I’m down in Tulsa racing the next couple days. Kind of behind today, so have to make this short. I love the town of Tulsa. It’s kind of a unpolished jewel of a city. The downtown is where they hold the 3 Tulsa Tough events. It is a collection of old buildings and new people.

Anyway, I had a chance to stop by and check out the new Oklahoma ranch of my friend Rod Lake on the way here. I only stopped for enough time for him to give me a quick tour, but the place is amazing. I didn’t take enough pictures, but you never would have thought you were in the state of Oklahoma. The whole area was riddled with running water. A river on one side, a couple streams and a couple more ponds, that really were lakes. Full grown trees on one side and pastures on the other. It was amazing. I’m, for sure, going to make it a point to come through with my MTB bike and hang some next time through.

I’m racing the Salty Cow. Today is calld a criterium, but is really a circuit race. It is a dumbbell shaped course with the started finish line at the top of a hill. It can be a hard race because of the terrain, but sometimes the wind isn’t too gentle either. Okay, I need to get going.

Rod and his dog Camo.

One of the streams. Not what you'd like a Oklahoma stream bed would look like.

I didn’t have too high expectations for the races this weekend. Seems like my team bailed on me, so I am solo down here among pretty good riders. Matt Ankney said something like, “You’re out numbered today.” I said something like, “No shit, I can count” back.

But, racing is for training too, this time of the season, so there is no downside to get as many races in as possible. And the race was pretty good for me. I didn’t feel very good all day. I’ve been driving a lot too much this past week, and sleeping a lot too little, to ride my bike really fast.

The race was kind of surprising to me. Matt Ankney, once again, took off from the gun and rode solo pretty much the whole day. His Tulsa Tough team had the most riders, and most of the best riders in the race, so I was pretty good with just Matt riding away by himself. I’ve won this race before, so I didn’t feel any pressure. Matt won the race last year, so he was willing to take a risk because he had another 8 guys waiting in the wings when he got caught. And he did get caught, but just a couple laps from the finish.

The whole race just came down to a field sprint up a short hill. I’ve done the sprint a few times and know it well. But, I didn’t ride it well. I’m not really sure what the problem was. I wasn’t focused or something when I needed to be. I let a couple guys into the line when I shouldn’t have. And got swarmed by a mob just when I wanted to get into the wind. The Tulsa Tough guys were doing a okay leadout. Okay enough that nearly ever person in line ahead of me sat up. I was probably in 12th with 200 meters to go. I wiggled up the edge of the road and got free the last 100 meters, but the first 4 guys were 20 meters ahead. I really didn’t have to sprint because there really wasn’t any point. I finished 5th. The race was winnable, but I’m okay with where I finished. I rode a stupid sprint and got the place I deserved.

Today we’re supposed to be racing 65 miles on a pretty hard course north of Tulsa. It is supposed to be down pouring rain all morning. And not warm. I talked to a bunch of guys and they said they aren’t showing up if it’s raining. I’m not a fair weather bike race. That is for sure. But, I’m not into riding for 3 hours in the rain this morning. So, I’m racing, but under personal protest.

The sprint. Like I said, I was pretty much in no-mans land.

Results - Click twice to enlarge.