Story of the masters nationals by Doug Pomeranz:

I arrived at Pittsburgh Intl airport on Saturday mid day, with about an 1 1/2 hr drive to Race site I  picked up a Big Fat Burrito for a Saturday night meal,  On the drive, there was major road construction and we had to be diverted - the drive wound up taking about 3-4 hours, Well Mr. Burrito sitting in a car for 4 hours must have got busy, not thinking about the prospects of Food bacteria, I scarfed it down, Within a few hours my stomach turned inside out and this continued, I could not eat solid food for 3 days, I would try and eat and within an hour, run wildly for the can.

Sunday morning was the crit, I figured I would sit in - well the race was aggressive and fast and I was pedaling through Mud - no strength - finished in the field. With RR 2 days later, I was hoping for a quick recovery - but this did not happen, the worst was yet to come - just couldn't keep any food down. After consideration of heading home, I decided to go to the RR Start and give it go and see. The Course was a Hilly, Climbing Monster, over 6000' in 56 miles To give you some understanding, we did a four laps on a Lollipop loop with a .7 mile climb at 9-11% hitting the climb at no speed, as we had to make a hard 90 degree left turn and then hit this wall (4 times up) then we finished on top of a ski Lodge about 7 miles to the top (Similar to Climbing River Gorge in Tenn for 7 miles) From the gun the race was banzai fast with people knocking and bumping for position on the narrow country roads. My legs and body were not at full strength and was not able to ride the race I wanted. Each time up the wall we lost many riders, I stayed in contact each lap.

We hit the Final 7 mile stretch with about 30 riders of the 100 man field, 3 riders were up 30 seconds so the chase was on. This final climb was steep and with little recovery.

There was a surge and we split off more riders, with 2 miles to go there was one guy off the front, another chasing, this was 1st and 2nd, then our group of 18.

There was another 1K climb WALL to the finish we pretty much came in 1 by 1, I finished 16th.

Not really content, but satisfied with the result considering my health, I yruly felt under normal healthy conditions I would have been more of a factor.