Jacks Come Back Tour Results

In the
morning of the ride, the Hotel forgot to give us our wake-up call. However,
thank you for modern technology; cell phones have alarms. We go to eat at Black
Bear Dinner - Granola Pancakes and egg whites. The lady is overwhelmed with
business at 6:30am on a Sunday morning, due to the ride. I help my riding
partner, Loren, and myself to extra syrup behind the counter without the women
knowing one thing – We are in a little bit of a time crunch!!

We
get back to the Hotel and Kris says, “You boys need to hurry!” Well, getting
ready for me is making sure I’ve got all 12 packs of gel (gu), 6 energy bars
and my mix for electrolytes. These fit into my jersey pocket and it’s a little
pocket for a lot of stuff. Not counting my 2 extra tubes and 2-Co2’s for air,
money clip, phone, sunscreen, lip balm.

By
the time we’re ready to leave, we’re both worse than old women getting ready.
We hurry out the Hotel and head to the Start Line. I miss my chance of riding
with George Hincapie and we still need to air up our tires (forgot pump at
home!). They started the race with out us! Adrenalin is flowing, heart rate is
pumped at the number I’m supposed to ride at and I’ve had no Caffeine! What’s
this?!

Within
a mile or two, we’re both in the middle of the peleton (group). I’ve calmed
down my nervous energy enough now to be riding around 20-21 mph and heart rate
at 121-123 BPM. Everything is going well and GAME FACE IS ON!

First
climbs of the ride are a piece of cake and my legs feeling great. However, that’s
at mile marker 40, going down hill was a lot more fun. A rest stop lays ahead
and we fill up water bottles and off we go. Miss a turn at mile marker 64 –
Figured it out really fast, turned around and started up our next big climb.
Its beautiful everywhere. Winding road, trees, and by now we figured for sure
we made another wrong turn. We didn’t see another rider for a good 30 minutes.
At the top you could see everywhere; it was breathtaking. I mean, it was really
taking my breath away, I couldn’t hardly breath but the downhill was
incredible, fast, and gave a change to rest the legs.

We
rode through the wine country for the next 30 minutes before Heart attack Hill.
“The Devil named this!”  At 1 mile,
1,000ft of crawling, climbing to reach the top and that was for the King of the
Mountain points at the 90 miles mark.

I’ve
learned to be humble over my years. A little over half way up, I jumped off my
bike and did what 50-60 other riders were doing. Pushing my bike up the hill to
a rest stop. Took on more water and more fun with the great view. Straight
downhill was a blast! As we’re leveling off, I think its clear sailing into
Santa Rosa. A rider says, “Oh no, you have another 2 mile climb.” The gift that
keeps on giving. I tell Loren to take off KOM points. I settled into a good
pace and started back up the last hill. I made it! Tired, legs about to fall
off. However, when you get to the top you have the fun of going down. And yes,
this was the last downhill of the day.

As
we rode into Santa Rosa I had a feeling of accomplishment. We finish those
flats at the same speed as we started the day off with. I could walk, talk and
I felt great after the 7:15 hours in the saddle and 7.248 vertical ft.

Most
of all, I want to thank each and every one of you that inspire me daily, weekly
and yearly to be a better individual and whom contributed to the “Breakaway for
Cancer Ride”. I raised nearly $800.

Thank
You.  Jack