The last of mountain bike series races took place at stony creek. My home course, the course I ride all the time. If there was going to be a race that I did good on this season this would be it.
The day didn’t start out to good. As I was loading up my bike onto my roof rack I heard an all to familiar ping sound. A spoke broke again on the rear wheel. Well the nipple sheared in half actually. This was a different nipple than the one that broke at fort custer, but the same wheel, FSA XC-300. What would cause that to happen when the bike is just sitting there is beyond me. So I loaded up the single speed and my old set of wheels, mavic crossrides. I figured this way if the old wheels dont want to work at least I have the SS to fall back on. I threw the old wheel on and pumped it and all seemed well.
My first lap I got stuck behind some slow traffic on the first section of the roller coaster that I couldn’t get around. By the time I did the lead pack was already gone. The guy that I was stuck behind was keeping a faster pace than me on two track, but I knew I had to get around him before the pines otherwise I would be out of the race for sure. So I got around the last of the guys just before the entrance to the pines. Somewhere on this lap I started to notice a bike problem. My rear wheel was not free wheeling, and something was rattling around. But I ignored it and I just pushed and turned in a :33 minute lap.
Lap 2 I was hurting a little and decided to take a bit of a break in a couple of parts. I was tearing through the rollercoaster and I hit a patch off mud in a turn. Luckily I was able to stay somewhat upright by hopping along on my left foot while my right was still clipped in. Apparently my backup tires aren’t so good in the mud. My save hurt my back but I tried to put it out of my mind. My almost crash made me back off the speed and I turned a :36 minute lap.
The third lap my plan was turn it up a little about ½ way through. I didn’t recover as much on my second lap as I would of hoped. I tried to pick up the pace a little, but to no avail. I did manage to bounce off a couple of trees, luckily I was able to keep from crashing. I was getting close to the end of the race, and I caught one guy that passed me earlier in the race, but I could not keep contact with him. The slow guy that held me up on the first lap caught me as well on the last big hill and I had nothing left to chase him down. Turns out he wasn’t in my class anyways. So this was my slowest lap, 37 minutes.
I got 9th place. Not really what I set out to do, but oh well.
I figured out what the rattling noise was when I got home, any guesses? Another broken spoke on my back up rear wheel. At least this one was at the hub, not the rim. Something different this time I guess.
Next weekend is my first cyclocross race, I am really looking forward it.
No comments:
Post a Comment