Well Chainbuster's 6Hr Race at Oak Mtn didn't go too well for me, hence the lack of a race report post race. I ended up having several mechanicals on the day, two injuries, and just an off day. I felt great pre-race, bike was setup perfect, just one of those days I guess.
The first mechanical I had was my rear axle slipped and I dropped my chain. Got it set back correctly and tightened but then went on to drop the chain once more several hours later. In the first lap, the race organizers included a parade lead out of about 1/2 mile on the road at the start of the race. This was bullshit for people on single speeds because all the "oh lets go out and have fun" 3 man team 6hr racers, which shouldn't even be a category, I mean it's an endurance race, not a fun ride, shot their wad sprinting into the woods, causing a very slow lap for me and several other ss'ers I talked to. It caused a lot of frustrations in the field and several strong words of encouragement from me when people felt compelled to stop in the middle of a climb and just look around in the middle of the trail. I'm actually still pretty pissed off when I think about those ass clowns but whatever, that's racing I guess, just annoying and consequently, these "racers" lead to my first injury on the day. While descending Jeykell and Hyde on the hand built upper section, there were many in-experienced riders that kept stopping and falling over in the middle of the trail, blocking quite frequently the only line, so me and two other ss'ers pacing each other would just shoulder the bike and run uphill around these, for a lack of a better word, obsticals. Well while running around one guy who fell over still clipped in and managed to just lay there making no attempt to get out of the way, I rolled my left ankle, this was at mile 6 of a targeted 60 mile race. As soon as I rolled it I knew it was bad, I felt my ankle bone hit the ground. But I just gritted my teeth and didn't look to check how bad it was.
The second injury came when I was going down the machined section of Jeykell and Hyde when I tried to pass a slower rider on the high side of the trail where a crib wall was setting at about 4 ft high to my right. Well I made a clean pass but the sharp angle and speed gave way to a little drift in the front and I held my hand out to keep my handlebars from digging into the crib wall at almost 18 mph and when I did, my three outside fingers got caught in some vines and hyper-extended two fingers, they immediately hurt and were mostly useless for the rest of the race as I couldn't clamp very tight to my bar after that happened. This was also in the first 10 miles. So needless to say my first lap was not the best, still I pressed on focusing on meeting my pre-race goals and lap times.
I was able to complete 3 laps, each in sub 60 mins, and on my 4th lap around mile 6, I shredded my pawls in my freewheel and lost all engagement. At this point I had been on a bike for a little over 3.5hrs, had done 35 miles with about 3500ft of climbing, and was feeling great considering my prior two injuries. But there was no way I could hike-a-bike 4 miles on a sprained ankle and fix my freewheel in my pit so I rode to the nearest road and hitch-hiked back to my pit area and called it a day. DNF'ed but for the miles I put up I was able to meet my race goals and overall performed well given all the mishaps.
I took last week off the bike and rehabbed the ankle all week, got on the trainer slowly and now am back on the bike and continuing regular training. Missed out on the CX state championship race last night, which looked like an awesome course to race, but am hoping to put in a good week riding this week, catch a race in southern Ohio on my way back from visiting family next Sunday, then start to get ready for Sloss Cross.
Also want to mention the team kits came in last week and look great. Will try and get a pic up soon but will be racing the rest of the cross season in them as well.
Also want to mention the team kits came in last week and look great. Will try and get a pic up soon but will be racing the rest of the cross season in them as well.
