Friends, families and Sponsors:
Saturday, 14 Apr 2012 will surely go down as one of the more extreme Julian Death Marches in recent memory. Temperatures skirted freezing point throughout and only briefly pushed the mercury past 41 degrees. With the temperatures better suited to sledding, or skiing, the organizers decided to postpone the start by an hour which allowed for some great photo opportunities to capture our impressive Phoenix Patriot Foundation turnout given the conditions. Representing PPF were Guy McDermott, returning JDM race veteran and PPF Team Captain, along with newcomers Vic Chonka, Dale Blankenship, and Eric Skalski. Braving the elements for reasons wholy unclear to them, our loving support crew of Lu and Maureen Lastra, and Carmen Skalski ensured that riders stayed on course, got fed, and were awesomely encouraged.
As for the race? As these things go, the opening, neutral roll out pelted the riders with snow and hail but rewarded their persistence (foolishness?) with good traction and a neutral vehicle keeping things gentlemanly for the first five miles. Soon enough, the road pitched up hill and we began the ascent of Banner Toll Road. Stringing out the pack and providing much awaited warming of toes, fingers, and faces just in time for a brisk descent down Rodriguez Canyon and into much welcomed and warmer weather conditions. A well-deserved tail wind assisted with the next few miles but unfortunately Dale and Eric would miss the turnaround at Pinyon Mountain Road where Guy had already turned to tackle the long course and where Vic would soon follow. Although Dale and Eric’s race was all but over as they tacked on an additional 9 miles before returning to the course route, Dale was able to demonstrate the true meaning of teamwork as he selflessly took on all 4.5 miles of off-route ‘training’ complete with 20mph headwinds.
Meanwhile back on course, Guy had joined forces with David Sullivan and Bryon Taylor to better tackle the ever-increasing and gusting winds as a pace-line. These three tremendous athletes never relinquished their lead and eventually completed the podium within 25 minutes of one another with Guy improving his 6th place performance of last year to an impressive and hypothermic 3rd. There were three other brave souls who would later follow in their frozen footsteps to complete 2 loops of Oriflame Canyon required for the 79 mile re-route...great job fellas. It is worth noting that the race directors contemplated cutting the second loop due to deteriorating weather and course conditions but they were either too slow on the draw or maybe the riders were faster. For the 26 remaining riders who took on one loop of Oriflame to complete the 65 mile version, Vic would finish an impressive 7th and looked no worse for the wear. Fortunately for the team, I don’t think that Vic nor Guy were among those unfortunate riders who found themselves brought to a complete headwind halt while climbing Oriflame before being tossed off trail into an abundance of rocks, scrub brush, and mud just to get up, rinse, and repeat.
With feeling finally returning to the thawing nubs that are our fingers, we need to to send a special message of thanks to our sponsors. Everyone has dialed in there nutrition with Infinit while Schwalbe, Shimano, Sidi, Canari, DT Swiss, Stan’s No Tubes, and Ride Cyclery/Specialized keep us moving, looking, and feeling the part. To you all, THANK YOU.
On to the next adventure...
-Guy
