Jeff Bray pulled an amazing leg! He hooked up with a friend at the beginning
and they stuck together the entire way.
Most of Jeff's leg was downhill and to look at the elevation chart you
would think he had a cakewalk for a ride.
But, wheels on the road is a different experience than just looking at
on paper. While Jeff’s total descent was
3392 feet, he had 2441 feet of climbing to do.
And the climbing was tough! He
would have an 8% descent followed by a 10%+ grade climb. Not always the most fun!
Jeff was in groups of 2, 3, or 4 depending on how much
climbing there was. We could see a group
of 5 guys chasing his group down and during a long descent (which was beautiful
for us in the RV!) that group caught them and passed them. Jeff’s group tried to latch on but they were
a fast group.
After the big descent came a 4 mile ascent to end the leg
that was really quite steep. Cycling
groups were starting to fracture but Jeff and his buddy stuck together the
entire way pushing and pulling each other up the ascent.
The handoff was as smooth as could be. Jeff went around the cones, came across the
Millisecond timer strip, Mike pulled off his chip, ran it up to Jeff Meads and
put it on his ankle and Jeff was on his
way with a full head of steam.
Jeff came in at 2:26 – a full 14 minutes ahead of his
projected time. So far, we have cut off
1:20 off of our projected time.
So far this race has exceeded my own expectations. I’m feeling nervous as my leg is up
next. Watching Mike, Jeff, and Jeff go
up their hills is an absolute inspiration.
There is a certain level of pain involved in climbing those hills (as
any cyclist will tell you) and to see Jeff Bray come to the top of a massive
climb and to see the smile on his face - *that* is what this race is all
about. My nervousness is in that I want
to be able to perform as well as my team mates.
They are setting a very high bar that I do not know that I can measure
up to. But, I will be racing and trying
to pull my own weight.
This is GOOD STUFF!
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