End of Pavement
Today was an awesome day. I spent the whole day inside, building a closet. A project that needed to get done, and will make my wife very happy. Very happy wife means I’ve got a good bike ride coming soon.
My roadie buddy on the other hand got out on his bike and rode the Tortilla Flats EOP epic. He’s told me about this ride a couple of times. Every time he tells me his stories of the burly climbs and the speedy descents, I wish I could go out there with him. He invited me yesterday, but I had the said closet to finish.
Today all I have is his motionbased file. No stories yet…But I can see that he rode pretty hard. 70 miles in just under four hours moving time. Averaging 18.1 for the day. He maxed out at 48.4 mph. That’s fast. I think he’s trying to beat my record descending speed on my mountain bike… a whopping 51 mph coming out of rock canyon in Provo, down N Temple. The best part was passing cars on the left and then bunny hopping the curb onto the field to slow down. I remember thinking this could kill me if I don’t get the timing right… well I’m still alive.
But enough about me, back to my roadie buddy. So his moving time was 3:52, but total ride time was 4:33. So he either forgot to turn off his GPS at the end of the ride, or he took a nice long break. Slacker. I didn’t think roadies took breaks. Maybe he parked his bike and went water skiing on the lake for a half hour?
Maybe he didn’t stop at all, but was going so slow up some of those hills that his GPS couldn’t register any movement? hmmm. That’s not like him to go slow, ever.
No, think I’ve figured it out. Once he reached the end of pavement, and saw all that dirt, he spent the next 41 minutes wishing he had a mountain bike. Kind of like how I spent 12 hours today wishing I had a road bike.
I have several friends who do that race every week. Sounds like a good time. I tried to get out there last Tuesday but I had a work conflict. I would love to do the race. We ride the Canyon/Tortilla/EOP ride often and can’t get enough.
You should come out to one of the Tortilla Tuesday races; they take place every tuesday (except this coming tuesday) through the summer. It starts at the Mining Camp Restaurant, goes out to the end of the pavement and back: about 40 miles. It would be a good way to get to know the route, though there’s not much to it. Oh yah, and it’s at 5:00 in the afternoon!
Those 41 minutes can be accounted for. Let me explain…
-I parked my car and rode about a mile to the meeting spot. We waited for about 15 minutes for everyone to show up.
-Within the first 5 miles two different people got flats. We all stopped and waited while they were repaired.
-When we reached Dash-In (store on Idaho Rd. and Brown Rd./Lost Dutchman) we waited for everyone to catch up.
-I took a quick break at the top of EOP to eat a Clif Bar.
-After we finished the decent from EOP we stopped at the lake to water up.
-Keep in mind we rode Brown Rd. all the way to Idaho (there and back). We had to obey all traffic rules and stop for red lights. Safety First!!!
I believe the 41 minutes have been accounted for. Yes, we did make more stops then we would’ve liked, but it was still a fun ride!!! EOP is one of the better rides in the east valley.