Trans Stony Superhero Challenge

After a sweet night's rest mixed with a John Deere tractor engine modified to air conditioning use, plus a few trains notifying us that Canada's economy is at least somewhat active, we woke for another big day of riding.  Local word had it that ABC Country Restaurant was the place for big breakfasts, so off we went.

After downing our mega calories, we stopped at Tim's for a little extra coffee... then over to the race site.  We didn't have too much time to spare, just hike a few items up to the pit zone, change and start.

We rode basically the same course as yesterday, save for a couple new zigs and zags, one being right off the start that we did wrong and then the first 6 or so had to ride through the field again.  Oops.

Beautiful course, dry again, super fun, and challenging to ride "perfectly" each lap.

After the first lap, Craig and Jeff were gone by lightyears, I was riding in third, and Geoff, Pat and Devin were near behind.  We all found our rhythm and started pounding out the laps.  After an hour or so, Gabor passed me on a climb on his singlespeed putting out serious looking power.  I figured if he planned to do that for the whole race, I should start golfing.  His wife must be making some fiery Hungarian goulash these days, cause he looked like he meant business.

We traded leads up a few times, and for an hour or so rode in 4 man deadgoat formation - Geoff, Devin, Pat and I.  ABA should start offroad TTT's - our club is already there.

I passed the bee at one point, unfortunately the chain fix from last night didn't survive.  She had fixed it enough to roll into the feed/mech zone to figure out how to fix it better, but a bit of a bummer.

I rode a lap with Devin, the I faded and he accelerated, leaving me going solo.  It was nice.  Reports from the front were that Craig and Jeff were still killing it, and I knew Pat and Geoff were behind my by just a minute or two.

From about lap three, I was having wheel rubbing frame issues again, similar to when I broke my frame last year, but I kept looking and didn't see frame problems.  It took me a while to notice four things: a) it only happened at "higher" speeds, b) it mostly happened when banking left turns, c) tight singletrack lefts didn't do it, and d) worst of the observations, each lap it was getting more problematic.  Eventually I figured out that it was only when coasting, and that pedalling 100% of the time kept it at bay.  This kind of got me thinking that it was the hub, and that the rubbing probably stresses a carbon bendy joint in the wrong way with vibration and friction - such that last year's frame issue was probably caused more by Mavic than a fault of Cannondale... hmmm.  Either way, it's a bit hard to pedal 100% of a course, and I was getting tired.  Didn't want to send another frame to the rubbish bin... then oddly enough, without crash or anything, my front derailleur goes at a wonky angle and I can only use middle ring.  The clamp didn't slip, it's still aligned, and I can't (even now) see what's up with it other than I can see it's messed and isn't working.

I was trying to examine both these at the feed zone when a wind and rainstorm blew in, which usually I like.  I like the attrition and epic-ness of that kind of weather, but this time I was on the wrong side of it.  I was feeling a bit weak at that point, but pounding out a few laps while feeling miserable isn't necessarily something I shy away from... but  I couldn't see anything I could do that was going to improve either malfunctioning part... so I bit the bullet and bailed out.  Same time coincidentally as Gerry - we both rode 4 hours out of six.   

Looks like Jeff leading, Craig second, Devin third, Pat fourth and now Geoff fifth.  We'll see how it turns out, but I'd almost call any mixture of those as a deadgoat sweep as Jeff is riding on a left eggbeater pedal I gave him this morning, so that pretty much means his result today counts for our club ; ) The Bee was lapping still and seemed happy.  Hope the Bee outfit is warm when the wind and rain pick up. 

I've parked the car now by a shed/barn that's open to one side so the rest of the gang doesn't have to change with cold rain falling on them (I wasn't smart enough to do this before I changed, but at least they'll have the benefit of my little experience getting chilled).  I want to be a good team player and go up to the feed zone, but I can't find anything waterproof to wear, doh! (I'm debating a dirty towel and a car floor mat to keep some water off until I reach the tents - don't want to move the car for fear of losing our prime dry change area).

At least from here I can see Pat "spinning" out the climbs on his 27 speed Norco Phase in exactly one gear - probably the same ratio as his single speed, and he's got the "I don't care how ugly the weathr gets, I mean business" face going.

Bee is going by, so I'm gonna go give her some positive buzz!

Watching the finish, Jeff rode in looking pretty empty for the win, but only a minute or two elapsed before his humor came back.  Kate Aardal hammered it home for the women, man she was looking strong and putting out power right to the end.  Pat rode in next, securing 4th and looking strong.  Craig came in a minute or two later, solidly taking second.  Steve Ayote rode in looking sharp and having left it all out there feeling empty.  Geoff DNF's 1/2 lap after me, broke a derailleur/hanger and carbon portion the hanger was screwed to right off.  Might be expensive...

Last in from our squad was Devin.  He started his last lap with not much time to spare, I was amazed he even went out for another.  We saw him in the distance as the announcer was saying need to be in in 3 mins for this one to count.  We ran down and started yelling for him to go go go.  He crested the hill and had to do the grassy field descent and climb back up to the top in 60 seconds.  All deadgoats on hand ran down to cheer him along in THE MOST IMPRESSIVE FINISH of the weekend.  Total VO2 test to make it in in time.  He collapsed post finish making distressing noises and didn't talk for 3 minutes, but that's the price of having a badass sprint finish I guess!

We all did well on draw prizes at the end, Tori got a pink Chris King BB, I got a set of Rasta colored Salsa skewers, etc. 

The race organization and prizes and general vibe were awesome this weekend - great job ABA, United and the landowners. 

Awesome racing weekend!