Not Much of a Race — Winter Short-Track Series Race #4
Bah. Not much of a race for me today. I was excited about it, too. I felt like I had so much to look forward to…. No huge rain. No big mud. A little snow flurry right before the start of the “Super Sport” women, but nothing too terrible. I’ve been gaining strength and time in the last three races, so I changed out my gearing to see how that would affect my lap times. I ate right (mostly). My friend Danielle from Durham came down for the race. She and I have raced together in the Cane Creek Series, and she’s moving up to NORBA Expert this year, so we won’t have many chances to race together for a while. There were only 6 girls in the race today, and it was shaping up to be a good one. I was feeling good, albeit a bit cold, before the race.
Off the start line I had pretty good position, but quickly lost it as I spun out and the geared chicks pulled away in the pavement. I was a little sketchy on the banked turns. I’m not really sure why, but I think I was working too hard to try to catch up. At the bottom of the hill, I started early working up the speed to power up the climb. That’s when it hit. I stood up on the climb and only heard, Kunck. Kunck. Kunck. I couldn’t turn the pedals over. The chain was skipping, the rear hub sounded awful. I couldn’t even muscle it up the hill once it leveled out.
My race was over. I only rode half a lap. I walked the bike all the way up the long hill and then the grassy hill to DNF at the scoring table. I didn’t have the tools or the time to fix the issue. As I was walking, the Singlespeed men all passed me. Brian was leading the huge group, so that made me feel great about the day. At least one of us did great! He ended up in second place, but this was a double-points race and he may have just moved up a spot in the overall points. We’ll see – the series points haven’t been posted yet.
Some lessons:
* Don’t make changes to your bike when you are feeling sick. (I changed out my gearing earlier in the week, and was feeling quite ill when I did it).
* Always check-out the bike (meaning – RIDE it) after you make changes and before the race starts.
The bike is still in the car. I haven’t looked at it yet, so I’m not sure exactly what the damage is. I came home, showered and fell asleep on the couch. I’ll leave the bike for another day.
Next week: The final test for the new gearing and new-found fitness…..
