Today is Heather’s birthday as well as the second stage of her Tour of Utah. The women got to do a long road race without too much climbing to break things up. The course was similar to a Utah district road race course we did years ago. Since it was an out-and-back course, I didn’t get to see much of her race. This picture is of the women’s field heading out at about mile 6 at the entrance of The Ranches at Eagle Mountain (that’s Heather towards the back of the pack in her Basis orange!).

After she went by, I drove a mile to the finish and got on my bike to pre-ride the TT course which we would both do on Monday. The course used the same roads as the last five miles of this road race course. On the way out there is a gradual climb of about a mile, then a two-mile descent down to the flat section heading into the new town of Eagle Mountain. The pavement was all brand new and really smooth. The turn-around was a mile past the main circle. I rode the course pretty easy but it felt good. It was my kind of course. When I got back I did some stretching then changed and waited for Heather to finish. Two hours later Heather came in with the pack.

We didn’t stick around for the mens Pro/1/2 race but later we heard that the field had a really nasty crash coming into the finish. Yet another day that I was glad I was racing the Masters 35+ category!