Flatlining
In the buildup to this race, I had a few major problems. The main one was my tires. It's been a fiasco. I broke my HED Big Deal rear wheel in Malaysia, right at the end of my trip over there. When I got back, I sent it back to HED, and had to pay for a new one. The new one has a different construction, and has proven very tricky to setup. I just can't get the tires to seat, they keep leaking. I tried a Surly Lou. No go. Surly Knard. No go. 45 North Husker Du, not at all.Better Late then Never
As one tire after another proved unworthy of the hyper finicky HED rim, the delay stretched from a minor annoyance right into a couple of months without really riding. Each failed tire resulted in another order, another week's wait, and then another week of fumbling, mounting, and remounting the tires.In the midst of all this, pursuant to a very, very, very frustrating call with HED, I launched a comprehensive search for tubeless ready tires in a 26 x 3.8 size. This search was so frustrating. Everybody knows that for years we've been riding these tires tubeless, but none of the manufacturers could be bothered to throw together a tubeless option until this year. That's years too late to respond to the market. Much newer tire sizes have come since the 26 x 3.8-4.2 size, and they've got tubeless options available. You can get 27.5+ tubeless, and 29+, and even 26+. This is a very disappointing oversight for these companies.
After this race, I would finally find some tubeless options, more on that later, but leading up to this race, I had zero training, and wasn't even sure the tire would hold for the race.
Goddamn Bozemanites
The morning of the race was absolutely perfect racing conditions. Bluebird, calm warm, awesome morning. Nice, small but friendly vibe at the race start. There was a very small turnout. Probably 20 racers. Some serious ones though. The Spoke Shop guys were there, the oldest and most serious of the Billings teams. There were a couple guys from Bozeman.I took off in fourth or so. People were pushing a pretty good pace considering the low turnout and steep, punchy climbs in the last two miles of the uphill. I waited a bit, and then saw the leader pulling away. I made two passes and settled in second place. That's where I would ultimately finish.
Never saw third place after that, at least not on the way up. I kept slowly chipping away (I thought) at the lead of the first place guy. He was a really nice guy from Bozeman, with an unusual riding style: he really weaved all over the road. I was following his tracks, and his wild line choices made me think I was catching him. As I found out later, he's just not a straight line guy, and he rides a bit wobbly, but fast. Super fast. I never could catch him. He beat me by three minutes in the end. I beat the third place guy by that much again.
Overall, considering the runup, how sick I was for a week before and after the race, and the fact that even on the day before the race I wasn't sure I could make it, I am very happy with the result. I didn't even know about the race until weeks before, was denied any training, and I still finished second place in my first winter race. Not bad.
Also, though, not good. It broke my streak of five victories in a row. This, actually, has been a good thing. A very good thing. It's shaken up my training and my confidence, and reinvigorated my riding goals for the summer. I've got some very big plans this summer, and they are coming together nicely.
Thanks to the Spoke Shop, and Pedal United for organizing this race. Thanks to Back Alley Metals in Red Lodge for my really cool second place prize.
