Tulsa Tough

Was I Tulsa Tough? Well, if you look at the results then you would probably say "No" I wasn't Tulsa Tough. I had some okay results finishing in 21st place Friday, 21st place Saturday and 11th place on Sunday. Two days just out of the money. It's kind of funny I think, I finished two days one spot out of the top 20 and when I did break the top 20, I missed the top ten by one place. I'm not sure how many guys stayed for the whole weekend but I do know that there were over 100 guys at the line Friday night. That is easily the largest field I've ever been in and I'm actually not disappointed with my result.


I was in a great spot going into the second to last left hand turn of the race but took the turn too wide and watched as several people took the inside line and taking my placement with them. Good decision on their part, bad on mine. Friday night was filled with wrecks. I don't how many there were total but I know I was effected by four of them. My teammate Ryan was taken down in one of them but managed to get back up and take an impressive 44th place. Not bad for a guy who got taken down and ran over. Zach got stuck behind a wreck and was able to pull out a 37th place finish. Everyone was sketchy Friday night, it's a huge payout, huge field, helicopters, jumbo-trons and tons of fans. It's like the real deal and it's all in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Saturday, it was looking good, I was about 7 back on the last lap and then was almost taken out on the climb at the back side of the course. I'm not sure what happened but the guy just fell over on me as I was passing by him. I was able to somewhat support his weight by steering into him and then turned away real quick as he continued to fall to the pavement. Maybe his right foot unclipped or something. I don't know but that one cost me a lot of places and I had to nail it just to catch back on and then squeeze everything I had into a 21st place finish.

Sunday's race was a hammer fest. The field was shredded fairly early on. This course has a very challenging hill, Cry Baby Hill, and it seemed like the pace never let up. I'm not sure how many laps we did but I know it hurt, a lot, early on. It seemed like the first 10 laps felt brutal. All I could think of was how bad I wanted to quit. Then we came by the line and I saw 15 laps left and it was at about that time that I felt like my legs really started to open up. Things started getting easier and the thoughts of quiting went away. I love the feeling after I break through that wall. I was able to pull out an 11th place finish this time. I was pumped. Finally, I broke the top 20. I was feeling good on the last lap and maybe should of went for more. I could of tried to drill it on the backside through the rollers or dive bomb it through that last right hand turn. I'm not sure why I didn't but I am happy with my 11th place finish. Had I done that I might of cost myself a top 20, but then again, you have to be willing to give up everything in order to have your chance at winning everything.

Amie got to meet Floyd Landis and I even talked her into getting me his autograph which will proudly be displayed in the soon to be Bike Dungeon.

What made this trip so great was having Amie there with me and all the time we got to spend together racing, shopping and hanging with my racing buddies. I took a different approach to racing over the Tulsa Tough weekend, HAVE FUN. I drank a few beers, ate what I wanted and did things totally opposite of how I have handled just about every other pre-race routine and I had a great time doing it. It was nice to get to introduce Amie to all my friends and the people I line up with a few weekends a month. Mark took me on a tour of Soundpony and that really is a pretty happening place. We were there at like 8 p.m., I can't imagine what it'd be like a little later. Thanks to everyone who helped make my weekend great and to my beautiful wife for going with me.

Now, I have to post this thing because I've been writing a little here and there for like the last two weeks and it's getting old.