Weekend Races

Me chasing an early break at Tyson's with HPC's Kristy Scheffenacker on my wheel.

Jdub on Circus Peanuts

This weekend was a blast and I accomplished my goal of just about, but not quite, blowing myself up at Walkersville. My intent was to try and find out where my black line becomes red. I think I now know. What a great ride and many congratulations to Lorena, Chris, and Susanna! I was able to lead out the pack for a nice sprint finish, and although I thought I had nothing left after the lead-out, I somehow managed to come around Wendy Ullmer at the line (sorry about that Wendy, I couldn't help myself :>)

The chicken had an excellent race, as well, finishing 14th overall and 5th in the Cat 3s. We were both pretty spent and wondered about how our legs would feel on Sunday and much to our surprise, they felt awesome!

Tyson's started out pretty normal for a circuit race, and early on there was a break that I decided to chase along with Hub's Arly, while Lorena sat along for the ride - she had a rider in the break. Jen Cheng bridged up to us and as we were moving up the hill, I noticed I was having trouble turning the crank. No problem, must be the brakes, so I flipped the lever. But the crank wouldn't free-up. I kept pushing and the crank felt like it had fused to the frame. I looked at the wheel/cassette and I saw all these little metal shavings coming out from the drop-outs. I thought, hmm, I wonder what that is? Maybe I should stop pushing.

Needless to say, the Spokes guy said, "Three or so more pedal strokes and you would have ruined your free-hub body and your frame." Apparently my cassette had loosened and was flapping around and the rings gotten pressed up into the drop-out. What a new experience, I have never had that happen before. I guess that will be one more thing I'm going to check before getting on the bike!

Anyway, the race went on while the Spoke's guy worked on my bike. After about 45 minutes he had determined that the derailler hanger was also bent and that I would probably need a new one if it ever got bent again. He got it dialed in pretty good, though, so I was able to attempt to race with the boys. BTW, the boys speed up the hill was 7 mph faster than the girls at 22mph. I got dropped pretty quick, but kept latching back onto the back several times when they came around to try and get a work-out in.

Thanks again Spokes guy whose name I forgot. You made a disappointing day a lot of fun in the end! Congrats to Jdub for an awesome victory, most certainly due to the Circus Peanuts! God I love those things - especially with chocolate milk.