I parked at the entrance to Big Cottonwood Canyon along with a ton of other people. It's amazing how many people ride out here. My wheels were on the road by late-morning and I began the first climb of the day immediately. The first two miles were gradual, then it gets much steeper as you come out of the rocky portion of the canyon. There's two miles that are awful. It's steep and was all I could do to keep the cranks turning over.
Lower slopes of Big Cottonwood Canyon
That steep section is followed by an easier section where the grade is minimal. It starts to get steeper again as you near the turn onto Guardsman Pass Rd. You make the turn at mile 14 and it really gets steep from there to the top. I was already feeling bad at mile 11 and had to stop for a break and eat a few bars. I felt better up Guardsman Pass Road. There was a great view of Big Cottonwood Canyon and of the Heber Valley from the summit. It was 18 miles from the car to the top. The summit was at 9,734 ft. elevation. Tough way to start the ride, but man was it beautiful!
Climbing Big Cottonwood Canyon
Guardsman Pass Rd.
Nice view atop Guardsman Pass
The descent to Midway was crazy! It is a rough road and rattled my teeth out. I was rolling 45 mph on the brakes. It was steep! I also had to dodge the occasional car parked in the middle of the road. People were stopping all over the place to take pictures of the amazing views.
Starting down the descent to Midway
One of the nice views along the way down
My hands were numb by the time I got to the bottom in Midway. Now I know why they climbed this road in the Tour of Utah. I stopped at the visitor's center at Wasatch Mountain State Park for lunch. I had packed a sandwich and plenty of snacks in my giant Camelback Mule.
Pond at the Wastach Mountain State Park Visitor's Center where I had lunch.
Looking up at my next challenge.
The climb back was shorter. I expected the difficulty to be about the same as the other side up to Guardsman Pass, though I will admit I was a bit worried by the high speeds I hit on the way down. And worried I should have been. The climb was nothing short of brutal. It was seven miles to the turnoff for Park City. The bottom portion of the climb was a steady 14%, then hit 23% in the switchbacks! Backing down to 10% was a relief on the legs. I was creeping up the climb. The Pros at Tour of Utah made it look so easy! I know I'm nowhere near as strong as them, but they must have had compact gears on to be able to keep it turning up the steepest parts of this climb the way they did when I watched that final stage.
It took well over an hour for me to reach the Empire Pass turn-off. I climbed the 1 km to the Empire Summit, then stopped again for food. I was zapped now. Park City was not looking like a good idea at this point. I decided to skip the Park City section of the ride and just climb the rest of the way up Guardsman Pass and then go down to the car. The last section of Guardsman is just under two miles long and it is just as brutal as what I had already ridden. There are a few steep spots where it was all I could do to keep moving forward. It reminded me of climbing "The Wall" at Brasstown Bald in Georgia.
Looking toward Park City from the top of Empire Pass
From the top of Empire Pass, I still had some tough climbing to do to reach Guardsman pass that sits in the distance
Once at the top, it was a smooth ride back down through Big Cottonwood Canyon, 18 miles of descending all the way to the car. The bottom section was the most fun as it was the fastest portion and featured the most turns. It irritated me that so many cars were squeezing past me. It was afternoon rush hour in the canyon. It's narrow and most places are not suitable for passing...especially when the speed limit is 35 and I was rolling 40+ most of the time. And most of them had bike racks which really made me mad. Bike riders of all people should know better and be more courteous! You can ride the descent with me below on this video from my chest cam.
Video: Descending Big Cottonwood Canyon
I ended the day exhausted with 53.5 miles covered with 9,268 ft of climbing. What a day!
The following day was the XTERRA USA Championship in Ogden. We got up early and drove over to the Snowbasin Resort. Shannon and I rode our mountain bikes up the main climb on the course, Sardine Peaks, so we could watch the riders come up. We got to the top shortly after they began the swim. From our vantage point we could see the Pineview Reservoir in the distance and you could see the turbulence of all the swimmers in the water.
We sat on the hill for about an hour before the first rider came. You know the leader is getting close when the TV helicopter begins to hover next to you. We did some filming and took pictures while the riders came by suffering up the last climb on a difficult bike course. We saw fellow Tennessean Craig Evans. He was in the top 10 and looked rather surprised to see someone from home standing on the side of the trail.
Leader and eventual race winner Leonardo Chacon
The legend, Conrad Stoltz, in second
Nicolas Lebrun
Carina Wasle
Ogden Canyon from one of the Sardine Peaks overlooks
Shannon and I on top of Sardine Peak
After watching for a while at the top, we began to carefully pick our way down the descent. We stayed out of everyone's way, stopping every time a rider came into sight and filming them as they streaked by. We saw a few good spills, but of course the camera was never on at that time.
A rider on the descent of Sardine Peaks
See our race footage posted below.
Video: 2013 XTERRA USA Championship
XTERRA's highlight video of the race is posted below as well.
Official Race Highlights from XTERRA
Most riders were off the bike by the time we got back to Snowbasin. We watched the finish for a few minutes, then called it a day on the trail. I jumped on my road bike to ride a few more minutes before we left. I did one short climb out of the resort, then had a 5 mile descent down to the Pineview Reservoir. The descent was sketchy as I had a stiff crosswind at the top. Then the road curved left and the crosswind became a strong tailwind. I was rolling 53.3 mph at one point! It was so much fun! I even passed by a parked police truck doing 53 mph in a 45 mph zone. He didn't seem to mind though and let me have my fun.
I stopped at the bottom where Shannon was waiting. I hopped in the car and we drove down through Ogden Canyon and then over to Roy for lunch at the Burger Bar. We have been wanting to eat here since last year when we got home and saw the place on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network. They are the classic burger joint, with huge serving sizes and everything hand-made. They even offer up Elk and Buffalo as meat options. I had a big Buffalo burger, a plate of their famous onion rings and a big milkshake. Not exactly recovery food, but it sure did hit the spot!
My lunch spread: Buffalo Burger, onion rings, fries, fry sauce and milkshake.
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