. The course on-lookers-- the cows-- had an expression that said, "we've seen better."

In a period of time only slightly less than forever, we reached the turnaround. Ah, finally! Re-fuel, re-water, enjoy that tailwind and fly back north. "We'll be doin 35 mph" bragged the Ringer, only half kidding. However, Race Director Kevin Winterfield had some bad news. "Actually, the wind can shift in the afternoon, you guys are kinda late, you'll probably get a headwind going back." Huh? Maybe we better get going.

We had a few good miles, but soon the diabolical wind had indeed shifted, now out the north and in our face again. Just as hard as in the morning. We drank a lot, but strangely no nature breaks were necessary for either of us the whole day. I sucked down as much Hammer gel as I could stomach. For me, solid food was out of the question.

We made it back. It took a while, even with the Ringer pulling much more than his fair share and both of us leaving it all on the road. I arrived crusted with salt. A beautiful day, but easily one of my five hardest days in the saddle. 6 hours at the limit.

On the positive side, easily my fastest century ever. And one hell of a workout. If I ever recover, I'm sure I'll be the stronger for it.

Mega-Monster? Never again!

Of course, if we got an early start we could get better conditions, and bring a bigger stronger team. get Dames' big engine out there, maybe train some on Canada, maybe even go down to Paicines and work out on the course...