crushing dreams . . .

unfortunately not other lesser beings' dreams.  no no, it was my own little dream that was crushed last saturday as i DNF'ed a mountain bike race due to a slit rear tire.  i ride a single speed for the freakin' simplicity and fuck if i didn't DNF because of a piece of equipment.  word to the (not so) wise - racing ralphs are rad if you ride fast rolling buffed trails.  racing ralphs are a great way to waste $60 if you ride any trail with anything resembling rocks or rock-like objects.  expensive lesson learned by me, don't make the same mistake.

my buddy nate and i were placed 1st and 2nd in the Nevada Cup series for Single Speed class.  we also were riding 1st and 2nd (SS class) in the race saturday picking our way through the pro/expert mens class, and increasing and gap on the rest of the SS field.  top five overall men's finishers were cash payout so we were shooting for the money.  and to crush some geared souls.  just after finishing the 5-6 mile climb i flatted the front tire decending this sweet gully lined with blooming mule's ear.  and by flatted i mean fully bent the rim and flat-spotted part of it.  got the tube changed out and got the tire to bead somehow and only lost two or three positions.  pissed but still in the game with a comically wobbly front wheel and  plenty of climbing ahead to make up time.

charging the pace a bit to make up for lost time i settled in to a fast-n-loose downhill style of riding (ask the spank, he has seen it) that, while quickly gained some ground on the riders ahead, ultimately led to me hiking in mountain bike shoes (read- blisters) and pushing a worthless piece of metal/carbon/rubber for about six miles.  somewhere i hit something that slit my very thin sidewalled rear tire in two places and that was the end of my race.  lots of very loud F-bombs we expelled.  i think i scared the 1st place pro/expert woman when she came by me walking.  then i felt bad and cheered her on - i think she won because of it.

3 revelations while walking in the mountains/desert:  1 - fuck salsa delgado race rims.  they suck for the 29er application as i true these things after every ride, and they aren't capable of being used with stans tubeless.  WTF mate?  2 - i'm going tubeless.  i hear those boys at stan's are making white 29er hoops.  3 - i can't win the Nevada Cup title now with a DNF.  ah well, XC racing is kinda weird anyways.

no photos.  but may post some up of the spring training that continues on the road machine.

other news - mid pack finish at the east valley crit last thursday in the A class (cat 2/3/4).  basically stoked i didn't get dropped or lapped.  AND eastern sierra double century is coming up this weekend.  can my grundle handle a double hundie in the mountains near Mammoth?  stay tuned.