Saturday involved Andy, a.k.a. Murderface, and I going out and riding the Titletown tour ride. It was fun to go and just ride for one of the last nice days of the year. I could definitely feel the miles after a while because of the lack of riding lately. It wasn’t bad until that last couple of miles.
Sunday involved Nate, Julie and I going to Milwaukee for the last race of the year. I didn’t know what to expect going into this race because of my lack of cyclocross riding. After taking my bike off of the back of the car I found out that the rear tire is flat. I try to fix it by patching the tube and then going out for some warm up riding. After the pack left the start chute I get to about mid pack and then all of a sudden the pack comes to a stop at the sand pit. I managed to ride my front wheel for most of the pit because of the sudden stop. So I made it through the pit, ahead of Nate, and continued on my way. A little bit later we cross a bridge and then twist and turn to a muddy climb, I noticed everyone just taking their time because they would spin out on their bikes up the hill. I managed to put the mountain bike to good use and sprint the hill and pass about 4 people each time up. I come across the start/finish line and then I could feel the rear tire is starting to become squishy. I was not a happy camper after that, I had to slow down through all of the corners because I was afraid of rolling the tire.
The second lap went smoother but then I noticed Nate was right behind me and I made it difficult for the rest of the people to get around me. I sprinted the the same hill and managed to get some other people and tried to keep them behind me. Crossing for the line for the third lap and I let Nate get ahead of me to see what he had left. By this time the tire was really noticeable. After about 3/4 of a lap I got pass Nate and then got two more people before the second bridge crossing.
The fourth lap the tire was almost flat because I could feel almost every bump that was to be felt on the bike. I got to the hilly part of the course and Nate was right behind me and then I put down another acceleration up the hill and managed to get two more people and was able to keep them behind me. That acceleration afforded me about 15 seconds between Nate and I. He and another guy managed to catch me because I had to slow down because of the flattening tire. I babied it until the final straight and managed to sprint away from the two people behind me. All in all it was a great day of racing, I would definitely do it again.
