The Kirks: Lotoja Letdown

This was Tyler's sixth year of doing the Lotoja Bike race. 206 miles from Logan UT, to Jackson, WY.

Tyler doesn't want to relive talking about this race,

so I will do the best that I can of explaining it, without having actually riden it!

He said that within the first half hour or so, some guy broke off from the group and Seth took off after him. So he said that he was able to take it easy and just told everyone he wasn't going to chase his own guy down, so he wasn't going to push it.

On the first climb the group passed this guy that broke off and they caught Seth shortly before the top of the climb. On the decent he and another guy broke off from the group.

The support group (the wives) usually get to Montpelier at least an hour and a half before they come blazing through, so we are ready. But every year the groups at the feed zones get bigger and bigger, so it is very frustrating to try and see your rider.

But anyway, Tyler came through, said he was feeling good and took off again. At this point all of our guys were very spread out, due to flat tires, leg cramps and other things.

Kevin wasn't too far behind Tyler, so Jenn continued on with me.

About halfway through our ride from Montpieler to Afton is where we start catching up to all the riders.

We came to Salt River Pass, which is also known as the King of the Mountain and we saw Kevin and his group and then eventually passed Tyler.

We made it in to Afton and I kept waiting and waiting and saw some other guys that I knew had been behind Tyler, and then I saw Kevin come into the feed zone and was worried that I had missed him. I found Jenn and she said that Kevin had passed Tyler.

Tyler came in a few minutes later and I asked if he was ok and he said no! Before you hit it the king of the mountain climb they have riden about 100 miles and he said that was when the stomach flu hit him! Unfortunately I had had this hit me five days before, and it totally was like being hit with a ton of bricks. Tyler somehow usually manages to avoid about 95% of the ailments going around our house, and I was hoping this would too. He said he had to keep stopping just to sit down.

He didn't want to stop but continued on, but was unable to eat or drink much of anything without feeling like it was going to come back up.

At the last feed zone in Alpine he did not look good, we were able to get him to try and take some pepto and some water, but once again he wouldn't quit.

He eventually crossed the finish line with a time of 10 hours and 27 minutes.

I just feel so bad that I passed on the flu to him, he keeps telling me that it isn't my fault, but I still feel that it is. He had a really good chance of placing this year. The guy that he had gone on the breakaway with came in first place.

He says that this was his last Lotoja, we will see.......

Tyler, Brandon, John, Chad, Seth, Zach, Kevin and Adam ready to head to the start line in the pitch black morning

After the last feed zone in Alpine, Jenn and I were worried about him, so we stopped ahead and got out to see how he was doing. He gave us a smile and a thumbs up. Later I asked him if it was fake and he said yes!