Keystone Climax - XC on a SS
I hadn't gotten my Dean back so I was gonna race the XC on my FS. But i got to the race venue and they changed it where the Sport Women would only do 1 lousy 7 mile boring lap. WTF???
I'm paying $35 for 7 miles. Screw that!
Luckily, my friend Jen offered to lend me her SS. She's only 3 inches taller than me and her bike fit was marginal - but I'd rather ride the hard 18 miles - 2600elevatin gain course then the measly 7 mile course.
There were a couple of problems tho - I wasn't used to her bike. I have bar ends and she doesn't, I have disk brakes and she doesn't, I run my brakes moto style and she doesn't. A lot to get used to in race conditions. But I was up for the challenge. :) So I threw on my pedals and seat and was ready to go!
There were 2 other SSers at the start. A really good rider, Kara and then Jo from the Winter Park races. I think we were all running 32x20s. Again - we got dropped at the start and on the first climb kara and jo dropped me. damn! I was discouraged but kept cranking.
Right when you hit the singletrack the Course Marshalls were cheering me on and I'm standing up cranking. I know when I hit the singletrack the grade mellows out and i can recover a bit.
As I'm standing and all of a sudden my foot slipped off the pedal. I look down and no wait. My pedal is still connected to my shoe but not the bike! WTF?!?! Crap - my pedal came off.
Damn - what is it with all these mechnicals this season? Of course they are all my fault for not being prepared or not aware of what psi i need to run. but come on!
Luckily the Course Mashall has an allen wrench. But I couldn't seem to get the pedal back on. Oh no - I might have stripped the thread and (yikes) it's not my bike. One of the course mashalls attempt to put it on and couldn't get it going. Finally another guy screwed in the pedal from the back and cleaned out the threads and then we were able to get it back on. But I was probably stopped for over 10 minutes.
I hopped back on the bike and struggled on the climbs and descents - I over shot the 1st corner on the 1st descent as I wasn't used to Jen's brakes. I was suffering on the climbs and slow on the descents.
However since there were only 3 of us - I still got 3rd. Still not the performance I wanted to turn in before the Fall Classic.
Still - everyone thinks riding an SS is badass - so everyone thinks i'm a badass even tho i'm not. illusions.... ;)
I'm paying $35 for 7 miles. Screw that!
Luckily, my friend Jen offered to lend me her SS. She's only 3 inches taller than me and her bike fit was marginal - but I'd rather ride the hard 18 miles - 2600elevatin gain course then the measly 7 mile course.
There were a couple of problems tho - I wasn't used to her bike. I have bar ends and she doesn't, I have disk brakes and she doesn't, I run my brakes moto style and she doesn't. A lot to get used to in race conditions. But I was up for the challenge. :) So I threw on my pedals and seat and was ready to go!
There were 2 other SSers at the start. A really good rider, Kara and then Jo from the Winter Park races. I think we were all running 32x20s. Again - we got dropped at the start and on the first climb kara and jo dropped me. damn! I was discouraged but kept cranking.
Right when you hit the singletrack the Course Marshalls were cheering me on and I'm standing up cranking. I know when I hit the singletrack the grade mellows out and i can recover a bit.
As I'm standing and all of a sudden my foot slipped off the pedal. I look down and no wait. My pedal is still connected to my shoe but not the bike! WTF?!?! Crap - my pedal came off.
Damn - what is it with all these mechnicals this season? Of course they are all my fault for not being prepared or not aware of what psi i need to run. but come on!
Luckily the Course Mashall has an allen wrench. But I couldn't seem to get the pedal back on. Oh no - I might have stripped the thread and (yikes) it's not my bike. One of the course mashalls attempt to put it on and couldn't get it going. Finally another guy screwed in the pedal from the back and cleaned out the threads and then we were able to get it back on. But I was probably stopped for over 10 minutes.
I hopped back on the bike and struggled on the climbs and descents - I over shot the 1st corner on the 1st descent as I wasn't used to Jen's brakes. I was suffering on the climbs and slow on the descents.
However since there were only 3 of us - I still got 3rd. Still not the performance I wanted to turn in before the Fall Classic.
Still - everyone thinks riding an SS is badass - so everyone thinks i'm a badass even tho i'm not. illusions.... ;)
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