Dead Dog Recap

Up this past weekend was the Dead Dog Stage Race in Laramie, WY. Making the trip was;
Randy "The Ratchet" Reichardt, Dan "The Killa" Porter, Nate "Natty-Albert" Buyon, Brian "No-draft" Hutchison, and Derek "D-Rockstar" Strong.

The road race was back to the very difficult, original course; 86 miles, gawd knows how much climbing, wind, heat and altitude. An early break went, that wasn't much of a worry, but HART worked to set a steady pace for the beginning of the race leading into the climb. Dan and Nate and Derek climbed well. Much of the group was still together after the turnaround, and heading back for another run at the 11,000+ foot pass. "The Killa" was just off the second group, and finished 10th on the evil, final, uphill kick.

HART had some revenge that we wanted to take out in this crit, after we fouled it up a couple years ago. We had fewer guys than VC and Big Al's and probably the Bagel Boyz too, but we were definitely the most active. "No-Draft" and "Natty-Albert" covered attacks, controlled the pace, blocked, etc., from start to finish of the race. "The Ratchet" got off in a very early attack, in a very good looking break. "D-Rockstar" was just waiting for people to relax, and once the gap was established, he took off on a flyer, with good help from Tarkington, and they both bridged up to the break. "The Killa" sat in resting for the TT, and protecting his GC spot, other than one prime that he went for trying to steal back some precious seconds in the GC. At the finish, it was "The Ratchet" taking 2nd, and "D-Rockstar" pulling a fine 5th place. is chance. Yeah, we were all looking for the win, but a strong showing nonetheless, and a great team effort.

The TT was business as usual. "The Killa" went hard trying to make up some time on GC Meanwhile the rest of us had big time gaps to work around, and and therefore were just out to get a solid effort in on the TT bike. And it's a tough TT course! Rolling hills, exposed to lots of wind, and at 9000 feet elevation!

We were looking for a better overall result, but the race in general was a good team effort. And there's no hiding in that one, it's tough all around. Get up there if you get a chance, the organizers and volunteers do an amazing job at this race!