Topham Racing

Fans of Magnum PI will recall John Hillerman’s character, Jonathan Higgins, who managed Robin’s Nest and tolerated Magnum’s presence on the estate, often making him beg for certain privileges, such as access to the wine cellar or use of the tennis courts. I have a friend who also answers to the name of Jonathan Higgins, and our relationship is not unlike that of Magnum and the majordomo of Robn’s Nest. I take what I can get away with, but usually we have to play by John’s rules.

And so it was today at the 2011 City Creek Sprint. It was cold and wet, but we caught a break in the weather and the conditions were not too bad all things considered. I lined up with John and I told him I thought he would pass me around picnic area 24. I always start faster than John, but he tends to catch me after he settles in. Today I was hoping that the race was too short for him to catch me.

Things started off nicely. I settled in behind the lead group, somewhere around sixth place. They were all young and fast, but I knew I could ride their line for a while. We hit mile marker one in just over three minutes. I can do that on my own, but the cost is too high. Behind the lead group it felt like nothing. I got dropped on the first steep section, but I fought back and caught them on the downhill break. At mile marker two were just under 7 minutes–something I have never seen before. I got dropped again shortly after that, but I quickly found a couple of slower riders to draft behind. We hit the watershed line well under 11 minutes, then the fire hydrant at the water treatment plant in about 11:30.

The top half of the canyon is always tough. With all the drafting, I forgot to shift out of my big ring when I was supposed to. I don’t know if it cost me or not, but it was a stupid mistake. We crossed the stone bridge near the first Rotary sign in under 19 minutes. I knew I just had to keep it together for about five more minutes. I finally found myself alone with no one to draft. Somewhere around picnic area 26 I heard someone behind me  I didn’t even need to look. I knew it was John. He commented that he was right on schedule, but he was actually two picnic areas behind schedule. I claim that as a small victory. We suffered for a couple of more minutes and he beat me by 18 seconds.

The truth is it was great having John there. I had to settle for second place, but he pushed me to a personal best time of 24:10.  We were 10th and 12th place overall, and I am pretty sure nobody ahead of us was over 35. Not bad for a couple of old guys on a cold, wet day.

I got an email from John reminding me that I needed to write a post about the USCS. The USCS was a new race series in Utah this year. It was only four races, but they were all challenging and a little different from the ICup and Midweek races.

I didn’t even know about the USCS until about two days before the first race. But I was able to race in 3 out of the 4 races and, with a little luck and some help from all the folks who didn’t show up, I won the overall Expert 40+ title for 2011. I’ll take it.

This series is a great complement to the ICup series. I look forward to racing it again next year. Bob and company did a great job.

I predict that John will win this series next year. We’ll see.

So I sat this one out. It was the first ICup race I had missed since 2008. However, I thought I would add a post to mark the end of the series, congratulate Mark, Ty and Jason on a a great year, and thank the rest of the Expert 40+ crew (especially Daren, John, Chris, Bob, Tim, Mike and Geno)  for a great season of racing. I am looking forward to next year, but there will be a lot of painful hours on the trainer and a lot of boring rides to the Great Salt Lake Marina between now and then.