7 Days Left

DAY 1

Morning came sooner than expected. I walked outside to see what the day’s conditions would bring. I was very surprised at how warm it was this year with the low overnight being 68’s. There was a nice 5-10mph breeze coming out of the southeast. This would become a headwind for most of the day. It was shaping up to be one of the hottest, hardest days of the year to ride, was this advantage Arizona?

The team arrived at the starting line at 6:00am and proceeded to take care of the most important thing; breakfast. The Cooks started to panic when each team member grabbed two plates and started to load up. Blake asked for side boards and Mike was there to show him how to really load up a plate. I had to tell a few teammates that you did not have to get everything on the first pass. This was not like growing up; there would be meat for the last person in line. This brought a few chuckles around the table. Most of the other teams in the room were in and out in a few minutes. Our team just kept loading up. Every person took advantage of the free water bottles and Gatorade available in the kitchen. After breakfast, the team proceeded to unload the equipment and get the bikes ready to ride.

This was an impressive sight. The first year we had three bikes thrown in the back of a pickup, two mountain bikes, and three riders all wearing t-shirts. The second year we had three bikes in three different cars and three riders all wearing t-shirts. The third year there was two vehicles, a fifteen passenger van pulling a customized trailer and a Saturn with two bikes. Every team member was wearing an identical cycling jersey. We had gone from hillbillies to contenders this year. It was a very organized group that unloaded two tandems and four ride bikes from the trailer. Each team member had a job to do, putting a water bottle on each bike, putting on the front wheel, putting air in the tires, handing out the helmets, and filming the entire process. What had taken over an hour the first time it was tried was completed in less than 30 minutes this time. The team was ready to ride. We made our way to the starting line and got ready to take our first team picture.

We were the only team that wanted all of their bikes in the official team photo. Next year we are going to put the bikes down and do a real picture like the other teams. After the photo we all went to starting line. A reporter came over and started asking about our team and was very impressed when he learned that we had all driven hours for this ride and that there was a family member in Tulsa with MS. He stood there talking to us for about ten minutes. It was then that a volunteer came up and told us that we were going in the wrong direction. This year they would be starting from the other end of the parking lot. The team quickly shuffled from the back to the front. When we arrived at the front of the real starting line the reporter started joking about us not spending much time at the front. Clint quickly set him straight, “Sir, what you just saw was the fastest worst to first story in the history of any race!” That brought quite a few laughs from other riders around us. Just before we started there was the normal announcement from the organizers, “Now remember, this is a ride not a race!” Evidently she did not know this family.

My plan was to sit back and let the race unfold. I knew that the rider with the most energy left at the bottom of Braggs Hill would win the day. What I did not count on was my partner jumping into the fastest group in the first mile. A group of yellow jerseys from Team Lawn chair came tearing by us, doing over 22 mph when they went by. Brad saw these guys and jumped out to grab on the back of the train. This started a chain reaction. I followed Brad, Clint followed me, Martha followed Clint, Steve & Tanya followed Martha, Cheryl followed Steven & Tanya, Mike and Bryan followed Cheryl, and Blake waved goodbye to us. I would not see Blake again until the end of the day at Camp Gruber.

This was a very fast group that was keeping the speed well over 20mph. At times we were doing 25-27mph. At each turn I would look back to see who was still with us and I was very surprised to see the entire team minus Blake right behind me. This year was a little different for me from a riding perspective. Last year I would just sit at the back of the group and let them pull me, this year I was going to take my turns leading when possible. My first chance came about four miles into the ride, the lead rider would pull for a few minutes, swing to the right, and then fall to the back of the line. The next rider in line would then take over. The idea was to only pull for a few minutes and then go to the back of the line and take a rest. The bigger the group the longer of a break you would have between pulls. I took my turn and then started dropping back. I kept going back until I came to Brad, Clint, and Martha at the back of the line. I pulled in behind Martha and asked where the rest of the team was. I found out that they had been dropped off the back while I was pulling. We kept this up for ten miles. After ten miles the four of us (Clint, Martha, Brad, and Chris) had each taken a turn at the front. Brad told me we needed to slow down the pace. We had kept our heart rates way to high for the first ten miles and would burn out at this pace. Brad pulled over to the side to begin slowing down for the ten mile rest stop. Clint and Martha just kept going. There was no way I was going to let Clint get ahead of me now so I told Brad to get back on we were not stopping. Brad had slowed down too much and was unable to get back on with the group.

The next ten miles were even faster than the first ten miles. As we road along I noticed that one of the riders in the middle of the chain, in front of me, was struggling to hold on the other riders wheel. Any minute he was going to fall off and the group would break up. Not wanting to get left in the slower half I grabbed hold of a rider passing on my left and started to the front of the pack. When I passed Clint I thought I saw him get on behind me. The group kept right on rolling and going 22-23 mph. It was my turn to pull at the front and pull I did; I made sure to keep it to three minutes and then started for the back of the line. It was a good feeling to know that I was taking my turn leading the fastest riders in the event. As I dropped to the back I kept looking to my side waiting for the back of the line. When I got to the back, I was shocked to see that Clint was gone. I found out later that when I passed him he stayed in line and could not get to the front when the group split into two parts.

What a wild ride into the next rest stop. I saw the twenty mile rest stop and pulled in. The other riders kept going. I was the only person from the lead group to stop at the twenty mile mark. I found out later that those riders did not stop for lunch and were getting to the other rest stops before they opened. When I looked at my HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) I saw my average for the first twenty miles was 177 BPM. This was 20 beasts faster than I wanted. I had averaged 20.32mph for the first twenty miles; this was my fastest twenty miles ever.

I grabbed some drinks, food, and had my picture made (the first rider to get his picture in 2004). I kept waiting for the other riders to show up. I had to wait 4 minutes for the next group to come in and that group had Clint and Martha in it. They looked pretty tired when the pulled up. Martha was red in the face; she looked very hot and tired. She got off the bike and found a place to sit down in the grass and did not move for a few minutes. She might have over done it for the first twenty miles. Brad came in next six minutes behind me. Then the rest of the team pulled in about ten minutes behind me. The surprising thing was that Steve and Tanya were the last to pull into the rest stop. I was very surprised, but Steve just told me this was a marathon not a sprint, there was plenty of riding still to come. We kept waiting for Blake but he was pretty far behind us at this point. The team went to the bathroom; a few of the riders went off into the woods the lines were so long. After the group had been there for about ten minutes, Tanya told Steve she was going to the bathroom. Steve was visibly upset at this and told her to hurry up. He went to fill up their camel packs and stock up on some food. The rest of us closed in the circle and kept talking. A few minutes went by and all of the other riders started getting ready to leave. Not wanting to get left behind we all made our way over to the bikes. I asked where Steve was and Cheryl noticed that their bike was gone. It seemed that Steve and Tanya had tricked the group and snuck out alone. You might ask yourself why they would go off alone and it has a lot to do with the tandem bike. When you are on a tandem it is very hard to draft off a rider in front of you. Your stoker (rider on the back) can not see the other riders so they do not know when to slow down the pedaling and this split second of extra power could cause you to crash into the back of the rider in front of you. Solo riders however love getting behind a tandem. Steve and Tanya left secretly because they did not want to pull the rest of the team to the next stop 24 miles away at rest stop 4. All of us got on the road quickly to try and get into one of the big groups.

The first two miles out of the rest stop were up hill. We climbed 594 feet (this is the same height as Braggs Hill) there were sections of this hill that came in at 8% grade, this was a pretty good climb and at the top it was just Clint, Brad, and I. The other riders were still making their way up the hill. Brad lost his chain while switching up to the bigger gears and dropped off to the left. I thought nothing of it since he normally gets it back on without stopping. Clint took off down the hill and I followed right behind him. When Brad finally got his chain back on, Clint and I were 100 yards ahead of him and still accelerating. I reached my fasted recorded time of the day 40.26mph going down that hill. Brad could not get up the speed to catch us. I would not realize that Brad was off the back until we were three miles up the road.

Clint and I took turns pulling each other up to the group in front of us. We were looking for Steve and Tanya thinking that they were in one of the three groups that had formed up after the first rest stop. Each group was about 20-30 riders and was moving around 20-21mph. Clint and I kept moving along the edge towards the front of the group. We would search the group and then speed up to catch the back of the next group. We did this for five miles until we came to the front of the third group and there we no more riders in front of us. At this point I asked Clint if Steve and Tanya could keep up a 20-21mph pace on their own for this long. Clint told me that there were many times they liked to go off the front of a group and could hold this pace for an hour or more if needed. So either they were way out in front of us or they were still at the rest stop. I did not believe they could be in front of us at this point but who knows. Clint and I settled down in the pace line and took up positions in line to pull. I would take two pulls at the front and Clint would take three pulls at the front. It was during Clint’s third rotation at the front that we noticed a tandem out in front. Sure enough, it was Steve and Tanya riding out there solo. It had taken us 21 miles to ride them down. That was an impressive feat for both groups, Steve and Tanya for staying out in front for so long and then Clint and I finding a group that could catch them.

Tanya told me at the next rest stop that she saw us coming from a few miles back and decided that she did not want to get caught. She kept reaching into the back of Steve’s jersey and pulling out food to put into his mouth. Just like the steam engines of old, Tanya was putting fuel into Steve trying to get him to go faster. It was a good ride but they could not keep it up that long. The bad thing for Steve, he was now down that many more minutes. Since he had left before us and we caught him, he was now down even a few more minutes.

When we pulled into rest stop 4 the camera crews were hard at work. Bob had the video camera out shooting the riders and Mike had the digital camera out taking pictures of the High School Cheerleader car wash across the street. Clint and I pulled into the stop and waited for the rest of the riders to catch up. I had now ridden 44 miles with an average speed of 20.50, the second twenty miles was faster than the first twenty miles. We were moving at an incredible pace. The temperature was starting to really warm up, it was 88 degrees and only 10am. It did not get this hot at all during the past two years. We stayed in the rest stop until the rest of the team caught up to us. At this point we had an update on Blake; he was 12 miles behind us just pulling into the third rest stop. It was decided that Mike would wait at rest stop 4 for Blake and Bob would go on ahead once everybody left. Cheryl went over to the free massage table to get hour shoulder taken care of.

The ride to lunch was pretty tough and uneventful. I was doing the smart thing at this point, conserving my energy and letting the group do the work. Brad kept telling me how slow this group was and he wanted to leave them. This was a 17 mile stretch uphill into the wind. I kept cautioning Brad to be patient, Clint was with me and I was still over 3 minutes ahead of him.

Brad got his wish when we crossed highway 62 this four lane highway forced the large group we were in to break up into many smaller pieces to get across. Clint crossed the highway in the first group and kept riding. Brad and I were in the second group across and we sped up to catch Clint. All three of us kept the pace slow waiting for the group to reform, but it never did. We ended up striking out to lunch three riders into the wind.

When we made the turn and started the last mile into lunch Clint tried to drop me, he took off down the road. I knew if he left me I would lose time. I jumped up and went after him. We were doing 27mph going up the hills chasing each other. Brad and I would catch Clint and just sit on his wheel. This close to lunch I was not about to try and beat him. He did this two times and both times I was able to pull him back. We arrived at 11:08AM. This was just 8 minutes later than I had been practicing for. We had ridden our first 58 miles in 3 hours of riding. This was the pace I had planned on; I knew that the hills after lunch would be the deciding factor just like last year. It was 91 degrees by now. The wind was picking up out of the southeast and I was looking forward to this stop. When the last member of our group arrived at lunch, Blake was still not at rest stop 4 which was 17 miles from lunch. Mike walked into the room and told us that Blake was going to ride it in to lunch. Mike had tried to get him to SAG it to lunch, but Blake would have nothing to do with that. He was going to finish the ride. Mike told us he was looking pretty rough already with salt drying on his face and a little wobble in his ride. It was pretty impressive that he had made it this far with the training he had done. Mike waited at the lunch stop for Blake and when he arrived, put his bike on the back of the car and drove him the rest of the way.

The entire team left lunch together, getting in with the Zebras (Team Chain Gang) for the ride up to the dam. It was five miles from lunch to the dam. There were three rolling hills that you had get over to make it to the dam. It might have only been 200 feet of vertical, but with the heat, wind, and the 5% grade our team quickly split up into smaller groups. Clint, Brad, and I were in the first group, the two tandems followed closely behind, and then Cheryl and Martha were coming right behind. Clint kept pushing the pace and up the last hill, I fell off the back of the group and could not catch up. They went over the top of the last hill about 100 yards ahead of me. I was trying to get on the back of the group before they went over the top but just could not make it. I knew I had to catch them before they got off the dam or I would never catch them. One rider going it alone will never be able to catch a group. I reached one end of the dam as they were going off the other side. It was over, there was no way I was catching them now. I kept passing riders on my way across, but the lead group with Clint and Brad were already riding along the river bottom ahead of me. I kept pressing on, knowing I could not slow down now. When I crossed the damn and started down the road I saw a group of riders stopped ahead of me. As I rode up I saw it was the lead group of Zebras. One of them had a flat and they all stopped. There was Brad sitting under a tree a few yards up the road. I pulled up next to Brad and he told me that Clint had kept going. This was the break I was waiting for. Now I was the one riding with a group and Clint was riding alone. As we rode alongside the river I saw him in the distance sitting at the side of the road waiting for us. He had ridden four miles on his own before he had stopped to wait on the big group. I had lost another minute to Clint, I was still in it but I had to keep up with this group on the hills. We rode on towards Fort Gibson with the road steadily going up. It was the last half mile that got me this time. We kept climbing and in the last half mile to the top I recorded a one minute section where the gradient was 9% average. This was a tough little hill. On top of that the temperature was over 95 degrees now. Clint was in the lead group of riders and I had fallen off the back again. I pulled into rest stop 6 and saw Brad waiting for me. He told me that Clint had kept on going with the lead group.

I was thinking to myself, if I can get a fast group to get me to the bottom of Braggs hill, I might not lose that much more time to Clint. Brad and I stayed at the rest stop waiting for another group to come in and while we waited all of the family riders showed up. Mike told us about hitting the dam hill and getting behind a dump truck. He was forced to ride his brake all the way to the bottom.

The team was doing a great job today. You could tell that everyone had done some great training and it was really showing. It was an impressive sight; eight of the ten team riders were together seventy miles into the ride. Clint was ahead of the group and Blake was behind the group. We were all very hot at this point. I really enjoyed the ice towel they gave us at this rest stop. One of the guys kept trying to squeeze out more water before he gave me the towel. I took the towel and squeezed it out on myself. I was getting real close to over heating at this point. It was one of the hottest days of the year for riding. When I went back and looked at the temperature and compared it to the riding days in Phoenix, this ride was in the top five for the year. It was hot!

I waited until I saw a group forming up to leave the rest stop. It was a group of Zebras. What I did not know then was it was the old, sick, and slow zebras. I was better than every one of these riders. They were not going to help me make up any time on Clint. From the last rest stop to the bottom of Braggs hill was about five miles. It was a slow five miles. I knew it was really slow when Steve and Tanya caught up to our group before we reached the bottom of the hill. Braggs Hill was 2.50 miles, 400 feet of vertical, and a 4.72% average gradient to the top, this was a hill. Any other place in the race and it would not be so bad but were we already 76 miles into the ride and the heat was pretty tough. I did much better than last year getting to the top. I was able to pass three riders going up and I kept my average speed at 8mph (3mph better than last year) all the way to the top.

When I reached the top Clint was kicked back in a lawn chair, eating jelly beans, with a grin from ear to ear. At lunch I was 3 minutes ahead of him and at the top of the hill I was 54 seconds behind Clint. I had lost over the course of the day all of my lead gained in the first twenty miles. Brad and I sat there trying to think of ways to gain some advantage over Clint. We decided to use Martha to get inside his head. During casual conversation with Brad, loud enough for Clint to hear, I talked about how Martha looked at the last rest stop, how she was very hot and tired. It looked to me that she might not be having any fun, not to mention the fact that Clint just kept going off and leaving her. It was not a minute later when Martha came over the top of the hill, took one look to her left, and kept right on going. I told Clint, “There goes Martha, she is not stopping, I wonder if something is wrong?” Clint went over to Tanya and asked her about Martha. I heard her say, “Did you hear this from Chris and Brad? If you did, forget it! They are just playing games with you.” Oh, so close to success with our psychological gamble. If Tanya had not been there, Clint might have thought about it and that could have changed the outcome to day two and ultimately the championship.

A little bit about Martha, she did what none had done before, rode to the top of the hardest climb in the two days and kept right on going. In the preview she was called the Queen of the climb and right now she really looked like it. It was an outstanding piece of riding and guaranteed that Martha would be the first person across the finish line for our team.

We left the last rest stop for the six mile ride into Camp knowing that Martha was going to be the first one into the stop. It was a hot and fast six miles with our average speed approaching 20 mph. Clint and I sprinted to the end together for the camera crew with Brad just behind us. When we stopped I saw Blake standing next to Mike at the car. He had ridden in the last 28 miles with Mike in the SAG Vehicle. We did not have long to wait before the rest of the team crossed the finish line. It was a pretty impressive day of riding.

Every rider that crossed the finish line would have WON the first day of riding a year ago. Clint, Steve, and I had all improved our riding time by over 10%. This was an impressive total. Not to mention that we had finished a full hour and fifteen minutes ahead of last year and over 2 hours ahead of the first year. Put on top of that the 98 degree reading on my bike computer and the 10mph head wind, and 2,200 feet of vertical, we had an incredible day. I can honestly say that it was my best single day of riding ever. I had brought the “A” game for the first day. When I looked at the other riders I saw the same thing, the group had done an incredible job on day one. We had made huge improvements in our time and speed. A team with 5 first time riders had performed an incredible job. The bar had been set very high for 2005. Our group of riders was easily in the top 25% in day one.

Just like last year, Clint kept riding around on his bike while the rest of us stood around, catching our breath. As I wrote down the times two things popped up, Cheryl had not started her time at one of the hills so it was a little off, I assigned her Martha’s time plus 15 seconds since she was the last rider across the line for the day. The second thing I noticed was how close Mike and Bryan were to Steve and Tanya at the end of the day. There was only a 25 second difference between the two tandems. Day two was shaping up to be two sets of races; the battle between Clint and myself for first place and the battle between the two tandems. The tandem battle was shaping up to be a good ride between the veteran team of Steve and Tanya against first time riders Mike and Bryan. Steve was pretty confident as we loaded up to go to the hotel for the night, Mike and Bryan just did not have the legs to beat them on day 2. It was a confident team captain that got in the van that night. Mike had ridden less than 400 miles in training camp while Steve and Tanya had ridden over 1,500 getting ready for this event. I left for the hotel feeling really good, I had improved over last year, cut my gap against Clint, and there were no big hills left on day to that he would drop me on. I felt very confident that I would beat him on day 2.

The Night in Muskogee

This was a year in which many traditions were broken; dinner would not be one of them. The team went to a small Italian restaurant called Little Italy for dinner and then to Braums for desert. It was a wonderful atmosphere filled with great stories recounting the day’s adventures. During dinner Clint noticed that the train was doing the same thing it did last year. It kept moving back and forth on the tracks. Talk about a good laugh. Towards the end of dinner Blake noticed a rider coming down the road. Blake started laughing and told the group, this guy is lost and way behind the rest of the riders. You had to be there to enjoy the humor. It was a great dinner and desert is just what the Doctor ordered.

The hotel was just what the Doctor ordered for a set of sore legs. The hot tub, Sauna, cold pool, and soft beds would help all of us ride strong on day two. Knowing that I needed a fast train on day two I kept pumping up the battle between the tandems. If I could get Steve to have a repeat of his day two of last year, there was not way Clint could keep up with that. Bryan was really fired up and kept talking trash to Steve. At one point Mike looked at Bryan and said, “Bryan, we don’t need any more of that trash talk, we are going to do our talking on the field tomorrow!” Now that was the competitive Lercher spirit coming out. It was shaping up to be a battle royal in the morning between the two tandems. I knew Bryan was feeling good when he went into the fitness room with Blake and started doing the Stairmaster and tread mill. Mike kept looking over there shaking his head. He wanted his man to be fresh for day two. While we were sitting outside on the patio Mike told us that the only thing harder he had done in recent memory was carrying that Elk off the mountain a couple of years ago; and this cycling was a great work out. Mike was pumped for day two. Brad and I talked about how to make up 54 seconds on Clint. We both agreed that getting with a fast group was the best thing we could do. Let Clint ride out there alone and we would hang in a group. The first guy across the line did not win; it was the fastest riding time. There was no advantage to riding alone. This was a loop hole in our rules that I planned on exploiting it all day long on day two. Little did I know at the time how much I would exploit it?

Day 2

The first thing I did on day two was check the flag and the temperature. The wind was blowing out of the south between 5-10mph and the temperature was 68 degrees, a perfect day for riding the wind home to Tulsa. This was going to be a day of first for our team. The first time that we had ever started at the real starting line and the first day that Steve had ever finished a ride. All morning Steve talked about getting the DNF off his record from the previous two years. I told Steve I would take it up with the Shiloh rules committee, but what has happened in the past was already on the books. I told him that if he could go another eight or nine years without another DNF, we might be able to chalk up those first two years as an abnormality. We loaded up our gear and headed off to Camp Gruber. On the way to Gruber we passed about ten riders already on the road, including the unicyclist.

All of us were dreading that six mile climb back to the top of Bragg’s hill. It was decided that we needed to keep the tradition alive of starting at the top of Bragg’s hill just in case we needed it in the future. So instead of Blake starting with us, Mike drove him to the top of Bragg’s hill and gave him a six mile head start. Before he got in the car I told him he was the rabbit and the wolves would be chasing him looking for breakfast. We aired up our tires and headed to the main gate. There would be no mass start today. Many of the riders were still taking down their tents at 7:30AM and we were ready to start.

Cheryl wasted no time; once she was ready she left the gate. Brad, Clint, Martha, and I waited at the gate for the tandem riders to get there. Once there we all started the climb to the top of Bragg’s hill. Clint made it real clear how the day was going to be ridden. He took off out of the gate and started climbing. Within the first two miles he would be out of sight. I knew I could not beat him up the hill so I was content to make it to the top and catch him on the down hill side. We were not half a mile outside the gate when the two tandems went flying buy, Mike and Bryan in front of Steve and Tanya, but not buy much. This was going to be a great battle. On the climb to the top Brad and I passed the Tandems, Cheryl, and Martha. We joined in with the Chesapeake Bay riders about 200 yards from the top. I thought to myself that this would be the group to catch Clint today.

Going down the hill, my extra weight allowed me to pass the other riders with ease. I would get close to a rider in front and then slingshot around him picking up extra speed on the down hill run. At one point I was doing 38mph down the hill and there were only two riders in front of me. I knew that at the bottom of the hill there was a short climb before the next downhill section. I did not want to lose my momentum on the downhill side so I just took off up this short climb trying to keep my speed as close to 20mph as possible. Brad hung back, counting on the Chesapeake Bay riders to reform and he felt like it would be no time before he caught me. It was on this short climb that I heard what sounded like a big rig horn off to my back left. I looked left and there came the “IRON MEN” they must have gone over 40mph coming down that hill. I looked behind them, I had been sure that Steve and Tanya would have been the first ones down the hill. Steve and Tanya were no where to be seen. I quickly jumped left and got right behind Mike and Bryan. We crested that next hill and went 34mph down the back side. At this point in time I was not counting on them to take me very far; I did not think that the “Iron Men” could keep up this pace. I will admit it was a brutal pace and I spent most of the next six miles over 170bpm and I was drafting off of them. It looked like they wanted to beat Steve and Tanya before the first rest stop. We were passing riders left and right on the way to the ten mile mark. At the nine mile mark I saw Clint just ahead of us; I had caught him before he could gain any more time. I told Mike to pass Clint on the far left so he would not have a chance to jump on the train. As luck would have it, Clint caught us after we made the turn onto highway 62 going into Muskogee. He did not get any time on me and I did not get any time on him.

It was on the outskirts of Muskogee that the wolves caught the rabbit. It had taken us fourteen miles to catch Blake. When he saw us coming it was comical, he turned around started screaming and rode like a madman over the top of the overpass. When we caught him we all had a good laugh.

As we rode through Muskogee, the confidence of the “Iron Men” kept growing. They were talking about stopping at the hotel and getting a shower their lead was so big. They might even just take a little nap before continuing on. At one point the “Iron Men” made it through a light and Clint and I were forced to stop. It took us two miles to catch them after that. Those two guys were trying to bury Steve and Tanya in the first 20 miles. At the end of Muskogee we lucked out and hit the light just right so we were able to start up the hill with a good head of steam. I told Mike this was a short but steep hill so hit it hard and he would have no problem. It was a one mile hill with a vertical gain of 160 feet and an average gradient of 4.6%. The toughest part of the hill was the last half mile with the grade climbing to an average of 6.5%. This was a short tough steep hill. Clint and I climbed side by side; I beat him to the top and was on the inside going into the parking lot of the hospital. I went right and he went left. I ended up back tracking and chasing him down the hill. Going down the hill, my extra 30 pounds made it very easy to catch him before the bottom. I passed him on the turn into the second rest stop. I flew by the camera men Bob and Mike and saw a tent off to my right and the bathrooms right in front of me. I stopped the bike and got off. After I was off the bike I noticed that the tent was empty and that the rest stop was another 200 yards ahead of me. Instead of riding to the rest stop, I parked the bike, used the restroom, and then walked across the park to the rest stop. Clint was crying foul the entire time, claiming I had to add a penalty onto my time since I did not ride the last 200 yards. While at the rest stop the volunteers told us they had been at the other tent and had just moved over here a few minutes earlier. We were the first riders through to the second rest stop. Clint and I were at the front of the race.

We did a time check and I was 15 seconds up on Clint and two minutes up on Brad, and the “Iron Men”. We kept waiting for Steve to arrive, watching the clock. Steve and Tanya pulled up and the first thing was time check, the “Iron Men” had beaten Steve and Tanya to the rest area by four minutes. Now it was the veteran rider that was behind the two rookies. I asked Steve how he felt about this. I give you a direct quote, “Chris, I win either way; you see I trained those two riders so I am either going to be the best coach or the best rider on a tandem.” I called BS on that one. I told Steve that was a pretty good story he had made up in the twenty mile ride to the rest stop. Steve laughed and told me that he did not think the “Iron Men” could keep that pace up, they were going to burn our before the day was done and then Steve would pick up the pieces and win the race. Those two iron men were going to be tin men before the day was done.

We left the second rest stop with the Chesapeake Bay riders and entered the last short climb of the morning. We all made our way to the top of this short hill and then started forming up into a group for the ride to rest stop 4 twenty miles from here. The tandem teams had been dropped going up the hill so Brad, Clint, and I rode with the Chesapeake riders. In a minute or so a recumbent bike with a yellow wrap around frame passed us. Brad wanted to draft off of him, but it is very hard to draft off a recumbent. The air does some funny things right behind them and the envelope just was not as big. We did not have long to wait for the fast ride to come along. There came the “Iron Men” along the left side of the line. We talked about whether or not to go with them or stay in this group. None of us felt at this time that they could keep up that pace. At the last second we jumped on the “Iron Men” train. There were five of us in that group, Mike & Bryan, Brad, Clint, and myself. Brad offered to get out in front and pull for the “Iron Men” but it was too hard for the tandem to do that. We ended up just cruising along, drafting with the “Iron Men”. I kept waiting for another team to pass us, for a fast group to catch us, it never happened. It did not happen then and it would not happen all day, the BJ Ranch Riders were at the front of the race and there to stay. There would be individuals that beat us to the finish, because they started before us or skipped lunch. Nobody passed the “Iron Men”.

As we approached the third rest stop Clint was at the back of the line. He told me he was going to stop and go to the bathroom. I thought he was crazy, he must have really been hurting to stop now. I knew that the race was mine at this point. There was no group of riders within ten miles as fast as the one he was leaving. There were no riders in front of us. The next ten miles was the second fastest leg of the entire 150 mile ride for my group. According to my computer the “Iron Men” pulled us for ten miles over 20.50 mph average speeds. This was not a flat section of road, this was an area filled with rolling hills and rough roads. We were going over bumps at 20mph. We hit one so hard that I lost my water bottle. Brad wanted to stop, I told him that was just a water bottle, I had a championship to win and I left the water bottle in the middle of the road. Cheryl would ride by it later and almost stop to pick it up.

It was during this segment that I would gain another two minutes on the “Iron Men.” Brad and I decided to draft behind them down the hills and then ride ahead of them to the top of the next hill. We would stop at the crest of the hill and wait for the heavy tandem to get to the top. We would then jump on the back for the ride to the bottom. We did this about five times in ten miles. Bryan would see us passing him and then stopping to wait and yell out, “I feel used!” Boy was he ever. Brad and I had the perfect strategy for this stretch. As we approached the spot where Steve went crazy last year and was doing 28mph uphill, I told this to the “Iron Men” and they went over 30mph during this stretch. We came flying across a bridge were Bob was waiting to film us doing 29mph. It was incredible. The “Iron Men” were not going to sit back and play defense. They were not going to run the ball up the middle to take time off the clock. They were here to win and to win big. They were throwing the ball deep downfield. We pulled into rest stop 4 so early that the volunteers were not even there yet. Again there was not a single rider in front of us at this point. I credit our speed and time to the efforts of Mike and Bryan. They were riding way over their heads and looked like they could go on forever. At rest stop 4 I had picked up another two minutes on the “Iron Men”. It was now time to watch the clock. Could Clint do the impossible and ride solo for ten miles holding a 20.50mph average? Only time would tell.

There, down the road came a rider and they were wearing a red, white, and blue team USA shirt. Was it Clint? No, it was Martha. Martha rode into the rest stop six minutes ahead of Clint. I asked her where Steve and Tanya were and she told me they had stopped at rest stop 3 for some cookies. She had not seen Clint. I was excited, the race was mine. There was no way he could ride that hard solo. Another group of five riders came in, no Clint in sight. When those riders were ready to leave, Brad went with them. He asked me to go, but I told him I wanted to wait for Clint, besides, why would I ride with those guys when we had beaten them to this point. I had become a believer in the “Iron Men” they were not going to give out and I was going to ride with them to victory.

Then cresting the hill, it was Clint, the moment was at hand, would victory be mine? He pulled in, asked Mike his time, and then asked me my time. I told him and my jaw dropped when he told me his. He was only five seconds behind me. Clint had done the impossible, ridden solo for ten miles and had out performed our group led by the “Iron Men”. I was in complete shock. How had this happened? He told me that he tried to ride with the Chesapeake riders, but they were too slow. He was forced to pull out and go ahead on his own, solo across ten miles of rough road. When Steve and Tanya pulled in, times were compared and the “Iron Men” had put another two minutes in the time bank, they were now six minutes up on Steve and Tanya. This race was over for the “Iron Men”. You should have seen the grin on Mike & Bryan’s face when they heard the times; they were talking about tacking on a few more minutes before lunch. They smelled blood and they wanted to put this one away.

I pulled out of rest stop 4 with Mike and Bryan, Martha, and myself. Clint was not on his bike at this point. The “Iron Men” wasted no time in getting up to speed. In minutes we were passing riders again. It was only fourteen miles to lunch and there were only ten or fifteen riders in front of us after this rest stop. We were ten miles down the road when a voice called out, “Car Back!” It was an awful deep voice for Martha. I looked back and the rider that I had thought was Martha had been Clint all along. I saw a rider ahead in the distance, it was Brad. He had stopped on the side of the road to wait for us. He told us the riders he left with had driven him crazy with their lack of speed. He felt it better to just wait for us on the side of the road and save time. We rode into lunch after averaging 20mph on those 14 miles. We were flying; it was only 10:30AM. We were blowing up the race times from last year.

By the time Steve and Tanya arrived, they were now nine minutes behind Mike and Bryan. We told Mike that there was only 17 more miles to go and he said, “Good, I do not know how much longer I can keep this up.” At this point Steve started covering all the bases on why his team was losing. He talked about the fall that Tanya had the previous weekend; he talked about the fact that there was still 17 miles to go and they could still fall apart, and then he talked about his role as their coach. It was a hilarious lunch. We had been there maybe thirty minutes when Blake rode in. He had caught up to the group. Blake had ridden an incredible morning ride. We stayed at lunch a little longer than we should have, almost an hour before we left to begin the last stretch.

We left the lunch stop and faced rolling hills for the next 17 miles. Clint, Brad, and I would race ahead of the tandem on the uphill side and then let them pull us down the other side. It was on this section that Bryan was going to show us his great hands. Apparently Bryan had left his glasses at lunch and wanted them. Bob was waiting on the side of the road holding up the glasses for Bryan to pick up. It looked like a clean pass, Bryan grabbed them, the glasses jumped up, Bryan grabbed them again, and then the glasses fell to the ground. To me it all unfolded in slow motion, it looked like Bryan should have caught those glasses. Bob came up alongside and asked if Bryan wanted to try again? Bryan said yes so Bob drove ahead to the top of a hill about a mile down the road. On the way to the next attempt I asked Bryan what position does he play on the team. He told me, “Where ever coach puts me.” I told Bryan with butter fingers like that he will never be a ball carrier. The next hand off was very smooth. Bob was at the top of the hill where the tandem would be going its slowest when he handed off the glasses. This time Bryan had no problem grabbing them. We were about seven miles from the finish line when the “Iron Men” started to give out. I raced to the top of the next hill with Brad and Clint behind me. I looked back and they were struggling to get up the hill. I told Brad that we had to keep going and they would catch us if they could. They never did. We would cross the finish line seven minutes ahead of the “Iron Men.” I tried three more times to pull away from Clint, but just did not have enough in the tank to drop him for long. We pulled into the hospital parking lot and he was forced to take a detour and I crossed the line five seconds ahead of Clint. I crossed the line at 12:10pm an hour and 5 minutes ahead of last years time, and I had ridden six miles further this year. Brad, Clint, and I were easily in the top 30 riders across the line. I counted 15 bikes and 23 riders under the tent when we sat down to eat. It was a fast day. The rest of the team came in right behind us. When the “Iron Men” came through, Mike asked the ROTC cadets if they were supposed to be doing push ups when we crossed the line? Every rider after that got five pushups when they crossed. When Steve and Tanya finally crossed the line, they were eleven minutes behind the “Iron Men.” What Mike and Bryan had done was very impressive. When Cheryl crossed the line Bob did not get her on camera. He told her to make another pass, so Cheryl went around the corner and came through again. She got another round of push ups. Nine of our riders easily finished in the top 50 out of 600 riders. All of our riders finished in the top 100 for day 2.

Every rider that crossed the finish line would have WON the second day of riding a year ago. Clint, Steve, and I had all improved our riding time by over 10%. This was an impressive total. Now when you add day one and two together, this was the year of speed. The only rider that would not have beaten Clint in 2003 was Blake. Every other rider had a better total time than Clint, Chris, and Steve from 2003. What the BJ Ranch Riders did was impressive. Every rider there brought their “A” game and it showed. The training rides paid off in spades for the group. It was the right way to end the season.

Mile 151 Party

The ride was just over for a few minutes when the 2005 campaign began. Steve was overheard telling his stoker, “I don’t know if there is a place for you on the team next year. I am going to check the free agent market for available riders.” Not five minutes later he is heard asking Mike, “What are you doing next year, need a rider?” When Bryan heard this, he made no bones about it; he was part of the “Iron Men” legendary team and would be in 2005. Mike told Bryan, “Bryan, with a year of weights and workouts for you, we will win the whole thing next year.” I was asked when I was going to start preparing for 2005, I said, “I started the minute I crossed the line.” Steve told the team that off season weight lifting would start every Tuesday and Thursday at his house. After leaving the mile 151 party I headed back to Sandra’s to finish my computer repairs. The rest of the team voted and decided that they did not smell that bad and would just load up and head home.

All the way back to Arizona, I was planning on how to win in 2005. I knew I needed to lose 30 pounds around the mid section, but it would be worth it. I might lose my Michelin sponsor for 2005, but I wanted that Lercher Cup pretty bad.

2005 Campaign

This section is being added sixty days after the ride finished. You have to wonder what happened to the riders. Steve and Tanya purchased a new 2004 Cannondale tandem that is ten pounds lighter then their old tandem. Steve is calling it the “BLUE STREAK” and plans on showing up a new rider in 2005. Since buying the bike they have been out one time for a total of twenty miles. In addition to the bike Steve has a new customer trailer that he is working on to get the team around in 2005. Clint and Martha have enjoyed the time off. Clint knows how much I like to eat so he is not too worried about next year. He has been out one time since the race. The rest of the Arkansas riders have not even looked at their bikes. Brad and I just completed a 111 mile timed race. Brad finished 573^rd out of 6000 riders and I finished 1773^rd. There is a write up on the web site about our last race, El Tour De Tucson.

We have already heard that there are other family members looking to get involved in 2005. The military is looking to enter two of their best riders in this event, Frank and Matt. Frank has already purchased his second bike and is making no bones that he is coming to win in 2005. When I told him he needed to ride 20 mph or faster to have a chance, his reply was, “Is that all?” Matt has just returned from six months over seas and is in superb physical shape. If Matt shows up he will win. For his training through the winter he will stick to running his five six minute miles everyday.

It seems that there will be another name change in store for our team. The title sponsor (BJ Ranch) does not appear willing to resign the riders for another season. I know now how Lance and his team felt when US Postal decided not to sponsor them in 2005. Lucky for Lance he found a sponsor to pick him up. If you hear of anybody willing to sponsor the team, send them our way.

Rider Name (Tandem Riders are listed Together)	Las Vegas Odds to Win	Total Time *(Hours: Min:Seconds)*	Avg Speed	Final Rank	Comments
Clint Lercher	1:1	8:00:47	18.78	1	Clint won on the hills just like last year. Down by 3 minutes on day one with 28 miles to go, he would finish up by 1 minute and hold on to win on day 2. Clint admitted later that he had been pushed to the limit.
Chris Cowgill	2:1	8:01:36	18.75	2	It was a Quarter Pounder that kept him from winning this race. Maybe the best over weight rider in the family. He has to lose to win. Next Years Motivation - 49 SECONDS
Brad Neahouse	4:1	8:08:40	18.49	3	Three tactical errors kept Brad from winning. Of course the Shiloh rules committee was very happy that Brad did not win. First non family member to participate on the team.
Mike & Bryan Lercher	4:1	8:36:14	17.50	4	This team came in with the “Iron Man” on the front and they left as the “Iron Men”. Their riding on day two is the stuff of legends.
Steve & Tanya Lercher	2:1	8:46:44	17.14	5	They came to contend for the race victory. Day two found them battling the rookie riders known as the “Iron Men”. Could be the last ride of the God Father himself, Proud Coach but humbled rider.
Cheryl Lercher	4:1	8:54:09	16.90	6	Cheryl was there to keep us organized and on track. If it were not for the hills during the ride, she would have finished much better. Day 2 found her make great improvements in time and speed.
Martha Lercher	2:1	9:00:15	16.71	7	Martha lived up to the “Queen of the Hills” name, but might have spent too much energy in the first 20 miles on day one.
Blake Lercher *	50:1	8:39:49	14.80	8	Blake struggled to lunch on day 1 and surprised us all on day 2. This ride is exactly what he hoped it would be a training ground for 2005. I hear he is asking for a bike for Christmas.