Hot, hotter, hottest was the word…errrr…words of the day at Philly this week.  This year’s race was easily the hottest, most uncomfortable that I have ever raced.  Man it was ridiculous, but I got through it, and pretty well too. 

To cut to the chase, I was on early break detail because I really don’t do well in the heat.  I figured that if I got up the road, I would 1) take the pressure off the team and 2) get ahead of the carnage that would happen on the “Wall” and 3) be able to ride a steadier temp to keep the core cool.  I spent Friday and Saturday brainstorming with team boss to try and come up with ideas to manage the heat.  I had some ideas and Gavin had some ideas, and then Gavin spent Saturday going mad scientist trying it all out.  In the end, we came up with a multiple level attack against the 100 plus degree heat index.  I figured if we could save 2% of our energy over each 15 mile lap then we could have the most guys left at the end, and in the end, I think it worked as we finished 7 guys.  Even though the end result was not spectacular, I honestly had a crack at the finish.  Considering I spent a lot of energy all day covering on the “Wall”,  I ended up a little tapped in the end.

Bottom line was, the heat was too much for any sustained high end efforts, so even though the group kept splitting,  it all came back together.  The crazy part was that with 15 k’s to go I actually got dropped after chasing down a big split, but I got in the cars and suffered back to the group.  I was shocked I made it back.  The bunch kick was pretty tame, and I got the good wheel in Kirk OBee.  Somewhere in the last 500 Tony lost my wheel so I figured OBee would drag me to a podium.   He laid a patch of rubber and left me with 200 to go and I had to flail across the line. 

So final Philly.  Horrible weather.  Fair result.  Lots of suffering.  I am sure heat stroke.  Threw up after the finish.  Really emotional.  I will miss you Philadelphia.

A special shout out to my teammates racing Tour de Suisse this week.  Tour de Suisse!!!  Can you say Spanish guys kicking up huge mountains in the big ring.  25 km uphill TT!  What fun!  Good luck boys.

Havoc

This week’s post brought to you by…”guys who wear croakies”.