Man vs. Lizard: Corey Farrell's Gila Report Stage #1

Our youngest team member, Corey Farrell, isn't afraid to cause himself immense amounts of pain and suffering in the name of athletic accomplishments. It should surprise no one that Corey was once a professional triathlete! Corey headed over to Tour of the Gila, one of the gnarliest US stage races. Below is his race report from stage 1:

So heres my experience on stage 1. It was a 95 mile race, and there was a break of 3 guys that got away early and got a gap of 9 minutes on the pack. I attacked with 50 miles to go and got 3 guys to follow and one bridged up. We worked alright, but a few guys were missing their pulls so I filled in for them. I definitely felt like I was the strongest. We got a gap of about 2:30 on the pack, and closed the gap to the 3 leaders to about 4 minutes. We held the 2:30 to the pack, but we eventually caught the 3 leaders. 

So there was a lead group of 6 with 2:30 on the pack and it was about 10 miles to go. 7 of those were STRAIGHT uphill and finished at 7,000 ft. We started the climb and I felt awesome. We were able to drop 2 of the guys with 5 miles to go, leaving a group of 4 of us. The other guys definitely looked pretty beat, and I was still feeling REALLY good. We rode together and our gap was only down to 2:20 with 3 miles to go, so we were definitely going to stay away. To be honest I was thinking of an awesome victory salute to make up for Zack's at Dana Point. I was 99% positive I was going to win. We rode together all while still holing on to our 2:20 lead with 2 miles to the finish. Then...I hit a wall harder than I have ever hit a wall before about 1.5 miles from the finish. It felt like a gorilla/rhino/semi truck slammed into me full force. I went from planning a victory salute to about to tip over on my bike. The other guys rode away from me like I was standing still, I wanted to die. I was seriously riding at MAYBE 3 mph. My legs just wouldn't work no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't believe it. I was looking over my shoulder praying I would be able to hold on for a good placing. 

Then it happened. A group of 3 guys passed me, then a group of 2, next a group of 5. Then thats all I remember. I wanted to die right there on the mountain. I guess at the finish I sat my bike down and laid down. Paramedics started an IV on me, and filled me up with 3 bags of whatever it is they use. I was lights out, and mummified with wet towels and ice packs for what they say was over an hour. When I came to everyone was gone except a team of medics and the race director. I got a ride back into town in an ambulance, and now I feel a lot better. I think I might have placed right inside the top 20. When things went bad, they went REALLY bad. I'm still going to try to salvage a good result in GC.