May 06, 2007
Dirty Spokes
The 2007 6/12 Hours at Fort Yargo is now complete. Yes, there are many riders who get on their mountain bike and ride for 6, 12 and 24 hours straight, and some even take this endurance thing to another level.
Right here I have to mention my friend Scott Hodge, owner of Addictive Cycles bike shop. This rider was out riding the solo 12 hour event yesterday just as a training ride for the upcoming Great Divide Race, a self-supported, solo 2,490-mile mountain bike competition coming up in June.
I was invited at the last minute to join a 4-man relay team with some GTC riders, Jay, Ben and Bill. Ben is younger but Jay and Bill have to be pushing 50 and I might have been the oldest rider on the course yesterday. As a team we had no particular goal except to have fun, ride hard and let the chips fall where they may.
Riding my 10+ year old bike, I arrived hoping the thing would hold together just a little longer. No such luck, my chain broke on my second lap and I was not carrying a chain tool so I had to run with my bike for a few miles while phoning my teammate to meet me across the bridge with a replacement chain and tool. Probably gave up close to 11 minutes with this bit of bad luck. Finally back on the course for my final lap and I'll be darned if the new chain didn't break too! Amazing because in all my years I have never broken a chain before. Anyway after stopping and looking around in the woods for a while I found where my broken chain had flown off to and amazingly Scott Hodge pulls up (I had passed him moments earlier) and offers to stop and fix it for me! The guy is a saint. I got rolling again but something was not right with the drive train and I had to pedal easy nursing the old bike back to the start/finish giving up another 6 minutes.
It didn't see the leaders finish but it looked like Shey Lindner was dominating the 12 hour solo event and was about to win all the marbles while making it look easy... well, other than that first lap incident on the wet bridge. Great ride, my friend!
Jansen explaining the finer points of mountain bike racing - I was chasing this little rascal down when my chain broke (the first time).
Ben ready to go, "His chain broke and he's running?"
Hmmm, I see a new Cannondale mtn bike in your future!
Posted by: Shey at May 6, 2007 02:59 PM