Roll With It
If you would have told me last week that my trip to South Dakota for a 100 mile mountain bike race would include: epic rainstorms that turned the course into one long mudbog, mechanical failures all around, more rain, did I mention rain? and also that I would pull out of the race, I would have said that I'll cancel the hotel reservation and stay at home thank you very much. But in the end, despite all the rain and troubles, the trip was a raging success.
Clouds Ahead
I had been nervously watching the forecast since it came up on NOAA a few days before the Rapleje race. It never looked good. Rain in Montana and the Dakotas for weeks leading up to the race, including race day. The road trip started well, until about halfway through Indian country, around Ashland MT, when the rains appeared like a grey veil over the horizon. We hit mists, then drizzles, then full fledged rainstorms in Spearfish. Checked into the hotel, then dropped off my bags at the race registration in Sturgis.
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| Gray Day in Spearfish |
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| Bag drop at the Sturgis Community Center |
Hopes Dashed
At this point, I was still stubbornly hopeful the rains would break and the course would clear. Then I took Kip for a walk at the park behind the community center. What looked like a grass field was saturated with rain and there was an inch of standing water everywhere. I started to look around. Spearfish and Sturgis had been hit hard by wind, rain, flooding, and tornado warnings. In the past 12 hours. So, yeah. . . . .
Rainy Start
Woke up at 3:52am in Spearfish to rain. Raining like a cow taking a piss as the French would say. The start in Sturgis, under stadium lights at Woodle City Park, was in pouring, sideways rain. Followed a police escort down a windy canyon road, then up a smooth forest service road a few miles, past a cool dead snake, and up onto the singletrack.
B.C., Durango, Sedona, Moab, Tetons, Black Hills?
So, the next twenty miles or so of singletrack is some of the best I've ever done. The Black Hills a destination MTB area. This ST absolutely blew me away. There was one cool forest zone after another, from ponderosa slopes covered in fallen needles that smelled like and took me right back to the Monzano MTs in New Mexico, then aspens worthy of any Steamboat slopeside, then tall towering pines, then rocky ridges, all of it dappled in Fly Agaric, Russula, Puffball, Morel, and other fungal delights. Vultures, hawks, eagles circling overhead. Bighorn sheep, deer, toads, and snakes. Snapdragons, wild roses, yarrow. Creek crossings so deep and rowdy there were ropes to hold onto. Flowing ST hanging on the topo lines and snaking up and over ridges. Berms. Jumps. Insanity. Then you hit the mixed use section, and it becomes rockier and rowdier, and still just kicking ass. The aid stations were really well done. best I've ever seen.
We as bikers owe a lot to the runners who seemed to be more in charge at the aid stations. The volunteers were friendly, well-equipped, thoughtful, awesome!
Bitten by Chucky the Baby Doll Head
The mixed use trail climbed up from Nemo SD, an over a divide, down an insane DH into Pilot's Knob trailhead. The DH was great, but it was also full of square rocks, sharp ones, the size of doll heads. About 2 miles from the bottom of the DH I felt something wrong. Rear tire going flat. Stopped. Air was pouring out of a 1.5" tear in my sidewall. I'm running tubeless. I had checked my sealant as part of my pre-race prep, but no sealant can cope with a tear that big.
I also had a patch kit. By combining several patches like a flower shape, I was able to cover the tear on the outside. Then I had a big automobile patch that I found on a roadside once when Yokie lost her wallet on the interstate, and I used that to cover the patch from the inside, so I had the sidewall patched inside and out.
For a 1/2 hour I listened to music, ate Epic bars and homemade cheesy waffle & fennel salame sandwiches, waiting for the rubber cement to dry on the patches.
Then I reseated the tire and tried to inflate.
It never really worked. The tear was just too big. Also, in the pouring rain, with a bike as muddy as mine, the glue was never going to dry and seat properly.
I walked the bike into Pilot's Knob, and got a ride to cell phone coverage. Yokie and Rose came and got me at the Sugar Shack, a nice restaurant outside of Deadwood SD.
Analyze This
In the face of failing to achieve my goals, I am tempted to over analyse my early withdrawal. And I have. I should have had newer tires for the race. They had 650+ miles going in, and on the MT trails, that's a lot. That's more than my old MTB tires would last sometimes (300-1000 miles was average for me on my Trek Top Fuel 69er). That's my bad.Also, and extra bottle of sealant may have helped some.
Certainly, I need to still slow down a touch more on the downhills. At least the rocky ones.
But I did feel much better when I ran into Tinker Juarez that evening, the pre-race favorite and all around MTB legend, and he had pulled out as well with a broken rear brake. And so did many, many others. Also, on the upside, I felt great during and after the race, with plenty left in the tank. Shrek outperformed almost every other bike there, with no mudstops or traction issues like so many others I passed. My training and nutrition programs are working great, and there is a lot to be happy about.
And next year I'll be back to kick some ass here. With new tires.
SD Roadie
So, when those plans fail, you go on a nice road trip with the fam. And SD can take care of that no problem. If you've never thought of taking a trip to SD, you need to rethink that . That state rocks.  |
| Bridal Veil Falls, Spearfish Canyon |
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| How are your fishfinding skills? |
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| The falls outside of Savoy, SD. Amazing creek, great forest, cool vibe. |
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| Three of the most important people in my life. One of them is a human. |
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| Kip-Approved Playground, or KAP |
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| Supermodel & SuperPhotoBomber |
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| Who would have thought you'd ever see Yokie do that?!?! It's so cool to see her and Rose with Kip lately, he's a little lover boy. |
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| Take #128 |
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| Not many pics because the traffic was bad, but this area of WYO was amazingly scenic. With the rain lately, the colors were so vibrant. And Devil's Tower has an amazing setting and feel about the whole area. |
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| My favorite aspect of the Tower: it frames my 'hawk really well :-) |