It Had To Happen

DNF, the three letters that no-racer wants to see or utter. Utah Cyclocross race # 8, and my first race in Heber, ended a little quicker than I anticipated. Problems from the very start. First, in trying to get my rear tire inflated I found that I had put in a tube with a very short valve stem, after hunting around for a pump that would work I eventually borrowed a valve extender from perennial 'crosser and beardsmith Bob Walker, who was nice enough to let me borrow the valve extender 3 more times and offered use of any of his tools. Nice guy! I finally got the tire inflated and set out to pre-ride the course. It's both a fun course and irritating course. There are some fun, fast sections with opportunities for those with great cornering skills, and some slooowww grass sections. Although the run-up was kind of steep I thought it was kind of fun, especially the fast 180 degree downhill at the top.

After a single warm-up lap my rear tire was totally flat. Head for the car, get the spare tire, also with sealant, installed and pumped up. One more warm-up lap and found the rear tire was low, found the goathead, re-inflated the tire and headed to the start line. I was in the back of the pack, I hate starting at the back. I checked the pressure on my rear tire to find it quite low again, but ride-able. I knew with the number of thorns out there that I wasn't going to hold enough pressure to last the entire race, so I decided to just go as fast as I could for as long as I could and not hold anything back. The race started and I took off flying past about half the group, made it through the slight bottleneck at the first turn and made up some more time. I was having a lot of fun, all the while I could feel my tire losing more air and getting more squirmy in the corners. I started to baby it a bit, not wanting to pull the tire off the rim.

I got through one lap and had to pull off, but it was a fun lap. Went back to the car and grabbed my cowbell. I found a good spot on the run-up where I could both encourage and heckle my teammates. Things were looking good, Pat was in the lead with Clay in 3rd or 4th, and both of them looking strong. Josh, Brad and Kerry came around looking pretty fresh. I heckled the couple of people that pushed their bike around the 2nd barrier on run-up. After a couple of laps I saw Clay come through wondered if I had missed Pat. Moments later I saw Pat heading for the pits, he had a flat rear tire. I watched from the top of the hill as he furiously pumped up his tire, the he kept pumping, and pumping. He couldn't ever get his tire to seal up so he was out. On the 2nd to last lap, Clay came around in 2nd and took 1st at the top of the run-up. He was looking pretty determined. I guess the 1st place and 3rd place both had mechanicals so he took advantage and put it to them. He came through the finish line with a 5 or 10 second gap on 2nd place. AWESOME! Team Clammy Chamois has a state camp.

I'm not sure where the rest of the team ended up, since I didn't finish I didn't bother looking at the results. Everyone had fun and Josh cooked up some killer brats to enjoy. Kerry brought out the generator and hot chocolate maker to keep us warm as the wind kicked up and it got cold. Though there wasn't any mud, and I only raced one lap, it was a great way to spend a Saturday morning.