I got down and dirty this past weekend in Sylamr, CA. I am writing a recap that will be posted tomorrow. Here is a teaser pic!
On Sunday I made the drive down to Harbor City for the Urban Series race #2. I should have stayed home. Everything in race prep went normal. No surprises the night before, my bikes were ready to go, all clothes were clean and ready. The coffee pot timer worked as designed. All was good as I left for the race.
When I got to the race I had time to sign up and get ready. I got in 2 quality warm up laps and as I was getting towards the end of lap #3 I felt my rear tire acting like it was low. My rear tire was going flat! I flew back to my car at 8:56 AM. The race start was 9:00 AM. Time for action! I grabbed my spare tube and quickly replaced the flat tube. A friendly fellow racer offered to tell Brad to hold up the race. I pumped up the now repaired tire and it wouldn’t hold air. Double turds! Later on I checked the spare and it had a hole, probably from being rubbed while strapped to my tool bag. Back to the story. I instantly popped off both wheels and put my bike in the trunk of my car and ran towards the wheel pit to get my mountain bike. Like a meathead I left off my extra set of clipless pedal and just had some old hunky platform pedals on there. In the past I only needed my spare bike for one lap so I figured why switch pedals, etc. Now I know better. I made it to the start line and Brad had held the start for me, thanks! I got going pretty good at the sound of the whistle. The course was pretty flat so hanging with the CX bikes was hard. There was a nice wreck after a few turns which was exciting – bike crash to the left! Two bikes crashed to the right! I inherited 2nd place! I quickly got passed and start fading. My tankish bike was killing me without my pedals. Then, as if I needed more grief, my rear tire started going flat. I had no spare for my spare bike so I just kept going. I got left super far behind. When the race was over and I got home I checked my rear tire and it had less than 20 lbs of air. So, lessons learned are 1. bring a spare bike fully prepared. 2. Bring a good spare tube. 3. Don’t get flats.
I will be back for more this weekend!