Iceman Race Day

It had rained most of the prior day leading up to the race and the forecast was for more rain on race day.  However, a check of the radar and forecast in the morning showed we may get rain?  We got everyone up and fed and headed for Timber Ridge, which is the start and finish venue for the Slush Cup and finish for the full Iceman.  We wanted to be there early as in years past there would be a lineup to get into Timber Ridge as they would not open the gate till 8pm.  To our surprise we arrived and there was no line to get in.  The gate was open and they were directing traffic into the campground.  They must have listened to the feedback from prior years.  Things went ok while getting ready for the race, everyone was just a little stressed out. 

I ran into Don Miller by the porta potties and we got caught up quickly. He had changed his mind at the last moment and transferred his entry to the Slush Cup.  He felt he was not ready for the Iceman.  His son Donny was not racing as he had just had a baby recently (well his wife did) and Don is now a Grandfather!  Congratulations!

We made it to the starting line with plenty time to spare.  I had not done a lot of riding since Ore to Shore and only a couple of rides with Brendan on the Tandem.

 

 

Brendan and me ready to ride.

JJ and Kayla before the start.

 

The race started and we were off.  The weather was perfect and I warmed up quickly.  Unfortunately I was not feeling very strong.  Suddenly the bike stopped pedaling and I yelled to Brendan.  His pant leg got caught on the chain ring.  I back pedaled to free it, unfortunately his pants got tore.  By the end of the race his pants were tore all the way up to his butt.  He was holding the pant leg on the handlebar.  Anyhow the race went good, however I just didn't have it.  The hills were really tough this year.  We only walked one short steep hill, we made all the others.  With about 2 miles to go another tandem was catching us.  We started to push a little harder and one Brendans boots came off, we stopped and he did a reboot.  We were off again.  I picked up a little gap on one of the fast downhill sections and hoped it would be enough to keep them behind us.  We entered Timber Ridge and went under the flyover as we went around the turn I seen that there were two tandems gaining on us.  We came around the last bend and went over the top of the fly over.  When we started down I started grabbing gears and sprinting for the finish.  I even heard the announcer say that there was a tandem sprint.  We finished and kept the others behind us.  I was finished too!

 

Jay Jay after the race.

 

I will say this was the toughest Slush Cup yet.  I have not hurt that bad after a race in a long time.  The rest of the day was pretty good.  We went back and got cleaned up and headed back to the race to eat lunch.  We then retreated to the hotel for the evening and ordered food in.  Don't know if we will do the Iceman again?  But we won't make that decision till after the New Year.