I have to admit I was pretty excited about this race, and at the same time somewhat concerned. I had just spent the past 3 months in a hotel in Detroit for a project for work, had little to no motivation to ride during the week after working 10+ hour days and couldn’t find much time to ride on the weekends when my family hadn’t seen me all week. I had no idea what to expect and was hoping for anything other than “Epic Fail”.
Tom (a.k.a. Purple Helmet) and I arrived in Traverse City around 5:00 and after a greasy dinner at Big Boy proceeded on to the Grand Traverse Resort to check in, pick up our packets and hang out at the Expo for a little while. After browsing around and checking out the cool new Gary Fisher Superfly, and scoring a nice pair of rain pants for commuting, we ran into a fellow teammate Wayne Cook. Wayne invited us to stay at his condo since he had a couple extra beds for the night. So now instead of having to camp at the finish line we had a warm place to get a good nights rest before the race. Wayne saved my ass a second time that night when he traded his 17 tooth cog for my 16 tooth cog I had purchased earlier that day. I had gone to probably 5 bike shops that morning looking for a 17 tooth cog and was unsuccesful.
So after a second dinner we all decided to pass out sometime shortly before midnight so we could be well rested for the race. Like I do before most big events, I was a crackhead and woke up about 6:30 and went down to check out the weather. Looked at the radar and noticed all the rain and snow just missing us to the south so the outlook was pretty good.
We arrived at the start line with plenty of time to spare, especially for me since my wave didn’t leave until like 10:55am. Boy was it cold. The worst part about it was that the longer I stood there, the colder it seemed to get. Finally when it was time for my wave to start, I stripped off my rain pants and sweatshirt and made my way up to the starting block. Once we got into the woods I grabbed some guys wheel and kept it. My cyclocross skills were dialed in for about the first hour of the race, there’s nothing like passing 4 or more people on a run up. About an hour into the race, still feeling good, felt like I was passing more people than were passing me, and was even starting to catch up to the tandems and the women. All was going good until right before the 3 mile to go marker I went to stand up and mash up a climb and both of my quads knotted up in tight little balls and forced me back down and eventually off my bike as I tried to work the cramps out. I decided I better take a gel and some water, walked the cramp out and got back on the bike.
When all was said and done, I finished mid pack #22 out of 43 in my class with a time of 2:39. I’m hoping Team MySinglespeed will make a showing at next years race because I may just be dumb enough to try it again next year.
