Shawn and I had good sleep last night, great breakfast this morning. Nice weather, gray but warm enough. Nice start line vibe. I tried to air up my tires a bit at start as they were tiny bit soft, but no pump would grab the small valves I have that are wrongly installed. Guy helping me says "those valves are too short". Yes, I know, waiting for right ones.
Nice neutral start up to the hill, I fell into a logical position around 6th. Half a lap in on the singletrack once we were at highest elevation point, before any downhill, I had moved to 4th without burning matches. Note me advancing places on hills isn't a very normal event. Downhills were fun and easy - great course they set up.
Front was Graham Torre, then Shawn and Brian Cooke trading places, then Leighton Poidevin and I settled in and traded spots for a few laps. All smiles, and each time up Georgetown climb I'd open up time. So fun! First lap through stadium though Leighton and I lost 45 seconds with no marshall and no signs or arrows for a turn then yelled back to the guys who became oncoming toward us - they turned and it took us 5 minutes to get through the group again.
So then we get to the last lap, and since I started with tires a little low, and I was washing on corners. Leighton was gapping me on the singletrack, which is generally against my policy ; ) but I couldn't do corners and was riding gingerly not to bottom out. I thought I could make it to end of race, but then realized I'd have to air up.
You think a CO2 thing is going to grab those valves? Guess again. Frick. Front one get's a smidge of air in while wasting most. Rear just is a disaster, cracks the presta nipple off in the CO2 valve. I eject it from the inflator valve gizmo with some CO2, but can't get any more in the tire now. Tire is too soft to ride. So I force the valve into the rim to deflate it, pull wheel of bike, and use my tube. In the midst of this I go from 4th to DFL with guys zipping by. Such is life, but let's just say I wasn't the happiest at that point. With Brian Cooke ahead, and Leighton and I just waiting for a final hill sprint hoping to go the way all the other hills have gone thus far (Leighton even made this comment himself at the finish, which should temper me sounding too dumb/offside for saying this), I was just so excited to be on the verge of what was going to be a good ABA result (for me, the ageing desk jockey). Argh.
Graham Torre won, Shawn 2nd, Brian Cooke 3rd, Leighton 4th.
Gotta figure out what to do tomorrow; I've begged Andy Holmwood for first TT start and Last TT start so I can fit a work conference call in the middle.
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