Tough Twists in Tulsa

Tulsa, Oklahoma. Never heard of it. Don't even know where Oklahoma is. Does it have an airport? Is it far to fly to? What time zone is it in? Is it tornado prone?
The whole thing about Tulsa and my desire to visit centred on a three day criterium event known as 'Tulsa Tough'. I first learned of this through the NRC calendar, and after discussions with the team - who were not sending any riders whatsoever to the event - I decided that I could wrangle a solo racing venture into my race calendar on route to the west coast. After all, it must be somewhere between the east coast and the west coast, surely?
It was a weekend of learning. Here's a bit of a summary.

Tulsa was once considered the capital of the oil world. According to locals, that designation is now allocated to Houston, Texas. However, oil remains a critical and vital component to the Tulsa economy.

The Tulsa Tough weekend is in its third year, but has the misfortune of being scheduled against the popular ‘Philly week’ racing in Philadephia, as well as the womens World Cup and Tour of Montreal, in, erm…Montreal.

Nevertheless, the prize pool and level of competition in Tulsa was surprisingly high. The racing was great, the courses fantastic – both challenging technically and physically – and the organization simply superb.

Tulsa slang includes ‘Buy’ (to say goodbye), ‘Walmarts’ and ‘wersh my clothes’. They also use the term ‘golly’, but say it: ‘gall-eeey’.

The Tulsa Tough weekend isn’t just for out of town racers from across the country and the world. The event organizers also arrange for a number of recreational riding events, junior events and community activities. They mean it when they want to bring cycling into the city.

And this made racing in such an atmosphere even more pleasing.

All juniors, rec riders and racers received a tee shirt and drink bottle, info about Tulsa, free water and good vibes. You rarely see that sort of detail for a one-day event, let alone a three day one.

Bike friendly-ish Tulsa

Tulsa has a population of around 500,000 and is not only home to oil and oil-spin off industries, it includes oil-oriented university courses, its own airport, and the Tulsa Zoo.

Despite the conflict of races scheduled for the weekend, we rolled out to the first race on Friday night with about 60 chicks. Not a bad lineup which included Cheerwine, a full squad from Vanderkitten, Jazz Apple (consisting of NZers but including Belinda Goss), and America’s Dairyland, and strong individuals such as Jen McRae from Advil Chapstick and Shelley Olds from Proman. And me! Here was my team setup, which differed significantly to the large team truck and multiple team vehicles for the men (and us) at Tour of Somerville one week prior.
With some technical courses, including more than four corners in a lap, conditions were ripe for some fun racing and some stacks. It was wise to stay near the front and out of trouble. While I didn’t always succeed in this, I did manage to avoid all crashes, for which I was very thankful for. Surprisingly, ambulances were required for two races, yet racing didn’t stop. We just had to not swing as wide on a couple of corners to avoid bikes and bodies on the ground!
The first two races both came down to positioning in the final lap. I knew this, yet with shabby legs I struggled to get myself into the right position and hold it for the final. The second race featured a bit of a hill, and gaps started to appear as the crunch came on the final lap, thanks to a half-lap attack by Shelly Olds. Amazingly, she held on for second place, while I scrapped up a few more spots to claim seventh again.

You’ve heard the expression, ‘if you don’t like the weather here, then stick around for 20 minutes’. I’ve personally heard it applied to Melbourne, Colorado Springs, and most recently, Tulsa. I just never realized what intense variations the weather could hold in one place, and over the course of one weekend. Not only is Tulsa prone to tornadoes (without any recent direct hits on the city, but still subject to warnings), it is also prone to intense thunderstorms, hail, ferocious winds, calm blue skies and stifling heat. All in the one day.

I have never been so scared mid storm as I was during the intense thunderstorms that struck Tulsa on the morning of day three. I was actually down at the start/finish, talking with neutral support wonder, Jose, from SRAM. It was raining steadily at this point, and I mentioned to him that some thunderstorm warnings were current for Tulsa. He and another local guy laughed at my concern, ‘Bah! You get those warnings all the time!’ Yet as soon as he finished his sentence, the sky was completely lit with lightening, end to end. And accompanied by an almighty crack. I may have squealed at this point, as it was bloody close and scary. Suddenly, the rain was a lot harder, the wind had come from nowhere and started to rush through the finishing straight. The top of the SRAM rain/sun shade blew off. I grabbed for it. Jose stopped me and said, ‘do yourself a favour. Get in my car. Now.’ Already drenched, I jumped into the driver seat of the SRAM vehicle. The rain intensified ten-fold. Jose, wrapped up in a full wet weather coat, hat and gumboots remained outside for two good reasons: sitting outside his car was approximately $75,000 worth of spare bikes, wheels and other equipment, and secondly, there were no other available seats for him to take cover from. Feeling bad, I turned to watch the storm rip through the area. Riders who had just completed the Cat IV mens amateur race were clinging to tent poles like their life depended on it. Again, the skies were lit with lightning and thunder. The car started to rock from the onslaught of wind and rain. The street flooded beneath us. I started to think that this might be the end. That a tornado was due any second now. And all I could do was sit there, stuck in the front seat of a neutral spares vehicle as the car would be picked up and whisked away into the Akansas River.

The SRAM car and equipment that was caught out in the storm.

The massive Arkansas River, where I was sure we would end up in.

After a few minutes Jose opened up the back boot and in his usual sunny manner said, ‘it’s a bit like when they give you five minutes to pack up your life before evacuation: what to take?’ He started loading up all his sets of 404 spare wheels used as part of his race support services. I assisted in stacking them, pair after pair after pair. All drenched. But at least not blown or floating away.

A few more minutes passed and the wind seemed to die down. It was just raining hard now. Jose opened the car door and grabbed the camera, and I took a pic with his. Mine was still in my car – if I still had a car! With emergency sirens filling the air, he reported from the commissaries that racing for the rest of the day was cancelled. But the weather was on the improve. It was time to get moving. Another storm was expected to file through shortly, so I sprinted back to the car and in a panic drove as fast as I could back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel, I sat inside and waited. And waited. No sounds of a terrible storm. That’s funny. I checked the tv, and watched in amazement as the storm was detailed by local weather channels as it passed through the rest of Oklahoma. 60,000 homes without power. Lots of damage. The two storm fronts had come in quick succession, and had merged together right about at Tulsa. There was no second storm front to come. Phew! Still, I sat mesmerized, waiting for a second storm front to appear on the radar. Yet there was none. Hmmm, if there was nothing else to come, would that mean the roads would be okay to race on? That’s a shame to have cancelled the racing. Maybe I should check. I logged onto the Tulsa website and noticed a weather update, informing that all racing had been cancelled. Except for the pro men and women. They would still run as per the schedule. Crap! That means I am racing…in less than an hour!

I managed to make it to the start sans any warmup, and with pleasure was greeted with one of the most intense and technical crit courses you could come across. Follow the straight into the head wind to then greet a steep hill that turned a corner, only to continue upwards. Followed by two more sharp turns – a new add-on thanks to a damaged powerline blocking the original course - another rise, and then a sharp downhill to greet an off-camber right hand turn into the finishing straight. It was a tough course. The roads were almost dry by race time, and quickly evaporated any evidence of the mornings flooding. The sun appeared, and we were racing in heat and humidity. One hell of a course.

First climb from the finishing straight up...and up...and to the right..and more up...
Looking down at the sharp descent and the lovely brakeing required to turn right at the bottom.

My focus was to get through the race. This took a lot of focus as the requirements on the legs were pretty awful. I didn’t feel great and things didn’t improve. Actually, only half of the field finished the race. I got through until the last lap and then the resolve could not overcome the lack of spring in the legs. I cracked and rolled in for 19th, which put me at 11th overall for the weekend. Considering how poorly suited I was to the course, I have to be comfortable with the result. But, having come to know a bit about Tulsa, I know I will have to be tougher to come back next year and get through this series with success. Bring it on!

Many thanks to Jose for being such wonderful support over the three days, checking over my bike, providing me with race wheels and just being a great sport.

Jose

My 'team car' in Tulsa - bit different to the team truck, van and car (and staffing) from the previous weekend!

Following the three day racing extravaganza, I was privy to a tour of the endocinology offices of south Tulsa thanks to an athlete day with Sanofi Aventis. The local reps were great folk, as were the docs, but the real highlights were learning the local slang (as noted above) and the triple deck overpass Tulsa has. You gotta love a good bit of concrete.