So I had to come back east to take care of some personal business, and the timing allowed me to hit up the race. Since I just finished building up my new Niner single speed I decided this would be the bike to bring from Cali. I never did an endurance race on a single speed, let alone one with a rigid fork so I was a little nervous.
We rolled out and the Beaner Crew Settled into a little peleton on the first single track section and fire road climb. We were also joined by Keith R. From Bikesport and Jamie B. riding for South Mountain Cycles.
I thought I was going to be in for some trouble when we hit the first steep fire road climb, it started getting steep and my heart rate was going through the roof trying to hang with the boys, but I saw Keith and Jamie get off and push, I figured they knew better then I did so I pushed too. It Flattend out and everyone began to pull away, I figured no sense in spinning at 1000 RPMs, so this was a good time to recover and get ready to get into my grove as they all pulled away
Once I re-entered the single track I was on fire. All 8 Pistons were kickin hard. The flow was going , the 29er was rolling over everything and I was finally being rewarded for my low tire pressure. I caught a few guys on gears right away, they were dicks about letting me pass. After droping these dudes I rolled out and caught Chris D from beans. I think this was also a first for chris doing an enduro on a SS, he let me by, a few minutes later I rolled up on Evan and Dave from beans and they let me pass by and the engine continued to fire. I rolled by Keith who flatted, asked if he was OK and Rolled out fast, figuring he was going to real me back in.
It seemed no matter how smoked and unmotivated I was on the fire roads and paved sections, I would do a complete 180 on the single track and start to haul ass. After a few miles of gravel and some climbing I saw a group gaining on me that I dropped in the single track. I really didn’t have the gears to get away from them on the gravel flats and down hills, and I was thinking these guys are going to slow me down in the single track. Well they got ahead of me as we started to climb, this time they were joined by Dan from Sicklers. I saw the course marshal guiding us to what would be the most technical single track of the race, so I put the hammer down and cut off the leader of the pack and got in first again. It felt like a dick move, and I wondered how stupid I would look if I ran out of gas and they had to pass me, Especially with Dan right behind them. Dan moved up to Expert this year and often put 15 to 20 minutes on me at any given race when we rode in sport. Well I got in and floated over the first rock garden and didn’t look back, but I heard a bunch of metal crashing and yelling and its seemed that I made the right choice. Dan seemed to make his way through the carnage and stayed about 50 feet back. The more and more rocks that were thrown at me, the bigger the gap I put on him until eventually he was gone.
As we neared the end of the single track I could see the Green colors of the Independent Fabrications Kit. I started to close in on him a bit until we hit the double track climb, he pulled a way for a bit, but towards the top of the climb it turned to single track and Mark let me pass on by as he took a break. I think he was having a bad day. Nonetheless it was enough to motivate me to keep on turning the cranks.
More rocky single track and the there was Jamie, fixing a flat. He had everything so I put the pedal down hoping he would catch me. 20 Miles to go and there were 3 guys behind me who I know had the ability to crush me, so there was no time for mistakes or hanging out at the aid stations so I kept the cranks movin.
10 to 15 miles to go I rolled into the Last aid station with two empty bottles, I refilled pounded some Gatorade and began to roll out as fast as I could. Mike Y. was checking numbers, I asked if any beaners rolled on through and he said that Ben just rolled out. Damn! Could I catch Ben? Another fire was lit on my ass so I charged back into the single track on a mission, methodically turning over the cranks until I rolled on to the pavement. As I exited the Single track I saw Keith Roll on in, to start the single track. It was comforting to know that I had a big gap on him. On the pavement Austin was directing Traffic and let me know that it was ¾ mile Climb on the black top before heading off road again. It was a hot brutal climb, I could see the guy in front of me wobbling back and forth on his geared bike as I closed in. Half way up the climb I looked over my shoulder, there was no one behind me with 7 miles left to ride. After that it was pretty much down hill all the way to the finish, where I placed 6th out of 21 single speeders and 17th overall out of 97 starters. No a bad day for my first single speed marathon.
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