Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher) tries to cool down after finishing her race.(Image credit: James Huang)
Team support staff hold umbrellas over their riders to keep the hot sun off of them.(Image credit: James Huang)
The pro women started out at an unusually conservative pace to avoid blowing up on account of the heat. Apparently no one gave the memo to the men, though, as 23 riders - more than a third - pulled out of the race.(Image credit: James Huang)
Katerina Nash (Luna) hasn't been doing funky workouts at the gym - like many racers, she's got ice bags stuffed down the back of her skinsuit to ward off the heat.(Image credit: James Huang)
The Subaru-Gary Fisher team riders used pre-chilled vests to stay cool before the start.(Image credit: James Huang)
Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) stuffed ice bags down the back of his jersey to keep himself cool before the start.(Image credit: James Huang)
Some riders didn't just get water bottles at the feed zone. Tucked in with the bottle here is a short section of stocking packed with ice cubes to keep in a jersey pocket.(Image credit: James Huang)
Georgia Gould (Luna) raced her new Orbea Alma 29 for the first time at the Mellow Johnny's Classic - and won.(Image credit: James Huang)
Georgia Gould (Luna) high-fives a young fan after winning her race at the Mellow Johnny's Classic.(Image credit: James Huang)
Carl Decker (Giant) douses himself with water in the tech zone in an attempt to maintain a reasonable core temperature.(Image credit: James Huang)
Carl Decker (Giant) takes a hand-off of a full gallon jug of water but it's not for drinking.(Image credit: James Huang)
These giant blue tubs were scattered around the start area. Each 'Water Monster' holds 475L (125 gallons) of fluid accessible from six self-serve outlets and can be refilled via the standard hose hook-up.(Image credit: James Huang)
This year's Mellow Johnny's Classic included a similarly entertaining course as last year but also unusually hot weather even for late May in Texas. Mid-day temperatures pushed 38°C (100°F) and were coupled with high humidity, intense sun and relatively calm wind - perfect conditions for heat exhaustion.
Racers took extreme measures to try and stay cool as a result, not just during the race but also beforehand.
The simplest solution was just trying to do as little as possible prior to the start and then exercise care not to expend too much energy - and generate too much heat - once the race got going.
"Just moderate the pace," said Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain). "Once we get moving it shouldn't be too bad but I'm mostly just trying to stay cool right now before the race. Also, ice the drinks and get them as cool as possible. I usually have an ice vest but we don't have the team trailer here."
Subaru-Gary Fisher riders, including 2009 winner Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, were well equipped though, with the full team trailer. Rather than do his usual pre-race warm-up, Horgan-Kobelski instead did a very abbreviated routine prefaced by a long stint at the team pit area with ice-filled zip-lock bags stuffed down the back of his jersey plus a cooling vest on top.
"I'm sitting here drinking water instead of warming up right now because it's already so hot," he said just minutes before the start. "Really in the race, the most important thing is to meter your effort because you'll never recover today; drink a lot and consistently, and honestly, try not to think about it. It's not really that hot out here, right?"
In many cases, those ice packs weren't just used before the race, either. Team support staff clipped the corners of those bags beforehand so the melting water dripped down the riders' backs to help keep them cool as the race progressed.
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Still, that just wasn't enough for Horgan-Kobelski and others. Double bottle hand-ups were common with one meant for drinking and the other intended to dump on their head and torso. Giant's Carl Decker even went so far as to take a full gallon-sized jug of water from his support crew - and poured the entire thing on himself before reapplying the gas.
Those cooling strategies clearly paid dividends today, too. In the men's race, the early leader ultimately fell more than two minutes back by the end of the first lap - and as Horgan-Kobelski predicted, never looked to recover from his early effort. And in the women's race, Kelli Emmett was as far back as sixth late in the race before surging all the way up to second.
"I put ice bags on my hands and feet instead of my core. It seemed to really help to keep me cool," she said. "I also had ice stuffed into all of my jersey pockets. I went hard enough to get a good start but then I also knew people were going to start coming back if they went too hard. So many people come backwards [in those conditions]. This was probably the second-hottest race I'd ever done."
