Saturday was the much anticipated Canal Loop 12 hour race. Attendance was down a bit this year but the fun levels were up. I was planning on showing up race day this year instead of camping and camping after the race. I arrived to find our ez-up already erected on pit row right next to Steven & Ruthie's huge Rocky Top EZ up. Jeff, Keith and I were gonna pit together which promised to be great since Jeff and Keith are like the odd couple.
Keith is neat and tidy and particular about how things are set up. Jeff not so much. He doesn't need a table he can pit from a box on the ground...and often does.
The race starts LeMans style with a nice 100 yrd dash to the bikes, always fun in bike shoes on pavement. I get to my bike and on the trail in short order just ahead of mid pack and right behind Keith, Jeff and Steven. Dustin was behind me for a while until I encouraged him to pass. I was working a little too hard on the hills and having a hard time keeping the heart rate low. By the time we get to the halfway point the trail begins to flatten and my heart rate drops to a comfortable pace. I continued on alone until the end of the first lap where I pass Jeff and Steven working on Jeffs tire in the pit. I grabbed some new bottles and offered to help. They had it under control and I continued on. Steven later passed me and we played leap frog for the rest of the day.
The rest of the day was pretty much spent alone occasionally playing leapfrog with Gary and Steven. I caught and rode with Keith for a little while until and longer than normal pit stop for me separated us and I never saw him again. I was tracking my lap times with a Garmin Edge 305 gps bike computer. I started a little fast with 1:06 laps and settled into 1:13-16 minute laps.
Lap 8 left me feeling pretty rough. A kid, trying to be helpful, squirted water on my back and right into my shorts breaking down the chamois butter I had applied and leaving my rump raw and sore. The rigid fork was beating me to death but I was actually not taking the beating that I had expected. I was still able to fly down the roughest of hills with only minimal pain in my neck back and arms. At the end of lap 8 I notice somebody sitting in my chair. It was my wife. She and a friend drove all the way up to help out. I was leading the single speed class at this time by a couple minutes on Gary and about 5 minutes on Jeff. I spent way too much time in the pit getting my light mounted bottles ready and a reapplication of butt grease to ease the pain. Finally, I got all my stuff together and headed out of the pit for lap 9.
I was feeling fantastic. There was only a couple hours left to race. I was confident that 10 laps would win the single speed class and that I could now safely turn it on, i'd been holding back all day, and ride hard for 2 +/- hours and podium if not win the single speed class. I hammered through the hills trying to catch Gary. I caught him just before The halfway point in the lap. I was really screwing up. I didn't drink a drop through the halfway point. I realized this and tipped up my water a couple times quick and my Infinate bottle once then promptly forgot to drink anymore. Toward the end of the lap I began to slow down. I roughly crossed the "tootsy roll" section and my brain was rattled. My stomach was turning and I was gonna barf. I battled on to the finish line crashing just after my pit on some loose roughed up trail. I hadn't realized that I didn't drink anything. I crossed the line jumped off the bike and rand to the woods where I chummed the place up good.
Race complete...for me. I was several minutes in the lead but could not go on. Gary rolled passed me and I told him I was bowing out. A few minutes later I saw Jeff and told him the same. I grew sicker and sicker puking in the weeds several times while trying to clean up and change. My wife offered me a ride home and I graciously accepted. Hated to leave but to stay would have been misery.
Jeff went on to catch and pass Gary taking the top spot on the single speed podium and Gary with 2nd. I was initially bumped out of third because I only got credit for 8 laps. The 4th place guy did 9 laps but finished after me. I don't really care about 3rd place I just wanted credit for 9 laps. My Garmin confirms my 9 laps and later so did the race director Justin. Lap info from Garmin HERE
Keith finished lap 10 in time to go out for 11 but thought he missed the cut off so he had to settle for and awesome 3rd place pro spot. And Dustin aka SuperD set the course record even after 2 flats with 11 laps in 12 hours missing the cut off to do another lap by mere seconds. Steven rocked 9 laps also and his wife Ruthie showed true grit completing 7 laps even after getting sick around lap 5.
Even though I got sick this was a good race for me. My nutrition, while I was drinking it, was on point. I may need to bump up the electrolite a bit but it kept me going all day. I didn't eat anything only drank. One bottle of Infinate and one bottle of water each lap. It was easy to drink and never left me bloated, full or sick which plagued me last year and most of this year at races lasting 8 hours or more.
A coulple of other notes from the race. I ditched my fancy light weight hydro Magura Marta SL's for Avid BB7 Mechanical disk brakes with Ultimate levers. They are awesome. The Marta's were great but they seem to have lost some power over the years or I require more power now than in the past. Either way riding a rigid bike down a rough hill with and having to reef on the brake levers really beats you to death. The new brakes have true one finger brakes allowing me to loosen my grip on the bars a bit making it easier to soak up the bumps.
Steve "wood n wave" Wilson built me a new front wheel to match my rear. Stans Arch rim laced to a American Classic hubs, single speed rear hub. I've been riding the rear since late March. He builds a good wheel. It's my 5th wheel he's built for me and I've yet to have to true any of them.
Last but not least was a new front tire. Continental Race King 29er 2.2. High volume tire with low fast rolling knobs. Set it up tubeless on the Arch rim with just yellow rim tape, valve stem and some Stans. For the last couple months I've been riding with a 2.1 tire with a tube and taking a beating. Nothing smooths out the trail like a fat tubeless tire...or a suspension fork.
