Rockwell Relay - From Moab to St. George

On Thursday, June 6, we drove with Dave and Angie Jones, Alicia, Mike Andrus, Gayle, and me to Moab (after considerable logistics involving kids, drop-offs, picking up, and coordinating meeting in a parking lot in Orem).  Alicia had convinced Mike and me, and later I recruited Dave, to do the Rockwell Relay.  Gayle and Angie (who was training for a marathon) came along as the support crew.  Here are just some of the literally hundreds of shots taken on the trip.  The event was a relay race that started Friday morning in Moab and ended up in St. George on Saturday - each of the 4 relay team members riding 3 legs for a total of 12 legs and covering 527 miles of desert and mountains - going straight through the night.  No one escaped a lot of climbing and heat.  Unfortunately, both Alicia and Mike each had to skip one leg due to heat exhaustion (they had the hottest legs the first day), but recovered enough to ride their final legs.  So we actually completed 10 of the 12 legs.

 
 At the registration setup in the park prior to the start of the relay.
 Our bikes before the start, early Friday morning in Moab.

 
 Best support team in the relay.

We start the race together in a show of support.  Then I took the first leg from there.

 Ali and Mike, about to get ready to aid me if necessary.  Just one of the many wonders we passed along the way in the background.

Staying hydrated was important.

 We went to places I'd only heard about, or never heard about, in Utah. Here I'm passing the relay "baton" onto Alicia's handlebars in Montecello, UT at the end of the first leg of the race.  I had no idea how much altitude I had to climb to get from Moab to Montecello.

 Each team member and support staff helped.  Here Mike passes a new drink to Ali after she had tossed her other bottle (on ground behind her).

 No matter how painful, for some  reason Alicia always was smiling when she passed us.

 Mike had the driest, hottest, windiest (strong gusts) of the rides.  This leg also happened to be the longest.
 After Mike's first leg, Dave took off.  His beginning point was not too far past the bridge way down below over the Colorado river.  Gayle is close to a serious precipice.  Not sure how many hundreds (thousands) of feet to the bottom.
 
 Another view of the kind of country we pedaled through.

 
 And a few miles later we were traveling through red stone canyons.  We stopped at a rest area.  Here's our vehicle and gear while we wait to support Dave as he comes up the canyon.

 This was right next to the rest area.  The apparent "Y" on my shirt is really a "V" for Valencia, Spain!
 
 From somewhere on that same leg of Dave's.

 Dave ended his ride in the night.  I picked up my second leg and rode into the middle of the night, but none of those pictures turned out!
 
 As we approached Bryce Canyon territory, Gayle and Alicia met some locals in front of a store.

 Taking a photo stop while supporting another of Dave's relay legs.

 Those are what they call "hoo-doos."

 I picked it up in Panguitch after Dave took us past Bryce Canyon.  This is on my final leg.  The climbing seemed to never end!
 Alicia was able to recover a bit while enjoying a view of Panquitch Lake.
 
 Yay!  My last leg is over, finally.
 
 Alicia followed me with her final leg.  Here she's getting support from Mike before taking over.

 Maybe she just plays happy tunes!

 This gives you an idea of what we dealt with.  She's about to go into a curvy, 8% grade descent.  Obviously you have to ascend before you descend, though.  Note the alpine terrain after all that desert riding.  She's going to drop down into Cedar City eventually.
 
 Angie about to hand something to Ali on her final relay ride.

 Mike took over and rode from Cedar City to Enterprise.  Unfortunately, he got a lot of the heat and wind again.  But he rode this leg very strong.  This shot shows how we all supported the rider every several miles.

 Mike powering onward in the sun.

And here's a look at Mike and the road ahead after he passed.  Not exactly a flat ride in front.

 Just an artsy shot of my bike and our team number, with other bikes and the mountains in the back.

 Mike passing the team again.

 And Dave had the final ride to St. George in the dusk and early night.  Heat, fatigue, and more hill climbing, but it was worth it.

 Looking at the scenery as the sun sets while Dave carries on our team's efforts.

 It was late but still quite hot in St. George as we finished and took this photo under the finish line.  A great ride!

We stayed right in St. George.  Here are Ali and Gayle before we took off to head back home.

We stopped in Cedar City for some food and took this shot of our finisher's rings out on the lawn of Chili's.