Viva Bike Vegas

VIVA Bike Vegas 2010 recap.

Several months ago I borrowed a road bike from a friend. Jordan let me borrow his cycling shoes, a jersey, and some cycling shorts. On an early Saturday morning, we rode from Summerlin up to Red Rock and back. It was a total of 17 miles. That was the first time I’d ever been on a road bike. I couldn’t get over how quick the bike accelerated, how nimble it was, and how fast we got going downhill. Although my roll was slow, I was out of shape, sweating like a pig, and had no idea what I was doing I decided to give cycling a real try as a lifetime sport.

In June I purchased my 1st road bike, some 8 inch cycling shorts, (rookie mistake), a black jersey, (also a rookie mistake, especially when riding in the Vegas summer), some water bottles, and I was set.

One of the first rides I went on in Boulder City was with Jordan, Morgan, Weintzy, and Warren. We planned to ride the 40 mile bike path loop. As you may know I love me some Diet Coke. It’s a love hate relationship that spans many years. The day before we were to ride the loop, I did not hydrate myself enough, and instead relied solely on Diet Coke. I stayed up way too late and in the morning, neglected to eat breakfast. 13 miles into the ride, I was dehydrated and not doing so well. It was about 7:30 in the morning and already 97 degrees. My head was spinning, I felt like vomiting, my ears were ringing, and all I could think of was wanting to get my helmet off. Being stubborn and not wanting to look like the neophyte I was, I decided to get back on my bike. That ended with me taking a spill after I was a little dizzy and unable to get my cleat out of the pedal in in time.

I spent the rest of the morning sitting in the BLM sprinklers and drinking 6 bottles of water. Jordan had to drive all the way back and pick me up in his Volvo after he got done riding two hours later. Low point? Yes. Understanding that I needed to take the sport more serious? Point well taken.

Fast forward four months. At work, one of the judicial candidates thought of an idea to get team jerseys with his name on it and ride in Viva Bike Vegas. The idea was that riders would look at the jerseys and strike up a conversation while all riding together. He asked me to ride for him, and wear his jersey. I agreed, but by the time I went to register for the 115 mile ride, over the new Bridge, it was sold out. Instead I signed up for the 50 mile ride.

Because I knew I could ride the 50 miles, and it wasn’t a race, I did not train too much for it since getting back from the Desperado Dual in Utah. By not too much, I mean I rode 5 times since the Desperado Dual . . . all less than 50 miles. The day before the race, one of the attorney’s had a family emergency and let me take his place.

Panic set in.

I immediately put the cap on my Diet Coke and got a water. I began hydrating, got a bunch of power gels, re-wrapped my handle bars with white tape, (how the yellow tape got torn is another story). Packed my stuff, lubed my bike, made some minor adjustments and thought, “what have I gotten myself into?”

5:00 a.m. got up and ate a peanut butter, honey and banana sandwich. Drank an entire 32 ounce bottle of Powerade and left for the race.

6:00 a.m. got to the RTC building. Checked everything, got on the bike, road around the parking lot, and got in line for the race. 2000 people were racing. 6:35 the race started, but it wasn’t until 6:40 that I actually got through the start gate.

The beginning of the race was very crowded, there were some serious guys trying to pass by. I was taking it easy, just trying not to get clipped by somebody a little too anxious. About a mile into it the first wreck happened. All I know is I saw a girl walking out of the group with her bike frame in one hand and her sheared front fork and tire in the other hand. That sucks.

Finally we got up to Sunrise Mountain and the first stop. It was stocked like nothing I’d ever seen before. All the HEED, Gels, Shot Blocks you could ever want . . . it was awesome. I was feeling fine - it’d only been 17 miles, so I quickly stocked up and headed out. Next stop the bridge. I may have stocked up a little too much because while going to the bridge someone said, “looks like you went shopping back there!” We both had a laugh because as we rode together, I could tell he also went shopping at the first stop.

I made it to the bridge at 8:51 a.m. It was less dramatic then I had anticipated. The walls of the bridge were so high that you could not really see down. Plus the dramatic effect of the bridge is only appreciated when looking up at the bridge. That appreciation is lost when you are actually on it.

After taking obligatory pictures we rode on to Henderson and lunch.





Climbing out of the Hoover Dam area was a beast. My MPH went drastically down because for the next 60 miles we were climbing all the way to Red Rock.

During this time, since I was basically by myself, and did not bring an Ipod, I had a lot of time to be inside my own head. Self-doubt crept in at about mile 70. Self-preservation crept in at about mile 80. Luckily, stubbornness was there the whole time. The only thing I could think about was making it to the look out at Red Rock, and the ride home would be a cruise down hill. At about mile 95, my legs were starting to cramp pretty bad. I got off the bike at one of the last rest stops at Blue Diamond and my hamstring seized up. I massaged it down, downed a gel, downed more HEED, got back on the saddle and was off.

About 5 minutes later I heard a cowbell . . . looked over and there was the team manager ChasquiJordan yelling words of encouragement in his Volvo. I’ll be honest . . . I was physically drained, and emotionally spent so I was really glad to see him. He gave me some fresh cold water and helped me get over the next couple rollers until the downhill started at Alta.

The ride was a total of 115 miles. Total time in the saddle was 8 hours and 3 minutes. That’s an average pace of 14.3 MPH. I think if the whole team did it next year we could get the average down considerably since we’d have a pace line to work with and could draft off each other.

The biggest highlights were riding past the BLM outpost were I had, just a few months before, spent 2 hours sitting in the sprinklers warding off heat stroke , and finishing when I could have taken a right off Blue Diamond on to Torrey Pines and gone home. It was an awesome ride . . . I’m glad I did it. I don’t mean to sound dramatic, but it changed me a little bit. I have little lift in my step because although I’ve done hard things before . . . this was one of the hardest. In 5 months I’ve done two century rides. I think that’s a good start for this lifetime sport.