Last Saturday's Sweat Shaker at MMCC didn't go quite as planned for me. Despite a great day for a race on a great trail, my hopes were dashed when I burped my front tire and subsequently crashed. Despite only five of us lining up in the "Open" category the pace was moderate through most of the first lap.
We took it out at a reasonable pace on the 4-mile start loop leading back into campus. I dove into the singletrack behind Jeff, the race promoter, but he had a slight mishap about 2 miles into the lap. I took the lead for a while before being passed by a rider, who also had a slight mishap. Once again in the lead we rolled around at a reasonable pace. MMCC's course can come out and bite you if you're not careful, and apparently I took it a little too hot into a turn on one of the downhill to uphill transitions. Of course the burped tire and crash is a little like the chicken and the egg question - which came first? The burp or the crash?
It doesn't really matter, but my tire wasn't 100% deflated so I jumped back on my bike and chased back up to the lead group of three. It wasn't long before my tire was rapidly losing air, so controlling the bike was next to impossible through the singletrack. After completely deflating the tire Andy Klumb, fresh off of ACL surgery, tossed me a CO2 which I couldn't get to function. I decided it would be best to just start running.
Two miles later I was at the car stuffing a tube into my front wheel. Kristie and I had a nice chat and I decided to go back and finish the race, thinking I was all but finished. The next 12-ish miles went smoothly - I didn't drill it but I rode at a nice pace. Apparently after a 30-minute delay that was good enough to still hang on for fourth place, but I was disappointed I couldn't fight it out for third at least.
Big props to both Wayne and Mike, taking top honors in their races too! The
Argyle Army is looking prepped for a strong 'cross season...
