I was worried about getting in front of the traffic so I ran like an antelope and came through the smoke like Kurudas lights during a epic crescendo.
I was spinning furiously when I got swarmed by 5 fast dudes and ended up n the woods 6th. We pacelined it for awhile until the Alpine Shop rider and myself got slightly gapped off the pace and then we passed Dan who had flatted. In cruise control, I passed the AS rider and started to floss.
Things were going really well for a very short period of time. Through one of the rocky sections before the first big climb my chain slapped off and I slipped it back on, but not before the Alpine Shop rider passed me. I leapfrogged him on the first big climb and didn't think much of my chain popping off, as it had not caused me issues before.
For the next 10 miles just about anytime I was going fast (which was all the time) through the bumpy stuff that was too rocky to pedal though for fear of pulling a Schottler, I would drop my chain, slip it back on, remount and resume high speed riding. This happened no less than 10 times on the first lap alone. I came through with the fastest 1x1 class time of 1:03:xx, but wasted my legs sprinting the last 75 yards as my chain fell off on the last little dip at the top of the climb... I really would have like to have seen a clean lap time.
By the end of Matt James blistering lap two I think that we had commanded close to a 15 minute lead. Christopher struggled to acquire the fire on the next lap but kept us within field goal range and I set off on lap 4.
Russ had worked on my steed and claimed that the spring in the singleator had slipped out of place and bent, but he flipped it around and said I should be good to go.
My second lap was brutal. I don't know if it was the lack of cool down after lap 1, the heat or just a bad lap but I just wanted to quit. I was riding as hard as I could and my back was locking up to the point of severe pain. On a positive note, I only dropped my chain once and rolled through at a decent clip of just over 1:06. I told Russ I had heard some sort of "click" before it dropped but he told me there was nothing more he could do. After the lap I told the team I was only good for one more lap as my back was wrecked. It wasn't a nice conversation, not to mention the fact that Jerk from Team Segal rode by and gave me the double salute and told me to fuck off... Game on... Nico is to blame for the destruction I laid on his team after that.
By lap 4 we were maintaining a 15-20 minute lead and it was time to do work. I set off into some nicer temps. The "click" I had heard before the chain came off on lap two was the steel spring tearing through the aluminum on the inside of the singleator which meant I starting dropping my chain again. Conservatively, I would say I dropped my chain once a mile on my third lap but was feeling much better and highly motivated to make the other SS teams wish they hadn't raced.
Back at the campground after a 1:07 lap of so we were sitting pretty with a 22-23 minute lead. Christopher was a little down on himself so I tried to give him the clutch in the 4th quarter strong defense pep talk and a Red Bull Cola. We had our team analysts, Russ and Drew, working on the probability of 11 laps and the the chances our lead could diminish to the point we would have to race it out. Once again that Jenkem huffy jerk Nico rode by and called me names. Like Rocky telling Mick to cut him in the final scene of Rocky II, I asked Russ to do what he needed to do to keep me from stopping on the last lap and he went to work.
MJ had another super consistent blazing lap as the sun set and set Christopher up to be the hero. After a rough day where he battled sickness and never really got his legs under him, Christopher pulled through in the clutch and protected the lead which set his team up for record smashing destruction. My last lap was great as The Muscle had got my bike dialed, visions of belt buckles were dancing through my head and I was feeling light on the bike. I knew my lap time would be somewhere shy of 1:15 but was ready to double up if the team needed me to, after all, when your on a team you do what you have to do to win. I passed some people at the beach who told me it was around 8:30 so I knew it meant possible pain if I didn't hide out in the woods, but record setting is serious business and I'm a serious guy.
I rolled through at 8:45 and was told that we we're so far in the lead I didn't need to go for a parade lap and the celebration began... Man that fires me up!!!
The competition was very strong and pushed us all day long. I can definitely say that I have never been so wrecked from a race before and attribute it to that. It wasn't until I set off on my last lap that I was confident we we're going to win and am really impressed by all the strong racing. Rumor has it that Grotoff was giving the double salute to a baby fawn on the last lap when he crashed and was passed by Summer of 69... serves those jerks right!
Ride DMC had shattered the record by close to 35 minutes, Zach Brace posted the second fastest 12 hour time ever, Jen Goldstein crushed her previous record, Schottler completely shattered course records that weren't supposed to be broken and had INCREDIBLE lap averages and shiny buckles were strapped to belts. It was good and the carnie folks freaked.
Once again, none of this awesomeness would have happened without the clutchiest of the super clutchy clutchion. Thanks to John Farinella and Dave at PBR for really taking this event to epic proportions... Top notch, KID!
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