I have been following Kendall James' cancer battle since she was diagnosed in January. She continues to be tough and stand up right in the face of cancer. I am sure she looks up to a lot of adults in her life, but her toughness has made a lot of us look up to her. I am always amazed by the lack of fear that children show. It shows you that fear is a learned response.
Kendall was asked if there was anything she would like to do before she started chemo. Her one request was to turn her hair blue before it fell out. That was an easy request to fulfill.
Kendall before and after
There was a lot of talk about her when the news first broke that she had been diagnosed with cancer. I wanted to make sure Kendall stayed on everyone's mind so I went to the local party store and bought a blue wig to attach to my helmet for this race. Kendall has motivated me in the past month so I wanted to pay tribute to her new hairstyle. I wanted to show her that her dad's bike friends are thinking about her all the time and I hoped that people asking about the wig would extend her story further and hopefully some more people would be able to help out the James family during this tough time. She will be going through chemo for around 40 weeks so the fight is just beginning. Shannon and I have offered to help out the family whenever they need it, but they live so far away from us that it is hard for us to do things on short notice. We had donated money to their GoFundMe page, but I wanted to do more. I wanted to win this series for Kendall and donate to her any winnings I could get. That was my motivation for this second race. Crush it for Kendall!
Like I said earlier, we had great conditions for the race. It was a warm day for February. Things started off chilly, but we were down to short sleeves and shorts for the race itself and I was quite comfortable the entire race. Other than a few slicks spots, the course was fully dry and much, much faster than in January when it was covered with snow. With my poor finish in January, I got knocked back in the updated starting order. They actually put me farther back than where I finished last month, but that was ok. It put all the people I considered contenders in front of me. There were plenty of carrots dangling on course and I was one hungry rabbit sitting on the line. I was very excited to take off. I had trained hard over the past month and felt significantly better than four weeks ago. I felt stronger and had dropped six pounds. It was time to see just how much better all that work had made me. A lot of people made fun of the wig, even when I told them what it was for. That just fired me up even more. In my head, they might as well have been making fun of Kendall.
On the start line with my Kendall wig
I jumped off the line fast with my blue wig flapping in the breeze. I was a bit tight in the first section and missed several lines. Riding tight usually means you are on an off-day or you are going faster than usual and that is making you miss your lines. It was hard to tell which kind of day I was having until I got to the end of the first section and I could see Jaron Wood, my 30-second man, just a few seconds ahead. I had almost caught one fast rider already!
Taking off at MB TT #2
I got close to Jaron, but never caught him. As I came down the hill to the first creek crossing I felt my rear tire going flat. I could see Stan's coming out so I kept going hoping it would seal, but the hole was too big and I was forced to stop just a mile into the race and throw a tube into the back tire. Since getting this Epic, I have been much more comfortable with tubes in my tires than running tubeless. The tires just feel flimsy in corners at race speed without the tube in them. I had a lot of problems rolling tires off the rim last season, but that was nothing new. I have been doing that my entire race career, even before Maxxis tires came into the picture, so don't blame them. After running the fall and winter with tubes, I had decided to go tubeless here today to get used to the feel of them before the season arrived. I was hoping to find a good air pressure that took away that flimsy feeling. I wasn't very comfortable on the rear in that first section, but I never really got a chance to push them today before the flat. When I stopped I could see a cut in the tire, probably from a rock on the first descent. Stan's was not going to seal a cut this big.
Coming up to the first creek crossing on a low rear tire
photo by Nashville Local Cycling
photo by Nashville Local Cycling
I have improved my tire changing time, but it is still so slow! At one time as a Junior, I could change a flat on my mountain bike in just over two minutes. Last year it took me more than 10 minutes for flat changes at Conyers and BUMP with the through-axle system and the tightness of tires on 29er rims. I did much better today, changing this rear flat in 6:38. While I was putting the tube in another rider came by a tried to talk me into quitting. He had flatted just a bit farther up the trail and did not bring a tube. He said it wasn't worth it because you couldn't win anyway if you had a flat. So! He clearly didn't know me or he would have known that I will not quit unless I absolutely have to. It's hard to get in a good workout hiking your bike out to the car instead of racing. I was determined to chase back up and put down the best time I could. Kendall can't quit. She has to keep fighting all the time so the least I could do was keep pushing for my measly two hour bike race.
With it being so close to the start, the time gaps were still fairly close so I lost a lot of spots and had plenty of traffic to go through. The riders had all seen me changing the flat so they knew I was coming and everyone gave me plenty of room. On the first climbing section I kept seeing a few faster riders on other loops and began doing some time checks on my Garmin. I was picking up 30-45 seconds in every section. Knowing I was closing the gap so quickly made me go even harder. That tightness I was riding with at the start was gone and I was ripping. I had passed most of the riders that had come by during the flat change by mile 7. Then the witch of Montgomery Bell jumped out at me again. I was flying through a big dip on the green trail and got off line a bit. I saw a ledge coming that was going to be a hard hit so I lifted up, but it wasn't enough. I felt both rims hit as I rolled over the ledge. The front blew off the rim, then reseated itself. I still had some air left, but it was slowly leaking out. My love-hate relationship with Montgomery Bell was making itself known yet again. I feel this place is perfect for me and my skillset and I expect to do well every time I tow the line. Sometimes Montgomery Bell giveth. Other times she taketh away. Today was the latter.
I was behind John Carr and vented my frustrations on him as I followed him through the next loop with barely any air in my tire. I only carry one tube and one CO2 cartridge so I was done for the day. Then suddenly there was a pack lying in the trail. Some kind soul named John wanted me to get out of the woods today and dropped me a present. I opened the pack to find a tube and CO2. I was a bit quicker with this flat change and was back on the bike in 5:20.
I was frustrated, but I was still determined to push on all the way to the end. I struggled a little over the two biggest climbs around the halfway point, then started to get my rhythm back in the late stages of the race. I was much faster through the smaller blue trails that slowed me down in January. While I did slide across one creek, I did manage to stay upright through all water crossings. I even took a KOM on the Haynie Branch trail, which is quickly starting to rival the Back Blue trail as my favorite trail at Montgomery Bell. I ended up catching everyone that passed me back during the second flat change, including John. I thanked him about a dozen times as I went by and then many more times after the race. I ended the day with a time of 1:47:02, which placed me 14th in the Open Male class. Jaron Wood ended up with the top time of 1:36:04. He was 10:58 ahead of me. I spent 11:58 stopped changing flats so you do the math on how I would have finished. Nobody except those who saw me believed I could change two flats and still do that kind of time. I think a lot of people just thought I was riding slow and making excuses, but they will see in March. Our times were WAY faster than in January so that gives Jaron the overall lead after two rounds. Cayce Tiesler won round 1, but he is out for a few months now following an injury.
After the race, John and I headed back out for another lap on the course. John did the first half with me, then I did the hill section again just to finish off the legs and keep building up the endurance. XC races later this season will be 20-30 minutes longer so I still have some work to do to be able to hold a high pace for two full hours. Thanks John for the tube and for the company on the second lap! John is a good friend and has come to my aid on several occasions over the years.
My time this month was still 7:48 faster than in January, so this time will count for the overall for me so far. I am determined to come back in March and win like I know I can. I want to do it for Kendall. I feel like she got gypped this race, so I owe her a better performance. One of my friends said things were still the same as always when "Flat Tire Greer" is racing. That may be true, but I assure you I will be testing out some new tires in the coming weeks and will get this figured out before the season gets here. I was excited to hear after the race that Kendall got to see the pictures of me racing in the blue wig and it made her smile. That was all I really wanted.
The result may not have been what I wanted, but I did pass the test. I am right where I want to be right now. The fitness is good. I need to work on my climbing a bit, but it is better than last year. My skills are good, but they can improve too. I must eliminate that tight feeling at the start and let loose in the turns. The ride time says I'm ahead of the competition so full-steam-ahead with the current training plan as it seems to be working.
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