I arrived at the venue at 9.20am, giving me forty minutes before the start.
Already suited and booted all I had to do was sign on and attach number board to bike.
Somehow I found and arrived at the start line just in time to put my foot down before the whistle blew. So I started right at the back.
The start was quick though and even at the back we went off at a healthy pace.
An excellent fast course with lots of great singletrack. It wasn't very hilly but there were a couple of short sharp climbs and short drags. Also enough bits of fire road to enable me to pass and slowly make my way up through some of the field.
I was going quickly although not a blistering race pace I just concentrated on catching the person in front all the time. This was good until somewhere through the fourth lap. I was lapped (already!) and then it started to rain. Had the fast boys brought the bad weather with them?
At first everything just got wet, especially me, but gradually a thick gritty pasty mud began to appear.
On one section through some trees that had previously been very twisty singletrack I wondered who had pulled a plough through it. And just before the end of it I fell off. I'd wanted to take a bend to the right but jut carried on going left until I reached the floor. I fell off again not much later, on an off camber section.
500m later I didn't fall off but had enough of a twitchy slide that I thought it better to cut my losses and actually stop and let some air out of the tyres. 45psi might have been good for the firm pack start but now I was going all over the place. Besides I'd needed a pee from the off and now I could have one.
It was still worth sitting behind people on the less muddy flat sections that were fast but this meant everyone ended up covered in mud. I do mean covered.
The bike faired no better and my gears were jumping. They were actually jumping twice every pedal revolution. This was really extremely annoying and meant I was gradually moving along slower and slower.
So again eventually I stopped. The rear block was full of gritty mud and pine needles. I could just see the teeth. I tried to clean it out with a stick but that just snapped. Great.
I sprayed it with water from my camelbak then remembered I had my house keys in my back pocket. They would be just narrow enough to get in between the cogs.
Without a rear crud catcher I had to rummage around in the mud in my pockets but I found them.
And it worked. For a good ten minutes. And then the mud got back in there. Why did this only seem to be happening to me? I carried on riding but soon had to soft pedal quickly in a low gear to lessen the permanent continuous jumping of the chain.
I stopped another couple of times to repeat the process of clearing the block with a key but each time it didn't take long to clog up again and I was travelling painfully slow.
Bugger it. I was only on the sixth lap but despite feeling fine I was fed up of stopping and not being able to ride as quickly as I'd like so decided I was going to drop out. Of course now the chain stopped jumping so frequently. I could carry on. I had a bar an plenty of energy drink left.
So with 3km of the lap remaining I hurried forward and the chain immediately slipped. It jumped for the rest of the lap and I just thought, f*** it and stopped.
I made my way back to the car park in the heavy rain.
But there was a bike wash so I queued. Chatted to the guy behind me who'd also dropped out. He questioned me about my Pace then when I asked him about his prototype Hope wheels he told me he'd got them because he worked for Pace!
There was also a mobile shower unit, which once I'd worked out how it functioned gave me a hot shower rather than the cold one I was suffering.
But that was the worst I suffered all day. I even ended up placing 11th (in the vets). And to be honest I don't think I would have been better than 8th without a jumping chain.
Need to get quicker. And write less. PF
Already suited and booted all I had to do was sign on and attach number board to bike.
Somehow I found and arrived at the start line just in time to put my foot down before the whistle blew. So I started right at the back.
The start was quick though and even at the back we went off at a healthy pace.
An excellent fast course with lots of great singletrack. It wasn't very hilly but there were a couple of short sharp climbs and short drags. Also enough bits of fire road to enable me to pass and slowly make my way up through some of the field.
I was going quickly although not a blistering race pace I just concentrated on catching the person in front all the time. This was good until somewhere through the fourth lap. I was lapped (already!) and then it started to rain. Had the fast boys brought the bad weather with them?
At first everything just got wet, especially me, but gradually a thick gritty pasty mud began to appear.
On one section through some trees that had previously been very twisty singletrack I wondered who had pulled a plough through it. And just before the end of it I fell off. I'd wanted to take a bend to the right but jut carried on going left until I reached the floor. I fell off again not much later, on an off camber section.
500m later I didn't fall off but had enough of a twitchy slide that I thought it better to cut my losses and actually stop and let some air out of the tyres. 45psi might have been good for the firm pack start but now I was going all over the place. Besides I'd needed a pee from the off and now I could have one.
It was still worth sitting behind people on the less muddy flat sections that were fast but this meant everyone ended up covered in mud. I do mean covered.
The bike faired no better and my gears were jumping. They were actually jumping twice every pedal revolution. This was really extremely annoying and meant I was gradually moving along slower and slower.
So again eventually I stopped. The rear block was full of gritty mud and pine needles. I could just see the teeth. I tried to clean it out with a stick but that just snapped. Great.
I sprayed it with water from my camelbak then remembered I had my house keys in my back pocket. They would be just narrow enough to get in between the cogs.
Without a rear crud catcher I had to rummage around in the mud in my pockets but I found them.
And it worked. For a good ten minutes. And then the mud got back in there. Why did this only seem to be happening to me? I carried on riding but soon had to soft pedal quickly in a low gear to lessen the permanent continuous jumping of the chain.
I stopped another couple of times to repeat the process of clearing the block with a key but each time it didn't take long to clog up again and I was travelling painfully slow.
Bugger it. I was only on the sixth lap but despite feeling fine I was fed up of stopping and not being able to ride as quickly as I'd like so decided I was going to drop out. Of course now the chain stopped jumping so frequently. I could carry on. I had a bar an plenty of energy drink left.
So with 3km of the lap remaining I hurried forward and the chain immediately slipped. It jumped for the rest of the lap and I just thought, f*** it and stopped.
I made my way back to the car park in the heavy rain.
But there was a bike wash so I queued. Chatted to the guy behind me who'd also dropped out. He questioned me about my Pace then when I asked him about his prototype Hope wheels he told me he'd got them because he worked for Pace!
There was also a mobile shower unit, which once I'd worked out how it functioned gave me a hot shower rather than the cold one I was suffering.
But that was the worst I suffered all day. I even ended up placing 11th (in the vets). And to be honest I don't think I would have been better than 8th without a jumping chain.
Need to get quicker. And write less. PF
3 comments:
In this situation, I've previously wondered if a can of gt85 in the back pocket would be useful. To lube and blow the mud off at the same time.
What was the jumping from the chain, was it those jockey's again?
Note to self: take spares to Italy:-)
No, it was the block living up to its name and blocking up. The terrain seemed to be perfect for not squeezing out. A mixture of dense grit, mud and pine needles all built up to eventually hide the teeth.
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