Steve Tilford

We’re leaving early afternoon to head down to Tulsa for the Tulsa Tough weekend. My first race is at 9 pm this evening. You can watch all the races live on the internet since they are part of the NCC. Here is a link at Velonews.com. The women’s racing is televised live at 7 and Pro men’s at 8:55 CST I think. I think there is a 1-2 race in between.

I went to the dentist yesterday. Usually I avoid the dentist during the season, but a couple of my teeth have been hurting and I figure I don’t feel all that well already, so what harm would it do. I found of out nothing. Dr. Johnson didn’t find anything the matter. He thought maybe my sinuses were putting pressure on them or something. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t have an infection. You have to look after your teeth.

About 300 of you emailed Olaf from the Salina Journal yesterday. That was out of about 6000 hits, so about 5%. I think that was a pretty good number. Olaf and I exchanged a couple emails. I don’t think he saw it my way. I know I didn’t see it his. I think it is funny how newspapers are dying around the country, maybe the world, and many refuse to address the issue of readership beyond their geographic area. That is one of Olaf’s issues. I think I got my point across. Some of you did too.

I spent most of the day yesterday helping my friend Vincent move some stuff from his father’s house. Maybe more accurate, Vincent helped me move stuff. Whatever, it was a lot of lifting heavy stuff. This is a Pinzgauer, a very mobile army vehicle from Austria. Vincent already has one, but his dad’s was in much better shape.

I ended up with the car lift. I don’t have a garage with a tall enough ceiling in it to use it just now, but wouldn’t mind building one to accommodate it. Even after you disassemble the thing, it is real heavy.

This is Vincent’s dad’s garage that we built maybe 10 years ago. It is close to 3000 square feet I think. Pretty big garage.

These are the tools that Burt has been using on my left IT band, along with coconut oil. I guess that coconut oil is the new rage, at least consuming it is. Maybe rubbing it on will be just as good.

I found this tick stuck into my leg yesterday. I hate ticks. This guy was buried. The wounds always just ooze stuff for weeks.

I took this at the Starbucks yesterday morning. You don’t see guys using plastic garbage bags for rain gear as much as you used to. That is a good sign I think.

How about idiot Juan Pablo Dotti, extending his suspension that he received for doping two years ago this weekend at Tulsa Tough. This article at Velonews explains that he couldn’t keep from racing down in Argentina, so he has to sit out a couple more years.

And finally, the spring crop of strawberries is going into full bearing state. I love fresh strawberries.

Okay, one race done. I really don’t know what to say other than I’m pretty happy that I have all my skin. I’m not sure the reason, but there seemed to be way too many crashes in all the races in Tulsa last night. It’s like the Pro-1 race was a Cat 3 race. Everyone that came down in my van is missing skin. Ian in the 1-2 race and Bill fell pretty hard in the Pro-1 race. He laid on the road for 4 or 5 laps and I was really worried the whole night.

The Blue Dome Criterium course is a pretty good race. It has a couple small rises in it and a good descent. Moving around in the field can be pretty tricky, especially since the race doesn’t start until 9 pm. It’s a figure 8 course with a good crowd cheering. I guess almost all the fields here in Tulsa are full this year. It’s about time that the rest of the country comes to this event. It’s good.

The race wasn’t that hard. If it would have been I wouldn’t have been there. I was just there. Doing nothing but moving around. I was having an issue with my stomach. When I warmed up, I rode over to the Double Tree Hotel to check in and they gave me a hot chocolate chip cookie. I ate it with some coffee an hour before the race. Mistake.

Even so, I actually felt pretty good with 5 to go. I’d been riding pretty smart and just hanging around 25 guys back. I’d been resting as much as I could and thought I’d do okay, nothing special. With 2 + laps to go, there was crash on the 2nd corner. Unlucky for me it was ahead of me, in my line. I had to grab a huge amount of brake and then re-accelerate. I had to pretty much sprint for 2/3 a lap to catch on to the back of the remaining field. What hurt me worse was chasing down the descent. When they rang the bell with two to go I was pretty much done. I just hung on until the last lap and kind of coasted across the line for 30th.

This is maybe the 3rd year in a row that the baseball game blows off their fireworks in the last 5 laps. It totally scares the shit out of nearly the whole field. The crash occurred right after they started the firework display. That might have been the reason.

Under normal circumstances, I have a few extra efforts left over for things such as this, but that’s not my fitness level at this time. The race was 29.1 mph average speed, so I’d guess the lap I was chasing it was in the mid 30’s. That isn’t a speed I can do very long without paying the price.

Anyway, it’s done. United Healthcare did the normal riding, the inside of the course deal the last few laps. It definitely screws up everyone sitting on and causes general chaos. But, I don’t think it was the reason this time there was the crash with 3 to go. They went 1-2-3 to stack the podium. I don’t think that will be the deal the whole weekend. Especially on Sunday. I believe the course is too hard for that, but I’m not positive.

Anyway, no sleeping early last night. Everyone is wide awake well after 2 am. I was eating sushi and such at midnight. It is easy to rotate the schedule here though.

So, tomorrow night. I think it is same bat time, nearly same bat place. This time it is the Brady District, which is just a stones throw away from last nights venue. Should be fun.

Tulsa Tough Results – Blue Dome Criterium