But the events that have transpired last week have me questioning my "Bike Karma" like never before.
To really do this story justice, it will have to start last year, at the Mohican 100....
(Flashback sequence - blurry, lots of white fog... and we're there)
I had convinced my good friend Kyle (a.k.a. Lighty McClimberson) that we should enter this race - saying things like: "It'll be awesome! We'll spend the whole day on the trail, just takin it easy, keepin the pedals turnin."
But in the back of my mind were thoughts like: "...this race has more climbing than all but one of the stages of the Tour of California..." and "Both Tinker Juarez and Floyd Landis have dropped out of this race in the past - and in good weather."
Oh the weather... The day before the race severe storms ripped through the area, downing trees and swelling rivers. (Not to mention terrifying the poor bastards who camped out overnight in tents). And the race day forecast didn't look any better - Cold and cloudy in the morning, with another round of strong storms scheduled for the afternoon.
Lighty and I saddled up, and started the climb out of town with more than 600 other sets of knobbies. We hit the muddy soup that used to be one of the best ribbons of singletrack in Ohio - and the rains started, slowly at first, then building to a crescendo with the blasts of tornado sirens and trees falling all around you. But that was later...
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| Big signs marked the course and were helpful in identifying | poison ivy |
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| Singletrack Soup - I ate my share |
The weather wouldn't be our only problem for the day.
Lighty and I had made a pact - finish together or not at all. We had started out great, moving as well as we could given the conditions. We had found a good rhythm and were keeping up and passing a few people. And then:"Cra-Pap!" I hear this loud noise and look back to see Lighty standing beside his bike holding his saddle - the bolt connecting it to the post sheared completely in half.
With no spare (and no multi-tool at this point - our seat bag with all our emergency supplies had been torn off in a river crossing by the rushing water(!!!) ) he tucked the seat into the leg of his bibs and with my shouts of encouragement: "how much did you eat last night!?" we headed off.
Things went pretty well aside from the general cursing at the conditions and in 15 short miles we were at the second aid station where Lighty could get his seat fixed. (Yep - fifteen miles of terrible conditions, climbs, descents, all with no seat other than the one tucked in his pants - that's one tough cookie).
So, with seat fixed and bellies full (I had seen how many PB&Js Kyle had and was worried for his seatpost again) we were off with renewed vigor. The pace was up, and we were making up for lost time. That is, until a small tree lodged itself in Lighty's rear derailleur. We managed to convert it to a single speed - but only in the smallest rear cog (highest gear). But this speed was better than nothing, and with only 30 miles to go we weren't going to let this stop us.
I did my best to chase Lighty up the hills, but my legs weren't having it... I had to suck down a Gu pack with 5 miles to go. In the end though we slogged it out, crossed a river so swollen the trail crew had strung a rope over it so you could pull yourself across, and crossed the finish line.
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| Me at the Finish - Luckily the last river crossing had cleaned off my legs for my glamor shot |
Finishers are handed a Pint glass while they are still on their bikes - and I'll tell you that no beer has ever tasted better.
I sent my future team manager Krista some pictures from the race the next day. This is an excerpt from our convo:
2:02 PM Krista: those pictures look ridiculous
2:03 PM me: yeah! and that's still early on! And only a taste of what we saw
Krista: thats what kyle said... crazy!
2:04 PM me: yeah! And no picture can capture the feeling of cresting a hill only to see more hill... We had our share of "you've got to be f*ing kidding me" moments :)
Krista: i can't believe he rode like 15 miles without a seat...
aww... lol
me: me either!
2:05 PM Krista: i'm so in awe of you two
me: his calves had to be spent
well... we still have lots of room to improve on for next year. First place finished about three hours before us.... :)
2:06 PM Krista: well... hopefully the conditions are better!
2:07 PM me: yeah! couldn't imagine they could get much worse! I'm still waiting for the results to be posted (they have the top 10...) really just to see how many people dropped out
2:08 PM Krista: yeah... wow
2:10 PM so Pelotonia is going to be a piece of cake now... right?
2:12 PM me: haha, yeah! Our tires probably went around twice for every one forward spin! So yeah! Hopefully...
2:13 PM Krista: LOL
2:16 PM me: I guess the results were posted! I missed them!
2:17 PM Kyle and I finished 94th and 95th out of the 203 in the mens 100k
2:18 PM not bad for all the trouble we had
Krista: nice
2:19 PM wow only 116 finished
2:21 PM me: yeah, quite a few dropped out
| 6 minutes |
2:27 PM me: I like this little excerpt from the write up: "This year's race was no different with soaking rains creating the muddiest conditions in Mohican's eight-year history. Several racers, including Spin Bike Shop owner and former downhill pro, Greg Jackson, claimed that *this year's race was the most difficult thing he had completed in his life.*"
It was a terrible and wonderful experience - less than half of the people who started the race finished.
I'm signed up to do it again this year.
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