This past weekend the Neilson DEVO team and I traveled to Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX for the Miles of DisComfort marathon race. We were rolling heavy Friday morning to get in a little preride and camp out that night.
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| Rolling 4 deep |
This was to be my first race on my new BMC, and I was excited to get it into some tough trails with big climbs to see how it would do.
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| New bike, not at Comfort |
We had a good preride, checking out the rocks and climbs that are completely foreign to us as Houstonians. It was Patrick and Justin's first experience riding this terrain, so it was great to let them get a taste of it before the race. We had a flat tire and a small issue with a brake line retainer coming off a fork, it was also good to get those sorted out the day before instead of during the race. Richard fell on a rock and hurt his hand, but was able to ride back. We had already set up camp so we got back and cooked up dinner. We ate very well by any standards and relaxed by the fire for the rest of the evening, except for Richard who drove in to the hospital to get his hand X-rayed. They said everything was ok so he went ahead and raced to a top five finish the next day with a bruised and swollen hand.
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| Friday camp dinner |
Concerning the race, I had a good day with a bit of bad luck mixed in. There was a heavy mist in the air all morning, enough to get your bike wet sitting around and give concerns about the rocks being wet. I got to the line late like I always do so I was lined up in the very back. From the gun I went harder than I would've liked up the hill but I knew I had to get towards the middle of the group before the singletrack. I did but there was still a lot of stop and go for the first rocky sections. Once we got spread out I felt like I was riding well, making a few passes here and there. About an hour in I started hearing a clanking from the BB area and I thought it was chainsuck, which there was no reason for, but very quickly my cranks locked up and wouldn't turn at all. I pulled over and started trying to figure out the problem. It took me a few minutes to find it, but one of the pivot bolts near the BB had come loose and backed itself out into my crankset, and the head of the bolt was wedged in between 2 teeth of my small chainring! Luckily all the pieces were still there and appeared ok, I just had to figure out how to get them back together. I couldn't get to the bolt through the crankset, so I decided to take the cranks off. Luckily I had a large enough allen on my multitool and was able to get enough torque out of it to get them off. Then I tightened the pivot back up, put the cranks back on and was rolling again. I was stopped for 15mins, which was a bummer but I was glad I could continue. I got back on the gas pretty good for the rest of the first lap and rode well except for letting my front wheel get too low on the hilltop rock garden on the upper loop, my front end slipped down and my stem twisted so I had to stop and fix that also. The rest of the race I just tried to stay steady, I got a little slow at the beginning of the 2nd lap but a rice cake pepped me back up. I took it easy on the climbs, and then rallied the last downhill to finish in 4:58, which was 11 minutes faster than my time last year. I was very pleased with this considering the long (and short) stop I had to make. I had lots of PRs even better than the half-distance XC race I did there in 2011, and several 2nd and 3rd best efforts for the day.
Best part was that I didn't have any stomach issues, I think this is the first long race I've ever done that it wasn't a problem. I ate a few Clif shot bloks, 3 Skratch Labs bacon and egg rice cakes and drank Skratch Labs drink mix. I also didn't feel completely trashed at the end of the race. Considering this I might could've gone a little harder, but I did have some cramps towards the end that might've come on earlier if I'd done so. I had to keep pedaling or keep both legs straight to stop them, but they eventually went away when I got to the mostly downhill off the upper loop. The new bike RIPPED out there, climbed like a goat and gobbled the rocks going down. Zero trouble with my tires, I ran Schwalbe Rocket Ron/Racing Ralph Snakeskins and I threw myself into rock gardens with no concern for my own well being. The Roval carbon hoops took a beating but are still straight and true. Coming down Jimmy's Joy on lap 2 I messed up the entry and centerpunched one of the trees on the runout, HARD. It made a scary sound so I pulled over and checked everything out, it all looked good so I continued to thrash it and it held up just fine.
I'm excited to be way better off at this point than last year, looking forward to some TMBRA XC and the Ouachita Challenge coming up soon.
Best part was that I didn't have any stomach issues, I think this is the first long race I've ever done that it wasn't a problem. I ate a few Clif shot bloks, 3 Skratch Labs bacon and egg rice cakes and drank Skratch Labs drink mix. I also didn't feel completely trashed at the end of the race. Considering this I might could've gone a little harder, but I did have some cramps towards the end that might've come on earlier if I'd done so. I had to keep pedaling or keep both legs straight to stop them, but they eventually went away when I got to the mostly downhill off the upper loop. The new bike RIPPED out there, climbed like a goat and gobbled the rocks going down. Zero trouble with my tires, I ran Schwalbe Rocket Ron/Racing Ralph Snakeskins and I threw myself into rock gardens with no concern for my own well being. The Roval carbon hoops took a beating but are still straight and true. Coming down Jimmy's Joy on lap 2 I messed up the entry and centerpunched one of the trees on the runout, HARD. It made a scary sound so I pulled over and checked everything out, it all looked good so I continued to thrash it and it held up just fine.
I'm excited to be way better off at this point than last year, looking forward to some TMBRA XC and the Ouachita Challenge coming up soon.
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