Belize day 4 - race day (Viva Mexico)

OK - so this is a long one, but that is what you get

4:14am Chris and I woke up and choked down a bagel and peanut butter for breakfast. I chased mine with Gatorade, while Harkey chose a warm Muscle Milk (keep that in your memory for later). Charles knocks at the door ready to go...reluctanly and half asleep, we get kitted up. Temp outside is already in the low 80's and humid.

5:30am Head out on the bikes through town to sign in at the race in front of Leslie Imports. Kind of a sureal feeling riding through the dirty, downtown streets lined with shacks and homeless sleeping on the sidewalk as we set to begin the highest paying sports event of the entire country. Hundreds of people already out lining the streets and staging area, music pumping, shouts of encouragement. Charles and Blackheart get us ready and bottles filled.

6:00am (Hour 0 of the race) At the line. 140+ riders starting the race, mostly Belizians, but also a big group of racers from Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, Columbia, USA, Canada. Race starts with the sounding of a bugle and a roar of the crowd egar for a belizian win today. Pace is high from the gun! The first few miles are total caos with people swerving left and right, high potential for crashes early. Our plan is to set in early and save for the headwind return from San Agnachio. Small groups of guys start jumping off the front and we decide to lay low for now. Santinos, Sugar City (Roger and Murphy), Red Bull and a few strong mexican riders are in there, but it is way too early. I feel really good and am chomping at the bit to jump across, but we are sticking to the plan.

(Hour 1) Race is fast! Already losing riders through Hattiville. Probably 12 guys off the front holding a 2 min gap on us. Out of their group a Columbian rider and Mexican rider are jumping clear and start a rampage on taking the station prizes along the way. Eric Murphy from the US is working hard to pull everything together. We are still holding back, althrough it is getting harder to see 1-2 guys trickle off the front. I drop back to the service truck to get some bottles from Charles and pass Harkey setting near the back of the field. He was not feeling good, having a bad headache, and the warm Muscle Milk for breakfast was coming back to haunt him a little.

(Hour 2-3) We are starting to be much more active now and I am feeling really good about that. We are both riding at the front, jumping with anything that moves and trying to keep the pace high when it slows. At one point we both got into a nice split with Potter, Elliston, and Santinos, but got pulled back. Eating and drinking well. I have gone through about 3 bottles so far, and a gel every 45min. Harkey still battleing a bad headache. The race slowed a bit and I told him I was dropping back to get us bottles. "Now is good time." he said. I float to the back of the field to the truck. Charles starts yelling at me, but I can't understand him. I load up with bottle for me and Harkey and start heading back to the field. We take a small lefthand turn and I see a wall of a hill in front of me. Turns out Charles was yelling "Get back now, there is a big ass hill coming up!" Mount Hope to be exact, pretty steep, but short. I kill it to chase back to the pack and get over the top. Harkey had drifted back to help me when he realized the this was indeed NOT a "good time" to go back. The gap to the lead group starts coming down to around 2:30 from the 5 min it grew to. I make a long pull as we get closer to San Agnachio and Harkey drags the peleton down over the bridge and through the turn around in town with the lead group in site a little less than 2 minutes. He attacked outside of town and was followed by Potter and Elliston. I jumped to go, but had 2 Santinos with my so I fell back to let Harkey slip away. Their group eventually bridged to the lead break, I am in the 2nd group on the road, field behind breaking up bad over the hills.

(Hour 4) Harkey's lead groups gap has grown to 5 minutes over my chase group. Unfortunately our service vehicle had to follow him and now I am isolated without any feeds for Gatorade. I start looking for locals holding out neutral bags of water, but starting to get that cramping feeling in my legs from losing salt from the heat. The Guatamalians in my group are chasing pretty good, and for some reason the 3 Santino's guys start trying to chase back/jump across even though they have 5 of their strongest riders in the break up the road including 2 great sprinters. Good example of how it seems the Belizians sometimes work against each other than together. I am following each of their wheels when they jump in hopes to get a free ride across. Started to feel a little cramp the 2nd time over Mount Hope, so I start really thinking about nutrition and focusing on trying to get some Gatorade from someone since I don't have any bottles...no luck.

(Hour 5) Mexican national champion has jumped clear of the lead group and is heading towards town stealing primes. Santinos is chasing hard. Harkey, Roger, Potter, Elliston, Travisio, Lovell, Froggy, all all up there. I am coming through the round about at Hattiville with 130 miles under my belt and less than 15 to the finish when I stand up to go with a guy, and both of my legs lock up. Can't even unclip and get off my bike. I ride into the crowd at the turn around and a guy grabs me and holds me up, otherwise I would have falled straight over still in my pedals. Finally, I get off of the bike and start working on my legs, but they are gone. 5 hours 10 min into my race I accept my fate. I hitch a ride with a truckload of Mexicans following one of their riders from my group. I am in the back seat of a crew cab pickup with 3 other riders who abbandoned the race (none speak english) and have about 1/2" leg room...yeap, another cramp sets in. They got a kick out of that and started offering me "red bull" in some generic can in 100% spanish lettering and some homemade mexican cookies...heaven!?!

...check back for the finish