Team (time trial)

Elden asked me earlier in the week if I'd ride Nebo Loop with him. When a friend needs a break and wants it to be on a ride that awesome, how can you possibly say no?

As the week unfolded, my only concern about the ride was whether it would conflict with Brad's funeral. The funeral was scheduled for 2:00 on Saturday, and we planned to start the ride at 6:00. I figured we could ride 106 miles in six hours or so and get me back in plenty of time, ideally around noon, worst case scenario by 1:00.

We stopped at Wendy's in Nephi to refuel and got back on our bikes at 11:37. We were still 45 miles from Racer's shop. Not good. I figured if we all worked together and rode hard, we could still make it in less than two hours. Less than a mile from Wendy's, though, it was evident that wasn't going to happen.

So I asked Steve if he'd come with me and took off the front. We had a tailwind, so we were moving quickly and figured we'd seen the last of the group behind us. When I rotated off the front, I looked back and Jon J. and his brother Paul had bridged and were right behind us.

The four of us went as hard as we could go. We already had 60+ miles and over 6,000 feet of climbing in our legs, but evidently someone forgot to tell Jon, Steve, and Paul that. There were several times when I was barely holding the wheel in front of me and trying to figure out how the guy on the front was maintaining that pace. And then he'd stay there two or three more minutes.

We covered the 45 miles in an hour and 45 minutes. Every one of us left it all out on the road and had nothing left. Steve's my brother and Jon lives across the street from me. Maybe they felt like they were obligated to help. But today was the first time I'd ridden with Paul, yet there he was hurting himself to help me squeeze two days worth of commitments into one.

I'll admit it hasn't been the best week for me. But it's hard to lose hope when I've got a team like I do helping me along. Thanks, guys.