On Two Wheels: Rider 629: DNF

DNF = did not finish... These two pieces are supposed to be connected together

Obviously my bike is not as extreme as me.

The Cohutta 65 went down like this. I missed the start of the race by about 3-4 min because the clock on my speedometer was off by a few minutes. I lined up near the middle of the pack with the 35-milers, but soon realized this was the wrong starting pack. I made my way through them and sprinted up the first climb of the race. This climb was about 900ft up over 3 miles. I caught up with the back of the pack as we hit the top of the mountain and entered the singletrack.

This is where I made my first mistake. I assumed the line of people I was behind was the main pack. I could not see far enough ahead because of the mist and twisty trail to see where I stood at this point. I figured it was just a long line of riders so I did not bother passing anyone for the next ~8miles. At this point, the 35milers started catching up, and I realized I was just behind a pack of very slow riders. Once we were on a straight section I finally passed them all and took off. This is where the battle really began.

We crossed the river and hit the more technical singletrack. At about 15 miles in my legs were not feeling great, I hadn't really eaten or drank anything. I also noticed that one of my bottles of cytomax had jumped out, probably on some of those huge 4" roots down by the river. I had only about 45 minutes of fuel left in my remaining bottle. I'm hoping that 1st aid station comes up quickly...

Some of the scenery
With a bad front derailleur, the single part of the singletrack was fairly tough stuff. Wet roots made the climbing worse, but I only had to dismount 2 times in the first 18 miles. At the top of the single track climb was aid station #1. I took about 3 minutes to rest because my legs were cramping up, I didn't have much time to drink on the single track sections. My nutrition plan for this race was already falling behind :(

From then on out to where I got the mechanical failure was all fire roads. My speedometer was also working intermittently, so I didn't have a great idea of when the next climb was coming other than by attacking it when it came. I started taking down the nutrients after mile 18 and started feeling great. I made up huge time on the climbs, which is somewhat surprising because I didn't have my granny gear to use. Remember? I'm running 1x9 in this race.

I rolled through aid station #2 (I think it was 2...) and spent the next few miles by myself. I thought I had taken a wrong turn. Anyway, I didn't expect the next climb. I suffered through it, but caught up to another rider at the top. I was glad to see another racer. Turns out he's from Cary and rides the same local trails as me. Small world... We stayed together for the next ~3 miles until we got to station #3. He got out of there quickly, and shot down the next few downhills. He was faster on the downhills, but I caught up to him and flew past on the climbs. This was on the next big climb at mile 33. This was a ~700ft climb over the next 3 miles. At the top of this climb I was spinning out the legs minding my business when it happened.

A small stick got lodged in my rear derailleur, pushed into the spokes of the wheel, and the rest is history. The wheel locked up before I knew what happened and lurched me off the bike. The derailleur was sticking straight up, towards my seat. Ugg. Curse words ensued....

I pulled the derailleur out of the wheel, and it broke right off. There not much I could do. I thought about converting to single speed, I had a chain tool and everything, so I lined up the chain but it didn't look like the right tension. So I started hoofing it back to aid station #3. Mind you this down the mountain and across a gap about 5 miles back. At least I could roll downhill...

Dave from Scott's Bikes was awesome help back at the station. Unfortunately he didn't have a derailleur I could throw on. He said the sweep rider was coming through after the last rider and I could see if he had the part I needed.

Waited 1.5 hours or so, I lost track of time.

Nope, don't have the part, but did have a power link. Dave was bored and I let him mingle with my bike and the power link, and he got a mediocre chain tension, but the wheel axle was not really in the dropouts.

I tried riding it for ~.5 mile, but it was skipping all over the place. I walked back to the station to receive a DNF...

Disappointing, yes. The ride back was what made it though. I rode in the back of Dave's pickup in a recliner patio chair taking pictures of riders we passed on the way back. I saw some familiar faces from when I had to walk my bike back. But, I recognized one from TV. Floyd Landis, 2006 Tour de France winner for the non-bikers out there, was racing a nice Mooto-x. Baller!

He said he wanted to ride in the truck, and I said back to him "Break your bike like I did. Or, I can ride your bike for you!" He chuckled and kept riding up the hill. Cool dude, made my day :)

I did not get to ride his bike though.

I asked Dave from Scott's Bikes to send me some pics of me and Landis, expect those soon. Getting a used X-9 derailleur tomorrow to get back on the bike. Also need another spoke