We back over here now that the season is upon us.
Batsto 200k.
Rolled into the lot fashionable late, got ready, and started about 20 minutes behind the group.
Tailwinds and good roads made short work of the outward leg. 23ish mph average took me from dead last to first before the 60 mile turn-around. Sub 3-hours. Downside to that? It wasn’t open when I got there 🤷
So no refuel until the next Control in 35-miles.
Now riding into a headwind and thirsty, my pace settled into something more slow. Was still teetering on a 6-hour 200k, but not by much.
Hit Wawa for 90-mile stop. Filled my bottles and ate a pretzel, back on the bike. Felt a bonk coming on so I pushed a bit harder to get on the other side of it quicker.
Next 10-miles or so was shit roads and the spaceship bike was taking a beating. Eventually I felt a looseness in the front end and realized my fork had basically unthreaded 😳
Not an easy roadside repair to pull the front end of one of these things apart, but that’s exactly what I did.
Lost 15-20 minutes and got back on the bike right as 2nd went by me. I had a stupid gap but now I sort of limped the last 19-miles to the finish and was happy with 3rd. Still a sub 7 200k in course but with my late start it was a 7:16 I think. I don’t usually count when the event starts because you have an hour window to actually start.