TOTGA. It’s interesting what goes through your mind when you’re alone giving all you’ve got at mile 56 with a possible state championship 22 miles away. After getting my ass kicked the past several weeks in all the mountainous races, I was sure that nobody in the field thought I could stay away. Call me TOTGA, I thought. The One That Got Away. Okay, I was tired.

The Low Fuel light is illuminated. Upon starting the last lap, I knew that if I had a gap of over one minute I could keep out of sight of the field. Out of sight, out of mind, right? But when I turned onto the wide open windy section for the last eight miles, the field would be able to see me even if I was several miles ahead. So, my plan was to keep a high tempo until the turn onto the windy section and then bring it home with all I had and a heart rate in the mid to upper 180’s.

Wheel truck. Damn! Phil Austin (HLHAP) and a Red Rock rider are coming up on me followed by the wheel truck who apparently didn’t see me ride off the front 3 hours before. At mile 67, I was caught. Phil was strong, committed, and fired up. The wheel truck driver told us we had 4 minutes over the field but Phil didn’t seem to believe that. I didn’t know what to believe, but I knew I had a free passenger ticket on the two man train. If we were going to stay away from the field, they were going to have to make it happen. I had no obligation to do anything.

Polishing my last bullet. I did very little work over the next eight miles through the windy section while I prepared for the biggest attack of my life. Just outside of three K’s to go, Phil had just rotated off the front and the Red Rock guy was taking a pull. I dropped back about two bike lengths, quietly shifted my gears up and uncorked the sprint of my life just inside the yellow line. After a 10 to 15 second sprint, I settled in and hammered. I glanced through my legs to see what kind of damage I had done and Phil was right on my wheel. As I sat up, Phil pulled along side of me and yelled, “Jesus Christ! You were away for 67 miles and you pulled off an attack like that???” “Well,” I replied, “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just let it come down to a sprint and lost.”

A bunch of dicks. “The State Championship is right up that hill. Good Luck you guys. You’re both a bunch of dicks for catching me, but I wish you luck.” Those were my last words as we slowly rolled toward the final climb, noting that the field was not going to catch us and the race was officially between us three. Here goes. The Red Rock guy popped early, and I had Phil’s wheel. I yo-yo’ed off and on his wheel until about 100 meters to go when he pulled away for the win. I crossed second; Red Rock was third.

Teamwork. I know that Darik, Kam, Jeff and Suj did a tremendous job back in the field. I heard that HLHAP was storming the front like their pants were on fire and Procon stayed with them in defense of my position. When Phil escaped, Procon believed that the real threat was Scott Conover and that Phil’s move was just a set up, so they let him roll and focused on Scott. Those were good odds, but this time it didn’t work out. That’s racing. Procon put four riders in the top 14, with Kam taking 14th (after a crash earlier), Jeff taking 10th, and Darik 8th. It was a great day for the Procon Cat 3 squad.

A special thanks. Brett, Ben, and Carlos showed awesome teamwork by staying after their race for three extra hours to hand us water bottles in the feed zone. For that I am extremely grateful!

-- Scott Delaune