Burnin' at the Bluff

Apparently this race is kind of a big deal because there was no shortage of fast dudes there. About 300 of them showed up. The Le Mans start was HOT but I think the running favors me and I made it to my bike probably 5th. After a long pavement leadout, it bottlenecked down into singletrack but I made it into the woods top 10. Things were going very well and there was a nice gap and I stayed relaxed and then started to work through a few guys when the trail allowed. At exactly mile 4 I broke my chain. I have NEVER broken a chain. Of course I didn't have a chain tool. I lost almost 10 mintes and was passed by probably 30 people while I waited for a generous soul to loan me a chain tool. Once I got it fixed, I was pissed! Foaming at the mouth, I started working my way through riders. Things went relatively smooth for the rest of the 14 mile lap. I stacked it a few times from riding over my head but came out of it fine.
I think I finished that lap in 1:15 which I was fine with considering the delay. We had 1 chain and TK felt it best to swap mine out so I did.

Dan, went out next and absolutely smoked it with a 1:03 (he is a great crit racer but he might have been a bigger deal if he had stuck to the dirt). I was pretty impressed. TK was up next and he turned a super fast lap that made mine look like crap as well.

We were in 6th place as I headed out for my next lap. Right away I felt terrible. I just had nothing and at 4 miles I was ready to pack it in. I stuck it out but had a little disagreement with a root at about mile 6. When I got going again my front wheel was destroyed and was hitting the fork brace as it spun. I finished the 8 miles like that but was completely smashed (mostly mentally) after the lap. TK used his brute strength and a railroad tie to true my wheel and got it so it at least rolled through the fork freely.

Dan and TK headed out again and both turned in super consistent and strong times again and with no mechanical mishaps. When Dan saw my wheel he refused to let me go out on it for fear that it would fold on me. He was right but I couldn't find a wheel. He did though (thank you very much Team Seagal) and we got the rotor swapped out and I was ready to ride again. I headed out for lap 3 and just wanted to have a smooth lap even if it costed me time. My splits were good and everything was smoov. I turned another 1:10 or 15 but felt great.

Dan heads out again at about 5:00 now and TK and I are getting his lights setup and adjusted. 30 minutes later, here comes Dan with the mechanical of the day. He broke his chain and it wrapped completely around and behind the cassette and even if he had a chain tool, it would have required removing the cassette anyways. So...TK wasn't ready to go yet and I really didn't think I could have done back to backs at the pace I had been going. So we decided to pull the plug and go get food and head back to St. Louis.

As we packed up we found that Dan had broken the freehub and the axle on his XTR wheel and, we suspect, that may be the reason why the chain broke as it wrapped around the cassette but it really doesn't matter. Needless to say we were disappointed. We quit while in 3rd place overall and that's tough to walk away from (especially for 3 guys that don't know the meaning of being non-competitive) but we learned a ton. None of us had done a 12 or 24 hour event before and it's definitely different from a XC. We'll play things a bit different for next year for sure.

Huge thanks to Mesa for a really fun event. Huge thanks to Dan and TK for letting me be part of the team. It was really good to hang out with the boys for the weekend. I didn't know many of the riders anymore but I did see some old faces like Tom Albert, John Rhines, and my old rooomie Ethan "Cake" Johnson. Things are different than when we all raced XC together. Many of the guys are married and most now have kids so it's tough to see each other but I realized how lucky I am to know them all.