La Ruta Day 1

- Trish did not start as she is sick.

- Craig started, finished very respectably considering he's running on an empty tank.  He waited for me for 15 minutes at Checkstop 2. Then we rode much of the big paved climb together.

- I'm here in one piece.  I went through all levels of purgatory out there.  I was ready to face it though, considering I'm undertrained and overweight.  What I wasn't ready for was having to do this stage without a functioning granny ring.  Last few days it was fine.  Today I couldn't get any more than 1 rotation before chain suck.

- Andy finished strong and rode strong all day.

- Lastly, Pat is en-route to hospital.  Convulsing in back of ambulance, they can't get an IV into him.  Dehydrated and low blood sugar.  Hard man with no off switch pushed really, really hard.

-He and I rode together at the start.  He did some good road pulls, then I didn't see him for a while on the first climb.  He passed me in the mud looking super strong, grunting and saying "lodo, lodo" (mud).

- Gerry finished well and was beat and tired but nothing unusual.

- Steve had a tiring day but no huge issues.

- Tori crossed the line looking fresh as a daisy, same time as last year, despite the average time being about an hour longer, and a broken derailleur/hangar that Tim/Gerry both worked on at different times.

- Tim made it to Checkstop 1 then stopped with a hip ailment.