Mt Lemmon Results

Well....after Craig and Adam went up Mt Lemmon in the morning in the van, it was decided that the TTT would go to approx 19.5 miles, as the cloud coverage was around there, and it was really raining up there when they were there. We were informed that there was a prize for the winning team, T-shirts stating: "Mt Lemmon Champs" as modelled by the winners above.

Nick and I were the first of the team competition to go, and we rode with Charlene Waldner, and Kirsten Sweetland (who was going after the women's 11.35 mile record of 59'). Simon and the other three were going 5' after us. We worked well as a group to around 9.5 miles, when Kirsten decided to really floor it for her last 2 miles. She went around us, and powered towards her finish line. Kirsten ended up crushing the women's record going 56'.

Nick gapped me by about 25m or so around mile 11, and I had to work really really hard to bridge back onto his wheel, which I was able to do around mile 12. We rode controlled at that point, me just staying right on his wheel. Nick finally broke me for good around mile 13, opening up a sizable gap on me. We were still holding off the group behind us though...which was good.

At mile 15, the main support van came up beside me and started encouraging me to really push it...a little Eminem came blarring out of the speakers, and I tried to get out of the saddle and really give er. I took a looke behind and saw a yellow helmet (Simon) coming towards me. Simon caught me at 16 miles, where I was able to hang on to him. The van kept the encouragement high, and I even tried to break Simon a couple times, actually opening a gap between the two of us, until he would close it down. We rode together until mile 19, when Simon broke me with a controlled acceleration. We were coming close to the finish, so I threw it in the big ring, and closed the gap a lil bit, finishing 7 sec behind Simon (though he left 5' after me).

David-James was the next to come across the line, followed closely by Kyle and James. Apparently, Simon had broken from them around mile 9, and continued his solo assault on the group.

When all was said and done, Team Simon out-climbed us by 6 minutes, for an overall winning margin of 4 minutes. A great, epic ride by everyone today. That was the toughest climb I have done, coming close to puking at the top.

We all hitched rides down the mountain, and spun back to the condos from the bottom of the mountain.

Results: (31.75km)
Simon 1:30:57
David-James 1:32:45
Kyle 1:33:15
Nick 1:34:54
James 1:35:15
Dano 1:36:04