Wind from my sails

Not sure it was so much wind, but the loss of air form my tires.  I knew that the wrong tires were selected when as a team we had 3 flats during preride!  Oops.  We mounted up all the LKs we had and made do with the rest.  The rock down in Arkansas is like running over small razor blades and they took there toll! 

So the race started out with "Johnny Holeshot" leading us out with his 30 seconds of power before fading back.  I then took over the front of the race at the start of the first climb and set it at a comfortable pace up the steep gravel climb.  About half way up Jeff uped the pace and we ended up hitting the first section of single track with a break of 4 riders and myself placed in 2nd behind Jeff.  The other two riders were Christian and Brandon from Team CF.  I felt really comfortable on the technical trail and had really good legs.  Then my race started to come apart, not 8 miles in a stick flew through my rear deraileur and pulled the cable right out of the holder!  I stopped to fix it and was able to get the high gears out of the fix with help from Ryan who stopped to help and was not going anywhere till I was back on my bike!  Thanks!  I then went to put the rear tire back in the bike and noticed the rear tire was flat so I aired it up and got going again.  I quicky caught up to Scott and Ryan and they let me roll through cause my adrenaline was in high gear as well.  I was taking some chance on the downhills to get back towards the front and didn't even make it another mile before flatting again and burping the front! I started with 25 PSI which is 5 pounds more than I usually run!  It sealed so I put air back in both tires and started down the trail once again.  This time Ryan latched on and followed me and kept tabs of the hissing sound coming from my rear tire.  By now all hopes of getting towards the front again were gone so I found a nice rock, set down, and decided to put a tube in the rear tire.  Once going again I decided that I was going to ride the rest of the day and enjoy the awesome, technical, trails there!! 

I rolled along blowing through aid station one, then stopping at aid 2 to grab my bottles.  By now my legs were really feeling good and I started to pick riders off again.  I made it to aid station 3 and rolled right thorugh.  We were now on the red loop, which was a fast flowing loop that reminded me a lot of nine mile.  I kept the pace high and before I knew it I had moved back into the top 10.  I knew Ryan was my next rider and I did not want him to ride by himself, he gets lonely, so I kept the hammer down.  Then I heard that aweful noise and all the air escape my tire all at once!  Not good, I was out of tubes!! My day was done! 

My next hour was spent walking out of the woods and back to aid station 3 where I booted my tire and put another tube in.  My tire had a good 3/4" slit in it so I pulled the plug and rolled back to the start line to accept my DNF!  Bummer!

The rest of the team did well, besides the bumps and bruises that the girls have.  Mcihelle ended up in 4th overall in the 50 miler, Sarah was around 8th I believe even after taking the not so scenic loop down the gravel road for 6 extra miles!  Ryan had an awesome NUE debut with 8th overall, Scott also had 2 flats and finished 21st, and Mark said enough of the tech trail and went back to the cars early looking for where the beer was hidding!

So after a DNF, now I am obligated to go back and race again!  Cannot leave a race like that and I will make sure I have some sturdier tires the next time! 

Next up for the team is WORS #2.  Not expecting a lot from myself, but the res tof the team is fired up and the Rhinelander course is one of my favorites!  See you there!