TdB and a Broken Hand

Le Tour, The Only Race That Matters...The Tour de Burg.

I was really looking forward to this race, 5 days of huge rides and serious chillin' in Harrisonburg. I would be sleeping on Ryan Fawley's floor, sharing space with Dan Wolf and 2012 Men's Leader Collin Becker.  Stage 1 started off at high noon on Wednesday with a timed loop up Boy Scout and down the other side. The descent would be a Super D run too, so I would take a shot at that. I went real slow on the climb and after some timing controversey later that night, was around 6th on the Super D. Not what I wanted, but decent after blowing way off the trail through a tight corner.

The second timed section was up Hankey then over to all the sick new trail on Lookout. This would have no Super D, so I wasn't real concerned with how things went. I just tried to not hemorrhage time on the climb and ride smooth on the ridge, although I did go over the bars on the last rock move. Oops.

Day 2 would take us over to Little Sluice and would have two timed sections. We started off with a party pace ride up to the top via a super slippery, technical trail. At the top we would start on some double track then funnel into some excellent rocky goodness. I had a decent start but got tangled up several times, which landed me further back than I wanted. Eventually I made some moves and was on Zack Morrey's wheel with Sue Haywood not far behind. Zack let me by quickly and I shortly closed the gap to Collin Becker. About 20 seconds ahead of Collin was the lead group and I knew I could catch up if I got by. I called out my pass and Collin moved to the side, but unfortunately I was going way too fast and things got out of control. I guess I hit a rock that launched my rear wheel into the air which usually isn't a big deal. However when I was doing a nose-wheelie for what seemed like ages, a rocky waterbar appeared and that sealed my fate. I had no choice but to slam it with my front wheel and I went flying end over end. I got back up and felt ok, I definitely didn't hit my head and wasn't in pain, yet. I told Sue, Zack and Collin to keep going and that I would be fine.

Driving is hard

I jumped back on my bike and neither brake worked. This would be an interesting ride out. I coasted for a few feet before hitting the first bump and that's when I felt the sharp pain in my hand and I knew it was broken. It was swelling already. I DNFed the stage and caught a ride back in the sag-wagon. Day 3 though was a road stage and since I was already down there I was determined to ride. I could ride in the drops with minimal pain, shifting was pretty easy but braking was...tough. The gravel descents were brutal...very slow going to keep my hand in relative comfort.

I finally hit up the Urgent Care and got some X-Rays. Third metacarpal fracture with some major angulation. I was hoping for a quick recovery but I had a feeling that since the bone was sticking up so much that I might need more than a splint. I consulted an orthopedic specialist and he advised surgery and a plate. Dang. Goodbye summer racing. I had surgery on Wednesday and my follow up is on Thursday, hopefully I get some good news. Maybe I'll get some sweet X-rays to see how the new hardware looks.

 

 I have been off my bike for almost 3 weeks and it is slowly killing me.  I should be able to make it to the SM100, but it looks like a party pace year for me. I might have to race CX this year, but we'll see about that. Vive le tour!

Mohican 100

Better late than never...

The Mohican 100 is one of my favorite NUE events. The singletrack is super fun, the course is pretty interesting and it's not too far away. I've done this race for the past few years including the Mud-hican of 2010. Previously I have always raced with gears here, but this year I decided to ride my singlespeed for a change and it would provide a built in excuse if I went extra slow.

Friday morning I met up with Pat Blair, Jed Prentice and Mike Tabasko and carpooled to Loudonville. Once there we pre-rode what would be the first and last 4 miles of singletrack. As we finished our ride some dark clouds rolled in and shortly after a huge downpour fell...I was getting a little worried about conditions for the race! We went straight to dinner and each ordered a whole pizza for ourselves and some more rain fell while we finished our beers. Back to the room we mixed bottles, lube chains and made final preparations for the race.

Up at 4am, breakfast, bathroom, more food, bathroom and before I knew it I'm lined up on the starting line. I lined up in the second row knowing that it's tough to maintain position on the slight downhill through town. I narrowly avoided a big wreck right in front of me that took down both Jed and Mike (who both would go on to finish the race, Mike coming in 4th Open) As soon as we hit the huge wall coming out of town, I started going backwards. I went so f'ing slow up this hill, it was ridiculous...I was really worried about the next 95 miles at this point. I could see a huge stream of riders ahead of me and I must have been in 200th place hitting the singletrack.



Everyone jockeyed for some position and things started to spread out. The trails were wet and slippery, but not messy. I was having a ton of fun cruising the slick trails and it wasn't long before I started picking riders off. Despite my terrible start I realized that I was riding pretty well and decided to go with it. I spent the entire first 30 miles of singletrack catching and passing riders, no one passed me. I really had no idea where I was in the SS race or even the overall, but I knew that I had caught a lot of singlespeeds and was pretty sure at this point that I was top 10 SS. Just before aid station 3 I caught Cheryl Sorenson, so I knew that I had moved up pretty far as she is usually in good position and our finish times are often very close.

Just after aid 3 is the biggest singletrack climb of the day and I got a pretty solid gap on Cheryl and the other rider we were with. After this climb though, the only two 100 miler racers I would see for the rest of the day would be Cheryl and Masters winner Alec Petro who both caught me on the 10 mile rail trail section. Everyone has a low point during an NUE event, and the rail trail was mine. You really can only spin 32x19 so fast so it's not like you can even hammer to get it over with quickly. I was so bored that I was talking to myself out loud and practicing wheelies. After what felt like 45 hours I finally got into aid 4 at Glenmont and was on my way. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful and I was so happy to get to the final 4 miles of singletrack. The trails are dried up nicely and I still had plenty of energy to enjoy the trail. I finished the race in 8:05, 7th singlespeed and 18th overall.

I knew I was top 10 singlespeed but was really surprised to be so far up in the overall. I passed a ton of people all day, but that result still surprised me. I haven't been "training" this year, although that is not to say I haven't been riding so I wasn't sure what type of result to expect. All day I stayed positive and just had a really fun time riding my bike for 8 hours. I didn't even feel that bad once the race was over, the course was great, the weather was good and my bike was solid!