1000 Warriors a Success for UVU Team!

We had a great day on Saturday, all things considered.
Eric Ellis beat the Cat 5C Field into submission on the climb to Snowbird and took the win by more than 8 1/2 minutes! Amazing ride!
We also had Andy, Pat, Joel, Bonn, Christian, Mason and Ian all race well.

We have most of the water bottles that we recovered from the race over at SBR. If you took bottles and were wondering what may have happened to them after the race, go in and see if they have made their way to SBR. (Likewise, if you have bottles that don't belong to you take them in). I know that there were a bunch from Eric and Joel there.

Mason, pick up your cooler at SBR.

All of the racers need to pay Dan $8.00 for the musette bags. Katie Woodward (Mike's wife) made the bags and Dan payed for the materials. We would like to be able to compensate Kate for her time and pay for the bags. If you still have musette bags take them into SBR, Dr. Creer's office, or give them to Mason or Dan so that we can use them in future events.

Be sure to thank Kyle and all of the guys at SBR for the work that they do for the team and for the sponsorship, deals and work that we receive. I know that Kyle is a friend of most of you already, and if you don't know him you should. So stop in and tell him you appreciate all they do for us.

Here are a few pictures of the race taken by Dr. Creer and Kyle out of the team car.

Eric Ellis (in blue jersey) and Andy Earl with the leaders above Sundance on the Alpine Loop.

Andy grabs a food break in the lead group on Alpine Loop.

Andy (3rd) and Eric (4th) are climbing well near the 3k to go mark on the Loop.

Andy in the aspen trees, followed by Eric.

1k to the KOM on the Alpine Loop.

Alpine Loop KOM - Andy and Eric in the lead Group.

Climbing Suncrest.

Eric and Andy lead a select group of remaining riders to the top of Suncrest.

Andy working hard with Eric on the final 8% grade of Suncrest.

Four remain after the Suncrest decent - pulling on Highland Drive.

Eric leads the last contender around the corner onto the Little Cottonwood Canyon climb to Snowbird...

...And attacks, dropping him in the first 100 yards!

Eric catching Bonn from the Cat 4 group. Bonn would finish in an excellent 6th place.

Bonn contemplating "Selling his soul for water" as the LCC Devil taunts.

Eric climbs to victory.

Andy crossing the line in 12th place 21:29 down from Eric - a great ride!

Pat finishes the race at Snowbird.


Thank you to all who helped make the ride a success for UVU.

Thank you to Kyle and Dr. Creer for driving the team car, taking care of last minute repair issues, and "feeding the horses" during the race.

A big thank you to Bonn's family, and fiancee for running feed zones.
Mason's brother and "that girl he's dating" - Sara Ashley, did great driving a SAG vehicle for the fast boys on the team.

Kat, Pat's fiancee and her family also drove a SAG car for Pat, Joel and Dan - A special thank you to Kat for giving me that last musette bag on the Alpine Loop, I definitely would not have suffered through that climb without the food in there!

And the biggest "ooh-rah" goes out to Mike for making the ride possible for the UVU team. Way to go Mike, we missed having you on the roads suffering with us!

We hope that this ride will continue into the future.

Our best wishes are with the riders (and their families) injured in the crashes on the Alpine Loop decent and at the mouth of American Fork Canyon. We hope and pray you have a full and speedy recovery.

1000 Warriors Information

Its almost time!
And we have a lot to do this week.

1st order of business:
We are racing at 6:50am and we are Cat 5 - C flite.
We have been granted a follow car for the race but we have three stipulations we must follow. 1. the car must follow the leaders of the race and cannot lag behind to other riders (those guys will have a van at the back to provide for mechanical and broom wagon duties). Since we plan on being in that group this should not be a big deal. 2. The follow car is to act as a "neutral wheel vehicle" and carry spare wheels provided by riders from the whole group in a first come, first served manner. This means only 8-10 sets or until the car is full. That should not be a big deal either. 3. The car can only provide SAG and food/water support for team riders in designated SAG hand-up and feed zones. (get a bottle if you flat while the car services you).

We benefit from having the car in several ways: We insure that the leaders of our team do not flat out and loose time due to punctures or simple mechanicals. We also insure that they are not missing feed zones and musette bags or water etc, because they can get hand-ups from the team car in the designated zones. We can also get tactical advice from the car during SAG and neutral zones.

Dr. Creer will most likely be driving this car.

Second manner of business:
We need several volunteers that are not riding the race to help in the feed zones by handing-up water and food to riders and giving time gap information.
What we need is 3 or 4 folks who feel confident enough to hand musette bags to riders without knocking them off of their bikes!
They will travel from Park City in team cars following the SAG vehicle route to the feed zones in Midway, Sundance, Alpine, Draper, and Little Cottonwood Canyon. Once we arrive at the finish they will have bags for the riders with clothes and food and hopefully be able to provide rides for our guys and their bikes back to Park City.
If you can do this we really need you to volunteer! Talk to Dan or Mason or Dr. Creer and leave a message here if you can!

Number Three:
Packets for riders are going to be available from 3-8:00pm on Thursday the 20th at Canyon Sports in Sandy (106th and State St.). You have to pick up your own packet unless you download the "2009 USA Cycling Event Release Form" and SIGN IT IN INK OR BLOOD and send the original to Canyon Sports with someone else to pick up your packet. You can also get the packet on Friday in Park City Before 8:00pm (see the 1000 Warriors page). But, YOU MUST PICK UP YOUR PACKET!!!
READ THE RACE BIBLE on the 1000 Warriors page to familiarize yourself with the course and the SAG/Feed Zones.

Number Four:
Mason may have connections for us to stay in Park City as a team on Friday - stay tuned for updates in the next two days or so.

Number Five:
Racers need to provide us with food and water bottles to stock your musette bags by Friday. Make a list of what stuff you want where, and we will do our best to get it to you at the right times during the race. Contact Dan or Mason.
Remember that it could be cold at 6:00am on Saturday and it may get nippy coming down AF Canyon so you may want to have sleeves, knees and/or a vest that you can drop off in the feed zone in Alpine or hand-up to the team car (if you are still in the lead group).

That is it for now! We need to get this stuff sorted by Thursday so that we can focus on the details for the race on Friday and Saturday.
Call Dan Mason or Dr. Creer if you can help us out in any way - especially at the SAG and feed zones and giving rides back to Park City!

heritage school gauntlet ride

The Heritage School in Provo is hosting a ride of the Provo Canyon "Gauntlet" ride this Saturday, and we have been invited to attend as a team.
The ride will cost us $10.00 a piece, and starts in Provo at 8am.
The ride goes up the canyon, turns up Squaw Peak, goes to Vivian and South Fork and then up Sundance to the Alpine Summit. From there we have the option of heading down AF Canyon and up Suncrest, or turning around and going back to Provo.
I think that it will be a good "dry run" of the killer climb of the 1000 Warriors course, and a good training ride for those who are doing the 1000 Warriors race.
Let me know if there is interest in doing this ride so we can get signed up in the next few days.
Dan