On August 22nd, John and I will be competed in the 1000 Warriors race, an amateur race that covers the same course as Stage 4 of the Tour of Utah. Last year I competed in the same race, then called the 300 Warriors. See my blog entry on my results. Last year it took me 6.5 hours and we started at 6 am. This year the 1000 Warriors race a USA cycling certified race so they are doing staggered starts according to category. I will be in the Masters 55+ category and will be starting around 6:30. The pros start at 11 am and will finish around 3 pm. Even though I am not in the same condition as last year, I hope to finish within 7 hours, at least 1.5 hours before the first pro to arrive. But they say we need to clear the course by 2 pm, so I want to finish at least before then.

Here is a description of the course from the official website:

The stage kicks off with a few parade laps up historic Main Street in Park City, then heads east across the farmlands of Summit County. Turning back west, riders enter what seems like another country, the Swiss-inspired town of Midway. After briefly skirting Deer Creek Reservoir, the race plunges down Provo Canyon, then turns sharply uphill as it passes Robert Redford’s Sundance resort, where it begins to climb the difficult Alpine Loop. This legendary Utah route ascends through narrow stands of aspen and fir trees, crests a saddle just under the summit of Mt. Timponogas, and plunges down a twisty, narrow highway that rivals the Alps for sheer beauty and danger. Descending back into and through suburbia, riders suffer up a “small” bump over Traverse Ridge before they have to tackle the deciding 8-12 percent climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon to the Creekside Center at the Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort.

I see the course has be modified slightly from last year and follows the route I usually take after coming down American Fork Canyon, up to Alpine before making your way over to Suncrest.

Categories: Cycling Racing, Warrirors Race TofU
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On August 22nd, John and I will compete in the 1000 Warriors Race, a USA Cycling sanctioned amateur race, that is in conjunction with Stage 4 of the Tour of Utah.  Last year I competed in the 300 Warriors race, which was the same thing with a smaller field.  We started 4 hours before the pros and hope to not get caught.  With less than two weeks before the race I am running out of time to get ready.  Although we did the Ulcer Century two days ago, that is mostly flat.  So today I decided I needed to get in some climbing.   I ended up with a total of 102 miles and 10,900 feet of climbing.  I started from our Utah house and biked up Provo Canyon with Anne.  We climbed South Fork together and after returning to Vivian Park, she went back down the bike trail and I headed up the canyon.

I then made the first big climb up the Alpine Loop. After descending down the American Fork canyon I made my way over to the next climb, up Suncrest. After reaching the summit I headed down the backside, called Transverse Ridge, that takes me down to Draper in the Salt Lake valley. This is the turn around point and I retrace my steps back, up Transverse Ridge, down Suncrest.

I made a lunch stop in the town of Alpine.  Then it was up American Fork Canyon and down the Alpine Loop.  This year I decided to add on more climbing at the end, to partially simulate the climb up to Snowbird on the 1000 Warriors race.  Since we rode a race century two days ago I was keeping the pace from going too high and was feeling pretty good, until I hit the last climb.  It took me longer to climb Squaw Peak than Anne did only last week on her single bike.

Here is the profile for today’s ride.

In comparison, here is the profile from last year’s 300 Warrirors Race.

This table shows how I did compared with my long distance training last year when I did a four hill climb getting ready for the Everest Challenge.  I also show the times for the hill climbs on the 300 Warriors race (the Suncrest time is an estimate since I measured the entire climb on the race).

Categories: Cycling
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