Procon riders Suj Karna, Darik Russell, Kam Reedy, newbie Jeff Kluve, and I (Scott Delaune) lined up for the start of the AZ State Road Race Championship this past Saturday near Flagstaff. Knowing that we had a really strong team, I staged at the front so that I could be active in the early moves and possibly set up a winning move for the other Procon guys. I led the field out of the parking lot and onto the road and while soft-pedaling and checking out the beautiful trees, I suddenly noticed that there was nobody on my right. I looked left. Nobody. I looked back to see if I maybe turned the wrong way onto the course and sure enough, the field was hanging out chit-chatting about 20 meters behind me. So, I decided it would be a good opportunity to get in a warm up before the attacks started to come. I slowly raised my heart rate above LT. I held it for about a minute and was prepared to come back to the field and recover. I looked back. Nothing. Just a lonely empty road. No way!

Advantage Procon. I put my head down and set up for a 40K time trial. I figured if I could get a two minute advantage after 40K’s, then the other teams would be forced to work and we’d be in a prime spot to counter with Darik, Jeff, Suj, or Kam. At mile six, I saw a Team RPM guy bridging up to me. As he reached me, we had a short but sweet dialog. “You a Cat 3?” I asked. “Yes,” he replied. “Did they let you roll or did you have to attack?” “They let me roll,” he responded. “You got any teammates back there?” “Yes, two.” “Sweet! Let’s go!” Now I knew we had 6 blockers, an uncommitted field, and I had a guy committed to a 25 mile of hard effort. We worked very well together at first. I dropped him on the first climb, but he was able to bridge back up to me a few miles later. As I reached for my electrolyte tablet pouch, it flipped out of my hand and onto the road. Since I was only preparing to ride the first 25 miles of the race, I just left it and continued my high tempo riding.

10 minutes? WTF? As we rode past the feed zone for the second time, someone yelled out “10 minutes!!” 10 minutes? Damn, we’re gonna be out here a while. I’m gonna need my electrolyte pouch back! My break partner pleaded with me not to stop, but when I saw the pouch on the next lap, I screeched to a halt, grabbed it, and sprinted back onto his wheel. “Nice!”, except that it had been rolled over by four fields of racers and it was nothing but nasty tasting power and broken up pill casings. Oh well, it still works; it’s just like pixie sticks right? Just without the sugar part.

Well, my 25 miles are up. After passing through 25 miles and still no sign of the field, I set my eyes on 56 miles. Then I’d drop out. I figured that if I could hold the field off until then, we’d have a huge advantage. My break partner had stopped taking pulls by mile 53 and when I turned to ask if he was okay, he told me he had nothing left in the tank. Shortly thereafter, he was gone and I was alone.