Wildcat 100
On the car ride up to New Paltz with Kirt a rock hit the windshield and cracked it. As Kirt was driving he said maybe that’s a bad omen. As I looked at the crack right in front of me I dismissed it and said no, its gonna be a good race.
I think Kirt was right about that omen for the WC100. It rained most of the race, I had two flats, put a kink in a chain that Pearl would be proud of, kept dropping my chain off the lower pulley and finally broke my derailleur. I am getting so good at fucking up derailleur’s that I don’t even have to google the spelling anymore.
With so many mechanical problems, riding my mtb 100 miles became more of a mental test. 26er helped me out with my first flat. We were only 5 miles in but it was nice to have a buddy to calm me down and get going again. At mile 55 Havoc (Jeff) was nice enough to stop and help me repair my chain. After 55 miles on a bike I find it difficult to tie my shoes, luckily Jeff had a chain tool and was able to help me keep going. I had to laugh when my derailleur stopped working after Jeff helped me out. Luckily I already did the big climb in the race and had some really nice down hills to ride. I managed to limp back on the Wallkill rail trail with my excess chain dangling on a derailleur that did not take up the slack.
I ended up with 82 miles and was on the bike for almost 8hrs. This is the most time and miles I put on a mtb and probably the most challenging ride I have done mentally. There were times I seriously thought about bailing and getting a ride back, but once I made a repair and started pedaling again I realized that this was a test, so I accepted the challenge. Riding in the valley of the Wallkill rail trail for the last 13 miles was really quite beautiful despite the rain.
I don’t believe in omens, but if I do this race next year and get a crack in the windshield on the way up you may not see me at the starting line…bitch.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/312029873
On the car ride up to New Paltz with Kirt a rock hit the windshield and cracked it. As Kirt was driving he said maybe that’s a bad omen. As I looked at the crack right in front of me I dismissed it and said no, its gonna be a good race.
I think Kirt was right about that omen for the WC100. It rained most of the race, I had two flats, put a kink in a chain that Pearl would be proud of, kept dropping my chain off the lower pulley and finally broke my derailleur. I am getting so good at fucking up derailleur’s that I don’t even have to google the spelling anymore.
With so many mechanical problems, riding my mtb 100 miles became more of a mental test. 26er helped me out with my first flat. We were only 5 miles in but it was nice to have a buddy to calm me down and get going again. At mile 55 Havoc (Jeff) was nice enough to stop and help me repair my chain. After 55 miles on a bike I find it difficult to tie my shoes, luckily Jeff had a chain tool and was able to help me keep going. I had to laugh when my derailleur stopped working after Jeff helped me out. Luckily I already did the big climb in the race and had some really nice down hills to ride. I managed to limp back on the Wallkill rail trail with my excess chain dangling on a derailleur that did not take up the slack.
I ended up with 82 miles and was on the bike for almost 8hrs. This is the most time and miles I put on a mtb and probably the most challenging ride I have done mentally. There were times I seriously thought about bailing and getting a ride back, but once I made a repair and started pedaling again I realized that this was a test, so I accepted the challenge. Riding in the valley of the Wallkill rail trail for the last 13 miles was really quite beautiful despite the rain.
I don’t believe in omens, but if I do this race next year and get a crack in the windshield on the way up you may not see me at the starting line…bitch.
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/312029873
