Brother started a blog about his recovery. He can no longer make fun of me for having a blog.
I think things are going as well as possible on his end.
I raced at Hillside last Sunday (sort of)...
The temperatures were soaring and the rain was coming down all weekend here in Rochester, but despite weather reports to the contrary the Hillside crew was maintaining that the course was rideable. I'm not up for backing down to challenges(at least until they kick my ass) so I loaded up the Infiniti, no Corey this week- congrats on the new job, and got on my way bright and early Sunday am.
As soon as I arrived at Hillside I could tell something was wrong- lots of long faces and debate about whether or not the race would be on. I put the racing ralph's on the Mamasita with super low PSIs and hit the first section of trail as a test- absolute failure. I couldn't make it more than 20 or 30 feet. However, I knew that section had already been ravaged by countless skinny tire folk and could see potential in the conditions. I figured that following 10 pugsleys would likely make it possible to ride most of the course. I also figured I was willing to take my chances on leading the pack into the single track (I have always been able to sprint/start fast and get ahead, even in races where I don't belong up there at all). Rich cancelled the race... but only for the skinny tire guys, the fatties would still ride.
Of course all 10 or 12 of us with skinny tire bikes had driven from somewhere and wanted in on the action so a hasty pact was made. We would wait until the fatties were out of site and then hit course ourselves. It wouldn't be a 'race' per se- but we all wanted to at least try out the conditions before packing it in.
The start-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_6TOaDH3oY
I let the fellow who was ahead of me there lead out down the entire gravel section of the prologue and into the single track. The conditions were tough but rideable. I was super excited that we would be abl to at least do some riding!
5 minutes? in I realized that I was all alone other than the two Pugsleys that I had passed. The other skinny tired guys were out on the road cheering me on! The trail was barely rideable, but now I felt like I was "in" the race with the Pugsleys and the other skinny tire dudes were certainly in favor of me continuing. I had no choice. Things went well all the way through section 1, 2 and 3. I wasn't going to pass all the Pugsleys or anything, but I was having a respectable ride certainly. Here's a picture-
I was concentrating so hard on staying up and keeping some momentum that I didn't even notice the picture being taken, who the people were or the snowmen...
Section IV came and it brought problems. Due to the way we had started the race (half-assed) I had not brought any food or water... but I felt OK so far as that stuff goes. What was doing me in was EVEN SOFTER snow. In section IV I felt like I was walking/running more than 85% of the time. It was so bad that I had to run some downhills. The dogged Pugsley tracks I had been following (I was gauging my success by whether or not any of them had been forced to run the same sections I was) had turned into 10,000 footprints. It was basically hell. I got through it with visions of flying through I and II again- they'd be double packed now and even better than before. I crossed the road with one lap completed at 1:58 elapsed time and realized it was just as mushy and deteriorated as IV had been.
I called it a day. Was the right call. I could have finished but shouldn't have been willing to risk any more possible damage to the knee, nor was there anything to gain by running another 4 miles.
Brendan Moore was winning the full 1.5 lap race by 10 or 11 minutes right about when I called it quits. That was some impressive riding! I can't really compare anyone elses performance out there to my own. So no new motivation or feelings of success, I was just the guy on skinny tires who didn't feel like quitting, likely because he had driven an hr further than anyone else to be there.
Bike situation-
El Santo- sold on ebay for $960 (but I kept the race x lites). Awesome deal, plenty of profit.
Monocog- removed rear brake, tomicog continues to work awesome. This thing is goingn to be commuter only, it's just too trucklike for cross country.
marin- sold the wheels that were on it along with the El Santo so as to keep the rxls. Will be running some mavic 223 rims laced to wtb hubs that Eric gave me. Also swapped to the setback titec post on it and a wtb speed V saddle.
mamasita- bolt is fixed! is now sram attack gripshift with xtr front and rear derailleurs. Lowered the stem/bars as much as possible- worked well at Hillside. will have Stans Crest rims soon.
blacksheep (gravel bike)- tubeset is here and all the parts are here... just a waiting game now. more on this later
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