The winter riding has not gone exactly as planned. Despite decent weather, several unforseen things have popped up to occupy my time and pull me away from the bike. I have been doing some long rides, but not as consistently as I had hoped. Our house was broken into last week while we were gone to do trail work. Thankfully, we only lost some electronics and a few rings. All my bikes were in the house, but were untouched. It could've been much, much worse. We can continue to live fine without electronics. I've been spending my time making sure it doesn't happen again. Riding has taken a backseat to installing alarms, lights and strengthening doors. We've had a hard time with filing our insurance claim too. Just a word of advice, have proof of everything you own and have it readily accessible. Things like receipts, packing slips and bank statements that prove you bought the item and it's worth and more valuable than just having pictures of your items. It will save you a lot of extra time and stress following an event that is already stressful enough.
We lost our laptops during the incident so the blogs may be a little more spaced out until we get some replacements. I'm writing this post during lunch at work. I want to quickly report some news for my upcoming season. I am super happy to announce that Maxxis and First Endurance are both sponsoring me again. This is my third year working with FE. They are a great company and I feel very privileged to be working with them and using their nutritional products. I've been a Maxxis rider since 2005. I love their tires and their rider program. They have stuck by me through a lot of ups and downs. I hope that I can give them some results and exposure in 2012 to make it worth their while.
My goals for this year are similar to last year. I'll be concentrating on crit. racing, with some scattered mtn. bike races thrown in and also some triathlons. I am going to push the XTERRA events a little more, with hopes of qualifying for the U.S. National Championships in September. One of my main goals is to get in the money more! I finished in a money position just 5 times in 2011. I made a grand total of $75 racing last year. Only 3 of those 5 races paid me. Both Athens Twilight and Race to the Canal did not pay as advertised. So if you think it's all great being a Pro, think again. I will not be getting any financial help toward race expenses from sponsors again in 2012. It's kind of frustrating being a Pro. Entry fees are higher, travel expenses are higher and bikes cost more, yet it's harder to get financial help from a team or sponsors, and harder to get into the money spots because the top teams make the competition high. I had interest from one local team this year, but that didn't work out. Their offer sounded great and included some possible help with expenses, but we didn't have the same schedule and goals in mind for me, nor did we have the same values. I'm not willing to comprise with my goals and values.
Last weekend was the first race of the year. For the third year in a row, I opened my 2012 in Dalton, GA for the first race of the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial Series. The weather was great for Snake. We had cloudy skies, with the temperature in the 50s. Sure beats the heck out of 21 degrees a few years ago! Shannon and I drove down the morning of, departing Clarksville at 4am. We drove through some rain on the way down. It seemed to be north of Dalton and I didn't think it would affect the race.
I brought my carbon hardtail for the first time. With course conditions looking dry and warm temps, it looked like a good day to log my personal best time. My legs were crap on the first of the six climbs. I am always slow to warm up, but I could tell right away that I was having an off-day. My legs were not recovered from the 6-hour ride I did earlier in the week. I felt like I was just surviving up the first climb. To my surprise, I was only 9 seconds off my best time as I crested the first climb. I got into a better rhythm on the second climb and felt considerably better. I got a tad carried away on the lower slopes of the third climb and blew myself up. I had to slow down a lot before the top, giving away a lot of time.
Then my day got interesting. As soon as I hit the ridge at the top of the third climb, I hit a large rock or root and flatted. I was running tubeless, but it burped most of the air out. I never even saw what I hit, just heard and felt the ping as the rim smacked. I stopped and added some air with my inflator, but it began to leak out quickly. My Stan's sealant was almost dried up and didn't seal the tire back to the rim. I limped down the descent to the halfway point where I knew Shannon had the car and a pump. I only had a few C)2 cartridges left for the inflator and wanted to save them for later just in case of another flat. The rain caught up and began to fall on me as I came down the descent. It was a chilly rain that made the trail a little damp.
I got to the car after 2 miles of gently descending on the low tire to find a locked car and no Shannon. She had hiked up in the woods to spectate and get some pictures. I forgot to tell her to leave the key at the car if she went hiking. I was about to pull my inflator out when a guy walked up and offered a pump. He was very helpful. He basically took the wheel from me and changed the tire while I ate a bar. After another 11-minute stop, I was back on the bike, climbing up the fourth mountain on a fully-inflated tire. I saw Shannon after a few minutes and told her what happened and why I was so far off expected pace.
The rain stopped and I felt good again on the next climb. Then the flat bug bit me again on the next descent. I could feel the rear tire gettign soft as I got to the bottom. I stopped and tossed in the only other tube I had on me. I found the culprit: a huge thorn stuck in the tire. My inflator jammed and I lost most of my air. The tire had at most 10 psi in it. It was about 4 miles to the next checkpoint, so I started running up the gravel road climb. I had my fingers crossed that someone at the checkpoint would have a pump. I ran over a mile before Scott McConnell came upon me and tossed me a small pump. It took a while to pump up my tire, but it was an absolute life saver. Thanks Scott!
I babied the tire through the first rocky section. I definitely did not want another flat. I was out of tubes and air. Then came the final climb, known as "The Wall." I rode all the way up it last March and was determined to do it again. It was the only way to save my day from being a complete disaster. I rode "The Wall" with ease. My legs barely burned and I crawled right over all the rocks to the amazement of some other riders who were off walking. The hardtail climbs way better and made it much easier than I remember it being last March. I was so happy after that. I did not care about the 3 flats I had earlier, or what my time was going to be. I was very satisfied just to be making it to the finish line and to have conquered "The Wall." I blasted the last section, riding several lines that I have never made before. I finished the day in 14th place with a time of 4:27. It was over an hour slower than my goal, but I didn't care. I had a lot of fun despite all the mechanical trouble and got in some great singletrack riding.
Shannon and I were tired when we got home. It was a long day, but well worth the effort. We enjoyed our short trip to Georgia. My Dad greeted us when we got back with his "Home Invasion Care Package." It included a shotgun, box of shells, door alarms and pepper spray...just in case we ever have another break-in.
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