Don Hanson

Some organizers really blow it when they come to 'course descriptions'. I
did a stage race last winter in Yuma, Az. Actually only two stages, but
quite fun (and they had a separate start for 55+ masters). The road course
was east of Yuma in a hay-growing valley, quite flat. Our race was the
first off, starting at 8am. The race bible called for two laps of a 21 mile
loop for us old masters while the Pro !,2,3 field had 4 laps. The "21 mile"
loop turned out to be an actual 28 miles...I got pretty thirsty, riding an
extra 16 miles on two water bottles only and our second lap, wind was on the
nose coming in, blowing sand at us. It got much stronger as the day went
on..
I bet the top guys were really 'hating life', busting into that wind for
an unanticipated "extra" 28 miles.. That is a substantial miss-calculation,
for which the organizer apologized profusely with some embarrassment.

Don Hanson