LOTOJA

Last weekend Ryan, his Dad, his cousins Brian Lifferth, Gardner & Josh Brown (tandem bike), and his roommate from BYU Rob Werner all participated in the annual LOTOJA cycling race.

For those who don’t know…"LOTOJA, short for LOgan TO JAckson, is a USCF sanctioned, road cycling race held annually in September. The race is believed to be one of the longest single-day road cycling races in North America, if not the world and is the longest race sanctioned by USA Cycling or the United States Cycling Federation."

"LoToJa is most commonly pronounced "loe-tuh-juh" and starts in Logan, UT, travels into southeastern Idaho and finishes in Teton Village, Wyoming (a few miles northwest of Jackson, Wyoming). The current course covers 206 miles and includes three mountain passes. The total climbing during the race is nearly 10,000 feet with the race finishing about 1,800 feet higher than it began in Logan (4,550 feet)."

While Ryan has never been an avid biker, his father and cousins are. Ryan decided that he wanted to do this event with his father, so (with my blessing) he spent this past summer training (and training) for the race. He spent over 125 hours on his bike and has ridden close to 2,000 miles since May in preparation for this single event. Ryan’s goodwill bank (as well has his real bank) have a significantly lower balance now due to all the training! =)

The night before the race we all went up to Ryan’s brother Robb’s house, where everyone else was gathered to sleep. After a good pasta dinner (pack those carbs in) the boys prepared their supplies and then settled down for the night.

They were all up around 5AM to prepare and pack for the race. Ryan and Brian’s heat left at 6:49 AM, where the weather was a balmy 40 degrees. Rob Werner, Rick (Ryan’s dad), and Gardner & Josh all left in different heats before Ryan.

As Ryan’s “Support Crew” I was tasked with the job of re-supplying Ryan with food and drink at each feed stop. The first stop was in Preston, Idaho (we said hi to Napoleon Dynamite) 30 miles from the start. At that point Ryan’s group had caught up to his dad’s. Ryan and Rick then rode together for the next 80 miles (over all three of the major mountain passes).

At the second feed zone, Ryan and Rick rode in together. Robb, Stacie, Kathy, and me (Adrienne and Brian’s wife were around as well) were all there to refuel them and cheer them on.

Ryan and Rick loved riding together. Here they are while they still had smiles.

Throughout the race we were able to pass the riders on the road a few different times. It was so exciting to see Ryan (and the others) as they were riding. At one point (around mile 180) I passed Ryan and felt so bad because I knew he had to be feeling some serious pain (and he was).


After 11 hours and 12 minutes, Ryan rolled across the finish line. Throughout the race he said he kept thinking that this was the only time he would ever do this race, however not less than two hours after the race he was already thinking of ways he could improve on his time for next year…..we’ll see. He’ll have to make some serious deposits in his goodwill account. =)