review: salt to saint

i just realized i never posted david's salt to saint review from his blog...(thanks, fightingmean.com)

Racing in the Salt to Saint bike relay race. 

Coworker: What are you up to this weekend?
Me: I'm doing a bike race.
Coworker: Cool. Where is it?
Me: It starts in Salt Lake and finishes in St George.
Coworker: Cool...wait...what? It starts in Salt Lake and finishes in St George?
Me: Correct.
Coworker: Huh...wha...What route does it take, how far is it?
Me: I don't really know, but there will be signs with arrows. It will be fun. We start at noon on Friday and take turns riding through the night and will finish sometime the next morning. Because I'm driving and riding I'll sleep little to none. (I start to get a huge grin) It's going to be so much fun! (Now with a gleam in my eye) There might be thunderstorms in the middle of the night!
Coworker: (shakes head in disbelief/disgust) You're crazy.
Me: (now beaming) Thank you!

Salt to Saint relay was the most fun I've had racing on a bike. The route began at Hogle Zoo and ended at 700 North 600 West in St George. The race is 422 miles long and runs nonstop through the night. Having never done a relay before I wasn't too sure what to expect. Now having finished a relay I can say that it brought out the best in everyone. I can also say that at least in my Jeep it was an experience into a slow slide of mania on my part. Good mania, but mania nonetheless.

The race is a relay and so each rider does legs and passes a satellite tracker. I was up for leg 1 and anxiously waited at the starting line. I slowly rode around the parking lot and contemplated how much I love my bike. Cyclists almost never look at each other first, they almost always check out each other's bikes. This wheel up checkout is enjoyable for me because I ride a handmade high-modulus carbon fiber dream on two wheels. More than one opponent had eyes bugged in envy. As the announcer was counting down the final minutes I checked out my own wheels and noticed a cut in my tire with the fragile tube bulging out. This guaranteed flat could have caused panic. But I decided to simply take it easy on left turns and hope for the best. Continental is the only tires and tubes that  I use and somehow my German engineered tube held out. My group took off at a brutal pace and it took everything I had to hang with the riders. Russ took the tracker from me and pedaled hard as my team worked its way through Salt Lake City finally arriving Suncrest.


Suncrest is a serious cat 2 climb that averages 6% for 3.5 miles, gaining 1,178 feet. Trevor, a studly rock climbing, cross country running, all around good guy took off at full throttle up the hill. It was fun to watch him strain into the climb and pass multiple riders. It was also fun to not be the one climbing the hill. He finished the climb and Amber took off down the descent. She managed to grab the Strava QOM on the descent averaging 42 mp/h. Yeah, a note about Amber. A week before the race she and I did a climb in AF canyon. We really pushed each other and came up on a group of three guys, all thin and on carbon. They did their best to hang but we dropped them like they were on tricycles.  Now go ahead and put yourself into that group of dropped riders. In other words, sorry guys odds are she's tougher than you are. After her leg Ronelle, Christina, and Brian rocked the West side of Utah lake. Finally, Phil our team captain finished out the rotation.

We cycled through the rotation like that for a few more hours. I did my best, each member of the team hit it hard, and Amber snagged Strava trophies. The daylight began to wane and I literally rode off into the sunset and then into the night. I smashed this leg averaging 22mph.  But the batteries in my taillight were dying. Pedal, look at the light, try to turn on the light, pedal, and repeat. If there weren't semi's on this stretch I probably wouldn't have worried so much. As the night went on it starting sinking in that I wouldn't be sleeping. If I wasn't riding I was driving and only managed a quick ten minute nap during the entire race. This sleep deprivation combined with physical exertion made for some funny moments.

Christina was powering through the night while I followed in the Jeep. Cyclists watch out for each other and will signal any dangerous debris or conditions on the road. As she rode past some gravel she signaled the debris to me in the Jeep. Luckily my Jeep has all-wheel drive and traction control or we would have surely lost control and crashed. Trevor became increasingly concerned that the trailer would get a flat tire. At one point he picked up some blown retread from a semi and said, "Oh no guys the trailer has a flat." Amber kept asking me something about being so tired that you could be convicted of intoxication. I'm still not totally sure what she was getting at. I slowly lost my coherency and at one point around 3 or 4 am I was standing outside waiting to ride and asked Russ, "Where are we?" He replied, "I think we're in Arizona." Now seriously confused and concerned I responded, "This race goes through Arizona?"

After a long night the sun began to rise and so did spirits. Amber had introduced us to the term being "chicked". This term is etiquette when male riders are passed by a female rider. As in, "Dude we just got chicked!" In the morning light riding around Sand Hollow Reservoir Amber passed amale rider and slapped an imaginary "I got chicked!" sticker on his spandexed bottom. Trevor took the next leg with Phil, the faithful captain, taking the team into the finish line. Our time of 21:30:23 came out to a 21mph average speed and was good enough for 3rd place in the 8 person mixed category.

After the race we enjoyed some fine dining at a local Mexican restaurant. My team was getting seriously worn down but I didn't want the party to stop. So I drove up into the Red Cliffs Reserve and enjoyed a light rain during a short trail run. I guzzled down an entire bottle of orange juice and went to the new Planet of the Apes movie. I can appreciate an Ape riding a horse sporting twin machine guns as much as the next guy but the movie was a little nonsensical for me.

Participating in the Salt to Saint Relay was a translative experience. Like an ancient Chinese tea ceremony the participants sit down and spend hours with each other performing a simple task. The daily concerns of schedules, deadlines, emails, and even sleeping are put aside to have a communal experience. My teammates will always be among my closest friends for having worked, laughed, cried, and pedaled through the night together. I am honored and privileged to have been a part of the Recreate in Utah team.