With the pack asserting itself at 10mph on a flat road I could only wonder how tough the day was going to be. With 22-25mph winds howling straight at us we were pedaling in molasses. It is times like this, inside a nervous pack; you start to see what you are made of and what you lack. Bumping elbows and watching for sliding wheels was the order of the day. In what seemed like an eternity we finally hit mile 6 and I turned to my teammate and said “wow…only 52 more miles like this.” He didn’t seem to appreciate the humor.
Soon there was the horrible thud of bodies, skidding of tires and an awful scream followed by some of the most haunting agony vocalized that I can ever remember. As I rolled through the carnage getting hit by a tumbling bike I could only turn to the photographer on the roadside and shout for her to call 911. Still on lap one of three there was work to do.
With the change from road to dirt on and off through the event if your legs weren’t screaming your brain was churning from close calls, attacks to the art of racing a bike. There would be no rest today, just pain. With the split in the pack caused by the earlier carnage of bodies I soon found myself in a smaller second group. It was time to take inventory of the level of riders I would be working with to close the gap to the leaders and hopeful working against to leave behind towards the end of the race. A thought we all silently let play in our minds.
The day wore on and the carbon Tommaso was working like a champ. I had double padded the bars and ran tubeless wheels so I could run lower pressure. I had about 85psi in the front and rear. To be honest the bike seemed to just float along without any abuse to my body. I even made it to the top of the nasty dirt climb that had many a strong rider getting off to walk/run up. The Tommaso just kept going and it made me happy that I was on a machine I could trust. For the tech-heads I ran a 52/36 ring set-up on the cranks and a SRAM 11x 26 cassettes on the rear. In hind-site a compact 50/34 would have been a great choice as well.
Being a part of Tommaso Nation and pulling away from the six riders in my group on a challenging stretch of dirt road made me proud. Not so much that I was able to go off the front of the group but that I was having such a good day on the Tommaso and representing the Nation. When everything seems to be exploding around you and guys are falling off, getting flats, dropping chains and just losing hope I felt I could just keep going and going.
My Tommaso Volo was probably the most modest priced bike in the race. I would guess my Tommaso was about $2,000 less that the bikes I was competing against. We’ve always believed in making bikes that people can enjoy and afford! The Tommaso staff puts thousands of miles on our bikes and on certain days we race them just to throw an extra amount of abuse into the mix. This day was just another test the bike passed that makes us proud to offer it to you-the rider.
There is an added pleasure knowing a bike so well and having so much invested in making it right for so many riders. During this race I thought of the Tommaso Nation and hoped they shared the same love and excitement for their bikes as I do mine. This energy turned into motivation and even though I was beginning to get tired and mentally exhausted I lit up the engine for the long stretch to the finish line waving the flag of Tommaso Nation!
Enjoy the Ride-TR
[By the end of the day the Lady Tommaso finished 9th on her Corvo and I rolled in 19th on my Tommaso Volo. We will be back next year for that elusive cobblestone trophy!]
Tommaso on Twitter