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| Flaming mantis at Container Park overseeing Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza. |
From the thick, humid air of the US Southeast, I headed for the arid, parched landscape of the desert Southwest; destination: Las Vegas. I arrived in Sin City late Sunday night, the City the Never Sleeps an island of stark brightness in a quiet ocean of barren black. The morning left me confused as to my location. Was I still in North Carolina? Plump, heavy raindrops streamed down in great gushes from an angry sky, thunder rumbling in the distance.
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| Thick clouds blanket Las Vegas Valley in the wake of Norbert. Photo by Chase Stevens |
All day the deluge continued, compliments of Tropical Storm Norbert, dumping record amounts of moisture into the drought-ravaged land. The same storm left a path of devastation all the way across the US, bringing severe storms to the MidWest; even reaching New England and the Northeast. A consequence of all this rain was a lot of flooding. Serious flooding. The kind that washes away whole swathes of roads. Major roads. Like a 20-mile stretch of the only interstate access into Vegas.
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| Road damage on I-15 north of Las Vegas in the wake of Tropical Storm Norbert. |
With the huge international bike exposition Interbike kicking off in Vegas on Wednesday, heaps of people were impacted by the road outage, most importantly (from my view point) VK teammate Tiffany, heading in from Salt Lake City.
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| Red Rock Canyon the day after Norbert. Photo by Kirk Nix, Your Take |
Fortunately, within a day, alternative access routes were established, adding only a couple of hours to the drive. Tiff split the drive over two days, heading down part way Wednesday and then finishing the trek Thursday to arrive in plenty of time for the women’s race at Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza, scheduled for 8:20 Thursday evening. Located in the old-town entertainment district of Vegas on Fremont Street, the newly built Container Park served as an excellent venue for a high-energy Vegas crit. The 8-turn course offered plenty of challenges: tight corners, variable lighting, abrupt width transitions, slick turtle-like Botts’ dot lane markers in the middle of turns.
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| Start-finish for Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza in the Fremont East Entertainment District. |
Pepper Palace got the race off to a fast start. The field was keen to race, with attacks going off the front on each successive lap, Pepper bringing back the gap each time. Eventually I got free of the bunch, countering a dig from Tiffany. After a lap I was joined by a second rider and we began working well together. A lap later, the race was brought to a halt, a wayward pedestrian having walked out onto the course and collided with a rider.
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| Rounding Turn 8 onto Fremont St. at Las Vegas Pedal PaLooza. Raised Bots' dots mark the turn lane. |
After much deliberation and discussion amongst the officials and riders, the decision was made to cancel any further racing for the evening. The topic has many complexities that remain under discussion so for now I'll leave it at that. Though disappointed, I was incredibly fortunate that my trip to Vegas was not all for naught. I had a wonderful four days of catching up with family and seeing the sights, including a beautiful ride through Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
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| Entering Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. |
Friday morning, Tiffany and I headed north to Salt Lake City, taking in the breath-taking backdrop of the Valley of Fire State Park along the way, part of the alternate egress from Vegas, compliments of Norbert. I enjoyed a few days in Salt Lake before heading back across the country to New England where I am currently in Boston for my final weekend of racing of the season
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| Road through Valley of Fire. Photo by Steve Perry, Backcountry Gallery |
Thank you to Mike Olsen and Vegas Bike Racing for lots of hard work in putting together the race, Zappos.com for incredible support and sponsorship for the race and cycling in general, especially women's cycling; my very awesome cousin Annie Manderscheid for fabulous host housing in Las Vegas and her Bichon Saddie for keeping me company during my stay; Si, my Aunt Cathy, and cousins Doug, Stacy, and Annie, Vanderkitten boss Dave Verracchia, and mechanic Dan for coming out to cheer us on at the race; and Tiffany, Steve, and Dmitri for hosting me for an excellent revisit to Salt Lake.
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| Salt Lake City Capital Building from City Canyon Creek. |
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