Crunch, crunch, crunch

Tomorrow is the Fool's Gold 100... for some people.

For others, it's the Fool's Gold 50.

I am of the others.

Why 50? Because that's what I'm in the mood for at this juncture. The 2012 1.25 Months of Madness just got slightly more sane. Do I have a plan? Sure. Go as fast as possible. Chance of a podium? Who the hell knows at this point. I looked at the roster, and there's like a billion people signed up. There's no way to tell who will be on a single speed, and the only SS'er I saw that I know anything about (before I tired of looking) was right above me.

Eric Nicoletti is fast. How fast? Like third to The Pflug and Ferrari fast.

Mud.

Let's talk about it.

Mud was the reason I quit the Shenandoah 100.

I managed to walk away with only one maintenance issue* from my 57 miles on the course, which I fortunately found last night. I still have zero regrets about dropping out of the race. I've finished plenty of shitty, bike-part-toasting races in the past. 24 Hours of Snowshoe with it's marshmallow fluff mud strewn over piles of hardened octopi tentacles. La Ruta's shitty last stage through salt water puddles that eat bearings for breakfast. Three days at Crank the Shield riding from one knee deep puddle to the next.

I'll finish a shitty race... if I see a point. A goal. A reason.

Tomorrow, I'll be hoping that I find that reason.

I'm prepared. Fender in place, spare brake pads packed, and a certain amount of resolve has been reserved especially for tomorrow. I'll slog it out regardless of conditions knowing that I can toss my bike in the corner and work on it weeks from now if it's totally thrashed. Pisgah Monster Cross is next week, so the Fire Mare will get called up for its first race. From there I'm gonna start lazily riding the Genius for awhile until I tire of squishy and shifty.

* Correction. After posting this, I got up and checked the Dickstickel Meatplow V.6 bottom bracket. Not stuck, but crunchy and very resistant to turning. Woulda been smart to address that... unnhhh, I don't know. Like four days ago**.

** Stopped blogging. Took off crank. Drive side frozen with rust, non-drive side just resistant to turning. Tri-Flow to the rescue. Caught in time... I hope.

A bit pissed now. What better way to fix that than to bring back the forever controversial Sonya Looney Fridays.

That tire is huge.

See the rest of the 2013 Cyclepassion calendar and the exploitation of huge bike parts here.