Huppin the stairs at Wirth
Run up at Wirth
Woke up saturday morning to a dusting of snow and about 20 degrees. I had second thoughts as I was racing in Wirth on sunday and had a busy night on my feet friday. But as I have said many a time What Would Jared Do? my former teammate and world leader of the Crossniacs. As I pulled up to the race I of course parked right next to Jared. Double Dip wknd. I got registered and felt it must be about 15 with wind chill. Got the Fangos on and worked the tire pressure and felt pretty good about the whole scene. The course was wet but not too muddy(yet). Got about 7th position in the hole shot and felt good on the first lap, but I tried to not go too hard yet. The course was on a motocross circuit partially and it soon turned to peanut butter as the sun melted the snow and warmed things up a bit. Things got more and more sketchy as the race went on and the course deteriorated. I went down in a fast right hand corner and lost some spots, but was still in the hunt for the podium in the masters 35plus when trying to peddle out of the mud on a hill my chain caught on something or so I thought. I hopped off trying to untangle and found that my rear derailleur was in my back wheel. Wasn't coming out either. Game over. The derailleur hanger was bent, the wheel was whacked, and the derailleur was bent. Got the muck and mud off and got in the car and immediately called Mr. Goodrich. He said "I'll pick it up at the Craftsman and get it back to you this evening if all goes well." And ladies and gentlemen this is why we work with local artisan frame builders. Curt came and got the bike, reworked the dropout which was sprung open, straitened the derailleur hanger, straitened the derailleur, and trued my damn wheel!! How unbelievably cool is that!I can't thank the guy enough as I was able to race in my hometown mpls T. Wirth race.
This was a tough one. I was pretty tired but went hard. Had a top 5 in sight 35 plus for most of the race but bonked at the end. Crazy runup on some old rr ties sunk into an extreme vertical. Very odd spacing and hard for a guy with a 29 inch inseam. I had nothing left the last two times up those stairs after 8 trips up them. I was seeing stars for sure. The Stick Lavick helped bring me out of my coma at the end by giving me a little pep talk and hauling me around for part of the lap. Ended up 22nd overall and 6th in masters 35+. The bike worked and handled beautifully. Can't wait to do it again. Not the breaking part of course.
-MikeyP
-MikeyP
