Who needs Sleep? The story of the Tour de 'Toona.

At 11 p.m. last night I received a text that If I was going to be racing The Cranky Monkey MTB race today I would be alone. Another friend told me around 8 p.m. as well, so I was kinda bummed. I wanted to race a crit so I set my sights on the 'toona for the next morning. I set my alarm clock for something like 4 a.m.

I couldn't sleep though so I started piling everything into the car. When I was done I figured I should just drive, Screw it. Leaving at 11:55 pm The roads were empty.

I stopped a few times for coffee and mountain dew. When I finally got to Altoona at about 3:30 a.m. (time got fuzzy for a while) I found a field that a parked along the edge of. It was next to the Lowe's Home Improvement, how romantic. I reclined the seat and got what sleep I could

I set my alarm for 7:30 a.m. but woke at 6:30. I Rolled out with enough sleep to make me feel better then the night before. I hit Sheetz, YEAH MAN. Coffee and breakfast (I had packed some PBJ's and yogurt so my breakfast was reasonable).

I found the race. I parked and did all the sign-in stuff. I felt really tired now, so I tried to get on my bike. I remember feeling bad until the start.

**The Actual Race**

8 corners. basically a rectangle with S bends thrown in to break up the straights. It was fairly technical, not as bad as Wilmington or Reston though. There were 20 laps. The field wasn't super-huge but I planted myself in the top 5. It was really fun just sitting in, when I have teammates I feel obligated to help the team and do stuff like attack. Today I wasn't racing for anyone except me. However, I did find myself on the front for a time. I put in some hard efforts on the turns to get people breathing heavy. It worked well. Then to top that off I did attack them anyway. At around lap 3 I was making them chase me, but my HR was around 150, (my max is around 207 as a reference point) so I wasn't wasting myself.

The announcer said the field split when I finally drifted back to the group. I really wanted to see if everyone was tired, or at least more tired then I was. (Hard to do considering the night before). I was 5th again.

Laps 6-12 were nothing special. The field regrouped.

NCVC Put 2 strong guys in the front, Greg and someone else I didnt know. The first guy and Greg attacked to get away. I stayed glued to Gregs wheel. When the first NCVC rider had finished his part he pulled off and Greg continued where he left off. We rode maybe another lap like this. When Greg needed his breath We both paused. I only paused long enough to see we had a big gap. I wanted to hurt em' some more so I did a move to get away.

"Tom, only 6 (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) LAPS TO GO, Hang In there man!" I remember hearing the crowd. I remember this one guy that I saw with maybe 2-3 to go. He yelled something. I was in good shape by the time I saw him.

On every corner I looked back. I was able to get about 3-4 corners ahead, but they still saw me on the straights. (They were a few blocks long). I rode really easy on those parts. On the corners a motored and thats were a gained my time. Recover, attack, recover, attack. ITS JUST LIKE A TUESDAY/THURSDAY Ride!

A guy gave me a time-check, 30 secs. I had 100 yards to go to the finish. I thought I zippered my shirt...... can't remember. I put my hands up, everyone was excited.

I hate sprinting on brick anyway. I was interviewed by the Altoona paper. Then we had the podium ceremony. I was interviewed by the Altoona TV news. Then I drove home and slept till I started writing this. I won the Maillot Jaune for a former stage race.



Young Tom

AND CHIP WON TOO ABRT ALL THE WAY!