Mike Nosco was in the Navy for 20 years, he was part of a very elite unit called the HCS-5 (Helicopter Combat Support). He also worked at a Biotech company called Amgen for 10 years. Unfortunately Mike was tragically killed in a car crash on November 3, 2004. His brother, Jack, started the Mike Nosco memorial ride 3 years ago, and the event has grown massively in that short time. The ride has attracted many of the USA's best professional cyclists, with names such as Lance Armstrong, Chris Horner, Dave Zabriskie, Neil Shirley and Andy Hampsten. This year was no different, Lance Armstrong made an attendance to the VIP dinner, Dave Z and Neil Shirley as well as Ned Overend (mountain bike legend) all came out to ride the brutal 80mile route on Thursday.
So the route that we were going to be meandering on was pretty insane, probably the most hilly route Ive ever seen, with a total ascent of around 3500m-4000m!! The fact that there were a couple former World and National Champions as well as current super stars like DZ, and past super stars like Neil Shirley, I knew this wouldn't be any walk in the park. The pace was fairly mellow for the first 20 miles of the ride until we hit the first and most brutal f all the climbs, Deer Creek. I launch one of the first attacks at the bottom of the grueling climb, but was pretty soon outdone by Neil Shirley. He came blazing past me, and brought along Ned Overend and another recently retired professional road racer. I managed to ride myself back onto Neil's wheel, and so began a long, intense day in the saddle. The lead group got smaller and smaller as the miles ticked away.
Every mountain pass we went up was brutal, but we were rewarded with the most amazing decents, some being 15-20km long at times! As we began to make our way up the last major climb, Latigo Canyon,, which was at the 100km mark, all seemed to have come back down to a humanly pace.... that was short lived. About 5kms up the climb Neil laid down the law once again. I felt good and went with, along with Ned Overend, Thurlow Rodgers (former world road race champion) and one or two others. But the heat, and distance we had covered, as well as the intensity at which we'd be riding began to take its toll on me as we approached the final 1,5miles of the climb. I hung onto the wheels for dear life, pushing myself deep into the hurt box, but I managed to hold on over the top before stopping at a feed station. Then came a super gnarly descent, probably my favorite of the entire ride, long swooping corner, fast twisty chicanes, tight switch backs, banked corners... it was insane. I had a couple hairy situations where the rear wheel completely locked up, but fortunately I managed to keep things rubber side down!
After the tricky mountain pass, came a long section of rolling climbs and descents. The front group had regrouped and was now 12strong as we began to hit the cross winds. The pace got upped drastically as we edged closer and closer to the end of the ride, with a couple riders trying their luck at getting off the front. One thing was for sure though, the group was getting blown apart by the crazy accelerations. By the time we rolled back into the car park where the ride had started, the group had been strung out into 7 or 8 riders, I was just glad to be one of those 7 or 8. Man, that was a tough day, the pace was relentless up front, but what was truly amazing was the fact that 500odd cyclists took the time out from their week to come down and support an amazing cause as well as remember the life of Mike Nosco. This year the ride was also in memory for Ronette Espinoza, who tragically lost her battle with cancer.
If anyone would like to make a donation to this amazing cause just follow the link here http://www.mikenosco.com/sponsors/
A huge thanks to Team Sho-Air/Specialized for an amazing couple days and for taking both the Sprinter and RV to the event, and a major shout out to Ben Bostrom and Nikki for hosting myself, Johnny and Ty while we were there. They have an amazing house overlooking Malibu, its simply mind blowing. THANKS GUYS!
Images courtesy of Veloimage
The amazing view from the Bostroms. Excuse the bar across the screen, I was too mesmerised by the sunset to even move.
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