5:30AM I'm sitting on the edge of the bed eating my breakfast of yogurt and powdered donuts watching the local news the Rev left on TV. There's a 50 mph wind gusting rain storm attacking South Central Kansas with tennis ball sized hail being reported by the reporter just as the images fades to static and the station is lost. Hmmm... that can't be a good omen for todays adventure.
15 minutes later I'm lined up with the boys at the start lot awaiting the riders meeting. They announce the storm is due to hit soon and our route is heading straight into it. They are tossing around the idea of postponing the start 2 hours. Damn. Thoughts suddenly turn to a nice warm breakfast, some leisure time to chill, the body starts to adapt and the tummy starts saying "yeah, breakfast sounds good" just as they tell us that we are starting. The first of many mind games.
We're rolling out on the neutral start with gRant, 8-ball Fixie Mike, and myself sitting in the top 10. oh yeah. We make our way to the front and get a few photos snapped as we "lead". Typical jocular smack talk and silliness going on to pass the time. It was, unfortunately, quickly evident that this crowd wanted nothing to do with that. They were racers and here to race and small talk and fun be damned. They're loss. We hit the gravel road and the pace kicked up. We were all able to stick with the lead pack, spinning our singlespeeds in the low 20's comfortably. The bum bum bum dramatic reverb... the first appearance of water. The train slammed to a stop, riders shouted "single file, single file, slowing!!" What the? I roll to the right and see a puddle. What the? I roll right and right through the puddle with no ill affects, it wasn't even rim deep. Riders behind see that nothing scary is lurking in the murky deeps of the leviathon puddle and we motor on. Chuckling at the silly roadies. Little did they realize the worst water crossings were to come in section 3.
We were gapped by the lead group, but Mike and I easily bridged us back up and enjoyed the draft until the brakes locked on again. Then they motored on, then another hard braking up a little rise, come on people. There were too many to pass, so I let them have some space. The inch worming was draining me. We settled into a second pack not but a few seconds behind the lead pack, having a long hot day in the saddle ahead of us, we weren't to concerned with burning all our matches in the first 15 miles.
Mile 18 is where the fun started. Mike the leader of the gay-wack-rack trend, had purchased one of those 2 bottle tri seat post bottle holders. Scott and gRant followed suit, gRant apparently too good for retail chose to pay 15% more for his. Thanks Walt! Anyway, the downs got choppy and large rocky, their bottles were bouncing out (as I had predicted over Super China Buffet dinner the night before). Waiting on either Scott or Mike to catch back up, we stopped to pee and lost our group. Once back together, we rolled out in our own 4 man team. We were rolling double pace line style, basically just riding in the smoother tire tracks and came up on a mud puddle and some ruts. Mike told me to move right, and I did, only to learn that muddy tire ruts in Kansas are baked harder than granite and it grabbed my front wheel and bitched slapped me around. I nearly took myself and the guys behind me out. I managed to stay upright and ride it out. Whew that was close. A few seconds later I look down and see my wheel wobbling side to side. Damn. Bent the rim. A first for me.
We stopped and I tried to straighten it. It wasn't rubbing and I wasn't going to get it trued without a lot of banging and slamming and I wasn't about to weaken it more. I still had 182 miles to go. I checked the tension on the spokes and snugged up some loose ones and we rolled on, my roll being a bit wobbly, but not affecting handling much or speed at all. Soon we were rolling again with intermittent slow downs waiting on Scott or gRant to pick up an ejected bottle every now and again. Waiting on Scott for what seemed to be too long for a water bottle, we stopped to wait and a girl road past us and Mike made a comment about her needing to lower her seat as she appeared to be rocking a lot. gRant and I commented that she was just really hauling and working hard and it looked fine. Scott then came rolling up telling us that his lock ring had come loose and he had to fix it. While he was stopped to fix it a girl (the one we just saw) road passed and asked if he was ok and he replied "my cock ring fell off", excersion and frustration have a funny affect on how ones mind functions. We laughed our asses off (no wonder she was hauling ass away) and proceeded along our merry way. Finishing being the goal, not land speed records or places.
Two miles up and we see a cow standing in the road and some riders fleeing away. The cow comes charging towards us, wait it's not a cow, it has polls and it's still charging. I hopped off my bike and put it between me and it while it sized me, Mike, gRant, Scott, and another dude up. I was alone off to the right, the others to the left. It snorted and charged right at me lowering it's head and ramming into me. I deflected it with my bike but the bastard hit my fork, bent front wheel, and handlebar before stopping and heading down towards the next hapless victim to be. I yelled to the others "run" and we made haste away from the welcoming committee. What are the odds of my wheel getting tweaked twice within 4 miles?! It would have been cool had fate put the bull there to straighten the wheel, but no such luck and another first for me.
Mike got a front flat a ways later and we stopped so he could fix it. It was 8AM and I was pondering my options. I didn't want to quit but I've never bent a wheel before. Would it hold? Would I end up walking 50 miles to some town somewhere? We didn't have support to come get us. Would my wheel hold? While Mike fixed the flat I pulled out the cell and called Ivory, whom I'm sure loved an 8 am phone call. Since he built the wheel and knows more than I ever will about bike maintenance, I asked him if my wheel would be fine. He said yep and I had the confidence to press on. Though some of the really rough stuff had me worried about tacoing the wheel further, but it held up and gave us ample opportunity to use another Star Wars quote "Don't worry, she'll hold together (come on baby, hold together)".
We made the first checkpoint with an hour to spare after losing an hour after a miscue. Let me just say the maps were worthless unless you were trying to confirm you were lost and the course was marked, but not marked consistently and for first timers, the two combined were confusing. Anyway, we made each checkpoint with an hour to spare and actually had an hour and 15 to spare at the second one. Pacing was good. Hydration was perfect. Attitudes were up and I've never laughed so hard consistently in an event ever. We had our difficulties, hills and valleys, but the group was strong and enjoying it all. The excitement was mostly contained in the first 20 miles, but there are more to tell. But this is starting to ramble.
Mike and I ate some more of the immutable dirt rut stalagmites, causing Scott to rupture with laughter at lights pointing skyward 10 miles from home. Then he flatted 6 blocks or so from the finish. 7 riders came from out of nowhere to pass us for the finish, but it wasn't about placing or time. It was about a group of friends trying something for the first time and conquering the beast together with lots of laughs and memories of good times. Congrats to T.roy for getting to the hundie mark and riding himself home. Congrats to gRant for getting to the hund-fifty mark and giving it all you had. Both of them have had little time to train and stepped up to the plate. Scott, thanks for hanging in there and not letting doubt take you out. You hung strong and finished like a champ. Mike, did you ever get tired? Nice job I knew you'd crush it.
Stay tuned. Maybe I'll write more this week about the hilarity of the trip home. See sneak peak below.
Thanks again fellas for a fantastic weekend. I was in dire need of a fun trip like that. Next up CTR?
Thanks to Mike for some of the photos above. gRant has some more as well as a video of the wobble wheel. Too bad both were cowering while I single handedly battled the mighty fierce cloven beast so no video of that, but Mike did capture the early charging above.
