durrrty

i think Kevin M. said it best, “imagine the worst race you’ve be in; it’s worse than that.”

with that said it was still a ton of fun. when else do you get a chance to ride in 4-5 inches of mud and water for 28 miles and not feel like a jerk?

i drove out to Twisted Tire w/ Jeremy and we were hoping they were going to call off the race. it had been raining since the night before. well…we got there, race was still on. i get my number, put my kit on and stood around under the Tevendale tent. i warmed up (or cooled off is more like it) for about 5 min. (more)

on the line, a bunch of cold, wet dudes. GO…we’re off through a gross feild. mud in my eyes almost instantly. into the single track, 4-5 inches of mud, consistently through the whole 7 mile lap! all i could hear were gunked up brake pads on rotors, or in my case one rotor and one (now “tired”) rim brake. (thanks James!) i made it into the single track in a good position, about 3rd.

2nd lap, still 3rd about 2 min behind Wittwer and Jeremy. half way into the lap the rear brake goes, GONE! and somewhere near the end of that lap the front is 90% gone. it turns out that the pads were all that way worn through and i was wearing through the brake shoes.

3rd lap, went well. still 3rd, still couldn’t see much because of mud in my eyes. then…shifting stops. the bike will only shift if i push the shifter and wait til my rear wheel hits a large bump. i roll lap three decently.

last lap, 3rd still. now that i’m basically riding a brakless singlespeed, i stop caring about mechanical issues and start focusing on the riding and hammering what i can. once i knew i was about 2-3 miles from the finish i gave it all a had. i tried to shift to harder gears twards the end but had little sucess. i pushed as hard as i could over that grass/mud feild at the end and managed to keep 3rd place.

see you on the bike.
-kyle