Steve Tilford

I had been kind of waffling about what to do this weekend. Brian had too much work to take Thursday and Friday and I really didn’t feel like doing a triangle drive to Hillsboro – Iowa City – Topeka, so was sort at a standstill.

Then yesterday, Heath Blackgrove, out of the blue, called me and said he had an extra slot on his team for the Pro race at Joe Martin. So I emailed Bruce Dunn, the promoter of Joe Martin and made sure it was cool that I registered late. It was all good, so right now I’m driving the 6 hours to the start of the time trial at 1 pm. I’m gonna be a little stiff for the 2 mile hillclimb, but I never seem to have much of a stellar time, I’ve only broken 9 minutes a couple times, so it will be fine.

I need to do more stage racing to get to another level of form, so this is a good place to start. Heath and his guys race hard, very aggressively, I like it. When Heath is in good form, he’s very capable of winning any race he’s in.

I haven’t done Joe Martin for the past two years. 2 years ago, I fell at 47 mph, warming up for the time trial and destroyed my left shoulder. Then last year I had shoulder surgery from crashing at Cyclo-X Nationals, so couldn’t do it.

The first time I did the Joe Martin race was back in 1979. It wasn’t called the Joe Martin race then, Joe was racing it. I was a first year Elite and was 2nd to John Howard in the hillclimb. I was stoked. I’ve never won the race overall. I finished 2nd to Thurlow Rogers one year and 2nd to Jason McCarthy too, but I was racing MTB and was just using the race for training. Kind of wish I would have took it a little more seriously now.

Yesterday, Catherine came back into town for a day one stop, on the way to Florida. I rode to Lawrence with her on gravel. Not the best rest day before a 4 day stage race, but I hadn’t seen her for a while and would rather do a good ride with a friend that worry about being fresh for a race. At least that is what I’m telling myself right now.

Of course it is raining like crazy right now, before 6 am. I think it is going to be a shitty drive.

Today is only 2.5 miles uphill, so it is really a rest day, but very important for the race overall. I’m pretty light right now, but am not thinking I have enough in me to do a real time today. But, you never know until you do it.

From 2 years ago. A little racy. This is how I came back from the hospital. I wasn't too ripped up considering, other than my butt is not good also.

The gravel wasn’t all that smooth along the river, but it was still great. It was pretty warm, 20 degrees warmer than Catherine’s Seattle weather, so she was a bit hot.

Yesterday could have gone better. But, I’m trying to shake it off and just get on with it. I was hoping to ride 15-20 seconds faster than I did. I rode 9:18, which wasn’t even close to what I felt I should have done. I’m not sure what I did wrong. Maybe started too hard, or maybe allergies. All I know is that when I got about half way up the hill, I could hear my breathing, a little wheezy, squeak with every breathe. That kind of rattled me. But the lung burn was worse.

The morning was pretty stressful. The drive from Topeka to Fayetteville was through thunderstorm, after thunderstorm. I didn’t think I was so stressed out until I got out of the car in Joplin, Missouri and felt all twisted up. Plus, I only slept 5 hours. I was planning on sleeping over 6 hours, but the thunder woke me and I thought that I should pack up and use the extra hour just in case the driving was super slow. It was slower, but not that bad. I got here with plenty of time to spare.

I thought I warmed up good, but I must not have. That is one thing about getting older, it takes so long to get going good. I used to do some much better in the time trial when it was held after a 100 mile road race. I could ride it better, for sure, after tomorrows road stage.

That being said, I’m not really going with allergies because it had rained earlier in the day and that should have taken the pollen out of the air. So, I guess I have to go with that I don’t know how to pace myself for 9 minutes uphill. I rode pretty exactly 400 watts for the 9:16. That is the highest wattage I’ve had for that time period since I’ve had a power meter. It was 5.65 watt/kg, whatever that means.

I rode up the hill a couple times before I raced it. I rode it just medium hard and did a 9:52. I don’t understand how I can only ride a little over 30 seconds faster when I’m going as hard as I can. This sport is fickle.

I was talking to Frankie Andreu and a guy came riding up and Frankie asked how it went. He said horrible. That his power meter crapped out ride before the start and he had no idea how hard to ride. Both Frankie and I just said something like, wow. But, like I wrote above, I obviously didn’t know how hard to ride either, so I guess I’m in the same situation, just a different boat.

The winning time was 8:07, so I was 1:11 behind. I like that number, so it’s not all bad.

Today is 110 mile road race at 2:00pm. I caught up on some sleep, so I hope to be fine. I’d like to go out for a ride this morning, but I don’t really see any reason to add more miles into a moderately long day already. It is not supposed to be so hot today, just 80, so that is good. On Sunday, for the criterium on the hill, it is supposed to storm all day. That is always something to look forward to.

The numbers at Joe Martin this year might be the nicest numbers I’ve ever pinned on. I told the promoter, Bruce Dunn this. They are made of cloth and are very artsy.