Another champion!

I just returned from being crew chief for Chris Davies as he challenged the 1000 mile "No Country For Old Men" race based out of Alpine Texas.

I sourced the support van locally, and drove to Texas, picking up the racer in Santa Clara, CA, a crew member in Gilbert, AZ, and another crew member from the airport in El Paso TX.  We arrived with time to go out for a bit of practice ride on the beginning portion of the course. (support crews meet their racers several miles in)

We breezed through inspection (after all the races I'd been involved in, there should be no excuse not to)

Early the next morning the racers were off!

A 1000 mile race takes several days to complete.  Day one was pretty nice, the high was near 90F and winds were light. Chris was making good time. One of his challenges is to not go out too hard.  Slow and steady often wins these races.

Despite the large starting field, most of the entrants chose the shorter distances. (208 and 383 miles) There were only 2 solo males competing in the thousand mile distance, and the other racer (Andrew Willis) was the course record holder.  We convinced Chris to not chase him as he passed us.  Chris was here to race his own race, and to use it as a shakedown ride for his planned RAAM effort in 2020.

While all this was going on, it was a great day for a ride!

There was a lot of wildlife to be seen, most of it was too fast for us to be able to get a camera on them. At one point, we came upon a scene of carnage.  It appeared that perhaps a large truck had come upon a hapless squadron of Javelina.  There were at least 10 of them scattered along the traffic lane, all dead of course.  Here's a photo of what they would look like alive.

Things were going well for Chris. Andrew was putting distance on us, but we expected that.

The course was altered slightly this year, and we got to race right along the Mexican border.

Rio Grande and Mexico to the right

As day one came to a close, the temperatures began to drop.  By the next morning it was in the upper 40's, a little cooler than normal.  By noon it was in the upper 30's.  It seemed that we were going to get into some interesting weather. Data service was extremely limited so most of the time we were in the dark as to what was happening with the rest of the field.  We finally found out that Andrew had withdrawn from the race.  It was bad news for Andrew, and his defense of the title, but good news for Chris.  All he had to do was finish and he would be the winner.  Ha, as if finishing is anything easy, or assured.

The weather was continuing to deteriorate. It was getting cold and wet. Our California racer was not prepared for this. The crew ducked into a farm supply store and got glove liners and rain gear.  Certainly not bike specific, but it was going to have to do. We told Chris he looked like the Gorton's Fisherman.

It was beginning to be downright miserable to be riding a bike. It was looking more like Oregon in late November, rather than Southern Texas in October!

When the heavier rain would slow down, Chris would overheat in the heavy raingear.  He'd stop and remove the heavy rubber outer layer and ride in his normal cycling raincoat.

  During the night it dipped to 28F.    Cold was one thing, but a light drizzle made it worse.  We had to stop and scrape ice off of Chris' lights because they weren't putting out adequate illumination.  His bike had a coating of ice on it, and Chris was covered in ice as well.

It would never get above 40F for the remainder of the race.  As we made the McDonald Observatory loop, it looked like a winter wonderland.

Despite all the greenery being covered in ice, as well as Chris' bike, the road was staying clear. (the heat from the previous day helped keep the asphalt warmer than the air) That didn't make Chris feel safe however, and he slowed considerably fearing slick roads.

As the race progressed, Chris was digging deep.  A broken collar bone had taken him off the bike for a couple of months, and he had only been back on a bike for 31 days before NCOM started.  I knew that finishing this race was going to be a challenge for him.  I didn't know that the weather would through such a roadblock up in front of him.

He had some foot issues, that we were able to keep at bay by switching his bike over to flat pedals and have him ride in athletic shoes.  I put a neoprene saddle cover over his saddle to provide more padding.  We put chemical hand warmers into his gloves. We did what we could to keep him going.  Before the race, his girl friend Crystal had said if we needed anything to call.  We did!  We handed Chris his phone and bluetooth headset.  She was able to put the wind back in his sails when it looked like he was in the doldrums.   She did that several times.

Finally, we were counting down the last miles.  The crew all agreed that it seemed like the race had gone quickly.   I'm not so sure that Chris was thinking the same thing!

As we traveled the last miles, fog rolled in.  The officials that had been keeping pace with us came up beside our crew vehicle and said not to worry about them behind us, they were going to stay back there to provide additional safety. (normally we would be penalized for "impeding traffic" if a car was behind us for more that 2 minutes.)  We had a knuckle biter descent in the fog.  I was driving, and Paul (our rookie crew member) was navigator (riding shotgun).  I was aware of Paul pressing on the imaginary brake pedal on his side as I would work hard to keep the headlight beam in front of our racer. It was an exciting time!  The trailing official didn't keep up with us in that section. ;-)

Once we got back in relatively flat ground, it became less stressful for our rookie crew member.  He asked if the race director knew what the conditions were like if he would close the course.  Bob and I assured him that the race director knew exactly what the conditions were like, and the race was going to continue!

We made the last few turns and came into Alpine to the end of racing point.  The race director was standing there to record our time.  He looked at Chris and asked, "Do you know what you are?",  Chris responded "The lanterne rouge?".  While technically correct, the answer Dex was looking for was "rugged".  Chris had surely shown that he was rugged.

When we started this race, given Chris's short window of training, I would not have been surprised if he was unable to complete the distance.  I was ecstatic that not only did he finish, but that he was 1st place (and a record on this new course)

It's been a good year for me.  I was crew chief for a 2x mixed Race Across Oregon team that came in first in their division, and 3rd overall, I officiated a World Ultra Cycling Association record attempt in North Carolina that resulted in 4 records. I was crew chief for Barry Dickson who decimated the competition at Hoodoo 500 in Utah and came in 1st place, hours ahead of #2.  I was a member of the crew for 4x mixed Team Skipper on RAAM as they came in first in their division, and now was crew chief for Chris as he set this record.  Not a bad year at all!

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