So if you have not heard this past weekend at Cohutta was a bit of a roller coaster. I got a great start and actually took the hole shot into the first section of singletrack. I set my pace early and tried to keep things controlled a bit even though Bishop was not happy with it. I finally let him around me and the games started. We hit the first section pretty hard then after we went down this road section, someone went to the front and set a pretty fast pace along the river. It was like everyone wanted to win in the singletrack? Everyone seemed nervous so I just backed off Christian a little and left enough gap to react if someone did end up going down. Luckily that never happened! So with everyone so amped up I tried to play it calm and it almost did not work out. I laid back about 6th or 7th wheel with Christian just in front of me. I ended up getting too relaxed and the next time I looked up a group of 4 were off the front! Oops. From then on the chase started. Luckily I had some good help with Christian for a while, then Alexander for Costa Rica, and Christopher Michaels. We ended up making it back on the lead group just before aide station 2 when Kevin Carter came up to us and finished the chase off! Thanks! We rolled pretty chilled for a while and I think that was the slowest I ever went up the long climb to aid 3. Then through aid 3 Simonson attacked like normal since he receives feeds out there. We all let him hang out there for awhile thinking it was too long for someone to go solo for that long and questioning what he was up to. Justin Lindine and I would go to the front on the downhills to pull a few second back and then Christian would go to the front on the climbs. After about 15 to 20 minutes of that we brought Mike back into the group. Then at about 47 miles in, I got a glimpse of Elvis. We were descending and at the bottom was a left hand corner. I grabbed the brakes, and the entire front rotor flew apart. Talk about panic!! Luckily I yanked on the rear brake and slid it to a stop! The skid though would of won any skid mark competition out there! I took inventory and I made it out alive to fight another day! At first I was disappointed cause we had a group of 7 that was away and not going to be caught and my legs were starting to feel good. But in the end I thought about it and I was just happy that the front end did not lock up with a stray rotor piece.
So my next thought was, what next? I was 10 miles from aid 3 and 4 miles to aid 4 so I started towards aid 4. Well it was ALL downhill to aid 4 and it is very unnerving to be accelerating with the brakes on so I started to drag my feet. I finally came around a corner and found the Michigan group standing there cheering everyone on. I stopped and talked with them for a bit. Asked if they had a spare rotor, they said no. Bummer! Then I asked for the next best thing, you have a beer? That was a yes! So I set there and had a beer while waiting for Ryan and Scott to come through. After they came through I made my way down to aid 4 to help with their support when they came back through and to work on how to get out of the woods!
At aid 4 they told me that a ride would not be coming through till after the sweep vehicle, in about 6 hrs!!!! Really! Since I smoked my rear pads trying to get down the hill I now have no brakes and need to somehow get back to aid 6 where I knew Chuck was there giving us support. I did have an extra set of brake pads with me so I changed them out. I supported Ryan then when Scott came up I have never seen him in such a bad spot! I made him take as much as I could stuff in his pockets and then I threw everything else in my pockets to get him back up the hill that we just came down. The whole time back towards aid 6 I talked Scott's ear off and tried to get him to focus on anything but riding his bike. I was getting no where! All my questions and continual yapping went on without even an attempt to acknowledge. Then out of the blue, Scott's alive!! An event on the trail made him come to life, thanks to the person who offered the encouragement he needed!! I will not go into what that was here, but it was pretty funny!
So we finished our way back to Aid 6 where I finally pulled the plug on my day and got a ride back to the start with Chuck! Once back there I learned that Sarah finished 2nd and Michelle 5th in the 65 mile race! Nice way to start the season!!
So now onto the evening! We decided to through Mark under the train, not sure what for, but it sounded like a good idea at the time!
Some more randomness, not just for bike anymore(you might have to zoom this one in?):
So next up is some training race for me in Iola! Should be fun to see everyone again though and sounds like we might be racing in the rain? See you there!
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