USU student takes on longest one-day bike race in the country, but he’s not the first

Another Logan to Jackson bike race, or LOTOJA, the longest one-day bike race in the country, came and went last weekend, but it left behind another chapter in its history with Utah State University students.

Last year, elementary education senior Cody Lind wasn’t looking forward to his own “Little Caesars-sized pizza” at the end of his second 200-mile-plus LOTOJA race.

As he pedaled up the last 50 miles, Lind just wanted to stay on his bike.

While riding with a group in Star Valley, Wyoming, about 150 miles into the race, Lind said he noticed the rider ahead of his friend was “squirming” back and forth on the road.

“All the sudden I look down and the guy in front of me, my friend, his whole back tire slides out from underneath him because of him grabbing his brakes,” he said.

Trying to avoid a collision with his friend and the 20 other racers in his group, Lind tried to use his own brakes. But instead of sliding into a jumble of rubber and metal, Lind slid off the road into a barrow pit.

Not wanting to quit with 50 miles left, Cody got back on the saddle and started pedaling.

Battling leg cramps, Lind said the only thing that kept him going, that helped him finish, was a phone call to friend.

This year, Lind has different plans for his ride. This year, Lind said he plans on finishing LOTOJA in 10 hours and 30 minutes, an hour faster than last year.

But without two friends and a businessman with a soft spot of road biking, Lind never would have even heard of LOTOJA.

Jeff Keller was working at Sunrise Cycerly in 1983 when his friend and Utah State University student, David Bern, walked in with a proposition.

“He literally came into Sunrise and said, ‘I’m fat. I’m disgusted with myself. I need to get motivated, how about we have this race to Jackson? That will make me train all summer and lose some weight and we’ll make it into a classic like a one-day European classic,'” Keller said.

Keller agreed and by the end of the summer of 1984, Keller, Bern were among the nine racers of the first LOTOJA.

But the first time Keller raced the more than 200 mile stretch, he soon found out what the European-style classic was like.

“I thought, ‘I’m an idiot,’ to be honest,” Keller said. “There’s enough misery during the ride that you wonder if you’re half stupid for doing it. But then after an hour, half-hour, or hour or two, you start plotting about how to do it better the next time. So it’s kind of this addictive cycle.”

Lind agrees, and it seems the 2,000 cyclists that now register every year for the race seem to think so as well.

Race director Brent Chambers said the race has grown so much in the past years, getting everything ready is about as stressful as putting on Thanksgiving dinner for a large family.

“Eleven months out the year, I’m planning the menu, I’m doing the shopping, I’m getting things all into place,” Chambers said. “And then the month of August comes and then it’s the high-stress time where everything comes out of the oven.”

But Chambers wasn’t always the racing director.

In the mid 1990’s, a LOTOJA racer crashed into a cattle guard.

“Then we got sued,” Keller said.

At the time, the race was not USA Cycling sanctioned, and Keller had to distance himself from the race as a result of the lawsuit.

In the fall of 1997, Chambers said an employee and LOTOJA racer asked if he would be interested in becoming the new race director.

“He knew I had a soft spot for mountain and road biking,” Chambers said. “So I said, ‘yeah.’ Little did I know how naïve I was.”

During Chamber’s time as director, the LOTOJA race increased participation by allowing relay teams.

While Lind’s first year he raced with his dad on a relay team, this year he returns to ride solo, though Lind said his friend will be standing by the phone, “just in case.”

Lind’s preparation for this year involved biking — lots and lots of biking. In order to balance work and school with LOTOJA training, Lind to had to squeeze in biking home from work, on the back roads and canyons in Logan and Smithfield, even during the afternoon along side traffic.

“It’s gotten to the point now where if I go too long without riding I get onery and it just messes me up,” he said. “I have to make time to ride.”

Aside from occasional pit stops along the race route to eat snacks drink Red Bulls — the only time of year Lind drink soda pop he said — Lind plans on staying on his bike as long as possible to get his goal time of 10 hours and 30 minutes.

“It’s going to be a long day,” he said. “I’m prepared for a long day in the saddle.”

After the race, Lind admitted it was a long day — but this year was different. This year, Lind said he got the time he wanted.

— katherine.l.larsen@gmail.com