Six medals at the Missouri Senior Games in Columbia, MO June 12-13

Written by Dave Wolfe.

As most of you already know, Earl and I went to the Arkansas Senior Games in Hot Springs last September. We were not well prepared and misjudged the competition but still came home with 6 medals; 2 for me and 4 for Earl. Well that experience weighed heavily on us and we both vowed to improve.

So Earl being 70 years old and myself being 65, made some equipment changes, lost some weight and got serious about training for the Missouri Senior Games this weekend. Neither of us went to Hot Springs last September with Time Trial bikes, so immediately after those games Earl dusted off his 1995 Hooker Time Trial bike and brought it up to date. He changed his front wheel to a new Zipp 404 and his rear wheel to a Zipp dimpled disc. He changed his saddle to a new Cobb Flow Max. Off went the old 8 speed shifters and on went the Ultegra 10 speed shifters, cassette and derailleurs. Next he changed the base bar to a super sleek HED carbon base bar and carbon aero bars with carbon brake levers. The frame may have been from 1995 but the rest of the bike was all 2010.
 
I used my best eBay skills to come up with a 2010 Rocky Mountain very sleek frame, front fork and seat-post, all carbon and very aero. I mounted a set  of HED 60mm wheels with new Vittoria 320 TPI tires and red latex tubes. Ultegra SL Crankset, brakes, derailleurs and chain made up the drive train. I mounted an Easton EC 90 carbon base bar with the same brakes that Earl has and mounted a set of nice looking generic aero bars with very comfortable elbow pads. Now we could ride with very competitive equipment.
 
Next up it was time to to improve the engines. Earl lost some weight and I lost 18 pounds. If you combine a 4 pound lighter bike with an 18 pound lighter rider, you can just imagine how much better they will go up hill. Sleeker bodies go faster on the flats too. Did I mention that thinner bodies also have a lot more energy no matter what the terrain?
 
Speaking of terrain, I changed my training a few months ago and started attacking every hill I came to in NW Arkansas. We have plenty of hills, so on some days I would race up 20 or more hills. After racing up a coupla hunnerd hills, everybody in our club noticed a big improvement in my hill climbing and sprinting ability. In the meantime, Earl made more trips up and down HWY 72 on his TT bike than I could count. Mostly he was fine tuning the bike, but he was building up his strength also.
 
OK, excellent equipment, check. Slimmer bodies and stronger bodies, check. Lets go to Columbia. MO and whip some butt!  At least that was the plan. We made the 5 hr drive to Columbia on Friday. We checked out the roads that we would race on and found them to be low rolling hills but they looked fast. The 10k TT course had about 250 feet of elevation change but the finish was just 50 feet lower than the start. We were up at 5AM Saturday morning and raring to go.
 
Our motel was only 5 miles from the parking lot and race registration. However, the 1st race was a 40k (25 mile) road race and the starting point was 5 miles from the parking lot. I didn’t race that one but Earl and the other 50 or so riders ranging in age from 56 to 81 warmed up by riding 5 miles to the start. They were divided into 3 starts 5 mins apart. Earl was in the last start and they would do 1 and 1/2 laps. If you have ever watched a bicycle road race you know that the 1st 39k can often be just a warm-up for the last 1k sprint to the finish. They ride around in a pack drafting each other for 39k and then the real race starts. Earl judged it just right and finished about 1 bike length ahead for this 1st gold medal of the weekend. One down, three to go!
 
Next up was the short 5k (3.1 mile) Time Trial. This time I joined the fray along with Earl, who was still sweating from the 40k race just 1 hr before. We started at 30sec intervals.  In time trials you can’t draft so you just lay as low and aerodynamic as you can and sprint against the clock from the start to the finish. I felt great and at about the 1 mile mark I caught and passed the rider ahead of me. So far so good and I could see the next rider. This course was fast and on the 2 slightly downhill sections I hit 34 mph but I had a problem with my shifter. I could not get into the top (10th) gear. Try as I might, I could not convince the rear derailleur to go into that last rear sprocket so I gave up. Of course, just as I reached the bottom of the hill it shifted by itself into the top gear. Who cares, I don't need it now! I was down to about 30 mph and now I needed 8th gear. No problem but I did lose a bit of concentration and a little bit of speed. About a mile later I needed that 10th gear again and got the same frustrating results. It never did shift and I just spun up to about 115 rpm's and gritted my teeth. Good thing I wasn't wearing my heart rate monitor. It would have just made me worry more. I did catch a 2nd rider about 1/4 mile from the finish. My mind was totally off key when I crossed the finish and I forgot to stop my watch so I could only guess my time. Last year in Hot Springs I did a time of 9 mins 20 secs for the 5k TT on a slower course. I was guessing that the slimmer Dave on a faster bike did about 8 mins flat. It turned out to be 7:29 and I was very pleased with the time. That was only 1sec ahead of the guy that got 3rd place and I was 2nd. The 1st place guy was in another league and he won by over 1 minute. Shades of Hot Springs when I was the fastest Arkansas rider in my age group but still 2nd behind a Texas rider.
 
In the meantime, 70 year old Earl was burning up the course. I can't tell you much about his race but he did break the Missouri Record for his age group with a time of 6:29, I think. That was good enough for his 2nd gold medal of the day. Only one rider out of 50 something beat  Earl and he was just 7 seconds ahead. That guy is only 56 and he is a National Champion. Yeah, Earl is back and in great form.
 
Sunday morning saw us up at 5:30 and the 1st race was a 20 K (12.5 mile) road race. Again, Earl raced and I didn't. This time the start was about 6.5 miles from the parking lot and Earl wisely chose to have Sonie drive him over to the starting point. This was a shorter race with a faster pace and this time Earl knew the course because it was a shorter version of the same course they raced on Saturday. No moss growing on Earl and he had everything under control and finished about 10 secs ahead of the next guy. Three races, three gold medals. Yeah, Earl's the Man.
 
The final race of the weekend was another Time Trial. This one was 10k (6.2 miles). I was fueled up and energized and ready to race. I was so energized that I rode away from the starting line during my warm-up and missed my starting time! Fortunately the officials did not care and I was not the only rider that started out of order. However the riders that started immediately in front of me were not in my age group so it was going to be difficult for me to judge if I was going fast relative to my age group or not. This time I paced myself better going up the hills and I never got out of my tucked down aero position on the bike. Again I caught a rider just 1 mile into the race and I was feeling good. I could see the next rider too but he was going pretty fast. I felt better than the day before and my breathing was less haggard and my legs felt better too. When I came to the 1st slight downhill I needed that top gear more than ever. You gotta be smarter than the equipment so I slammed the shifter from 7 to 10 and holy cow it went into 10th gear ! Yesterday, 34 mph, today 37 mph. Yahoo! Go Dave go! I could still see the rider in front but I was not closing on him very fast. He gave me a goal to aim for and I passed the 5k mark quicker than the day before. I needed that 10th gear 3 more times and each time I just skipped from 7th to 10th and it worked every time. I was cruising above 30 mph for about a mile and still just barely catching the guy in front.  The last downhill before the finish I got up to 37.1 mph and about that time I lost my mind. I could see a long steep hill coming up and was preparing for a long pull when I noticed a guy in a blue shirt standing along the road about 50 feet in front of me. Oh crap ! I am in the wrong gear at the wrong rpm and he is standing at the finish and I am not sprinting like I should be. I probably wasted 3 or 4 seconds because the finish arrived sooner than I was expecting. Oh well, I finished in 14:51 which is a huge improvement over my Hot Springs time of 18:16. Earl beat me yesterday by about 60 seconds but today on the longer course he beat me by just 30 seconds, I think. That brain fade at the finish would come back to haunt me. This time the guy that got 3rd yesterday, beat me by a scant 3 seconds and he got 2nd while I finished a disappointing 3rd. Actually I averaged 24 mph for that race and that is a Personal Best for me at any distance. New and better equipment, a slimmer and lighter body, and all those sprints up the local hills paid off and I went faster than I ever have. However on this day, the competition was really tough and my best ever was only good enough for 3rd.
 
And what about Earl ?  Oh yeah, Earl, well he got another gold medal. Four races, four gold medals. I expected nothing less from him. When he put on all 4 gold medals at the same time, it made him hunchbacked. Such are the hazards of winning all the races. I think I am going to have to check his birth certificate. He could not possibly be 70 years old.
 
I swear that the story above is the truth, most of the truth and nothing but the truth. I hope you enjoyed it. Glenda will post some pictures on her Facebook page.

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