Tuesday, July 24, 2012

WORS - Sunburst Showdown

What a crappy race.  Thanks to all the volunteers and people who put it on, but that place had no business being a MTB race.  Literally - what a shitty venue.  It was wide open on the side of a ski hill.  Almost no singletrack and most of it was created by a lawnmower through a grass field.

Hot and dusty, mid 90's.  Took the lead into the singletrack, had another strong rider on my wheel.  Halfway into the lap my chain bounced up and caused my front chain guide to rotate.  With my front Q ring, every pedal stroke was grinding the chain into the chain guide.  I heard it grinding but didn't think to get off and fix it.  In hindsight, I should have, because for the next 1.5 laps I was going backwards in a hurry.  I was blowing up trying to hold the leaders wheel and probably got passed by at least 15 people - people who I know I can beat any day.  I thought I was just suffering from the heat - I wasn't sure but it sucked.  Thought about pulling out after lap 2 but stayed in.
A short bit later and my chain guide shifted up a bit or enough metal ground out that all of a sudden I had 50 more watts and started moving again.  I was pissed that I didn't fix it earlier and it made me realize that had to have been what was wrong.  Sure enough I start passing back all those who passed me - maybe 5 on the 3rd lap and 5 on the 4th and I quickly dropped anyone on my wheel.  It was a little too late though.  I finished 8th overall and 3rd in the age group.  2:30 off the overall win.  I looked at my lap times from the garmin and found that my last 2 laps were each 2 minutes faster than the first 2 not including the start loop.  So maybe I lost 4 minutes total.
Whatever.  The venue was a big let down - will never return again.  3 of our group pre rode on Saturday after driving 3 hours - and decided that paying to race there is a crime.  They skipped the race and rode real singletrack 30 minutes away.

The front view of my chain guide.  The inside  lost a few mm's of metal and it took 0.5 mm off the top of my chain. 

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