Tuesday, April 27, 2010

all palooza-ed out.

Singlespeedapalooza was pretty frickin' awesome. The ride down on Saturday was a beautiful day. I packed into the car with three good friends and we headed out for NY. We got some funny looks from a lot of people on the ferry, with four grown men packed into a car with four bikes on top.
We were on the FREE ferry because the old bridge to NY is in need of some repair.
We got to the trailhead around 5 and there were quite a few people preriding the course. West coast Ti meets east coast Ti. I would rock a IF, but I don't have enough tattoos and I can't grow cool facial hair. I also love my Mooto-x.
After the dusty dry lap on super fun singletrack on Saturday, it rained most of the night and Sunday morning, turning the course into a big ribbon of greasy glop. I was able to get a good starting position and stayed with the lead group on the fire road start, and into the singletrack. I waited to pass people until we popped out onto the road again, where I took advantage of the big (for the course) climb to catch up to Eric (our driver) and pass him right before we entered the first long section of single track. I made a few more passes on the newly cut single track (which turned into a mudslick by the second lap) and was alone for most of the remainder of the lap. I was feeling pretty good and in the top fifteen as I finished my first lap, and then I felt a bit of a wobble in my pedal stroke. I figured I could most likely finish the lap and be done, but I was mistaken. Half way through the final lap my crank arm on the drive side decided it was done and started to point toward the ground, just like the non-drive crankarm. I hopped off the trail and waited for Eric, who was nice enough to throw me his multi tool. I retightened and kept going, hoping to make it home. Unfortunately, I had to tightened the crank arm at the top of most of the climbs, about six times total. I finished in 18th and immediately downed a few hotdogs and some mighty tasty terrapin ale. I would go to Georgia just for more. I was kind of bummed at the end of the race, but overall it was a great time and I got to meet Dejay Birtch after. He even gave me a sticker, making this trip wicked frickin' good.


1 comment:

  1. nice job. bummer of a mechanical but that shit happens.

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