2013 Trans-Sylania Epic: Stage Seven

The night before the last stage, the promoters (mostly Ray) asked that we please not do exactly what we did last year.

Last year.

I went to bed late and disheveled, so when I woke up Saturday morning, carrying a mess of beer on the trail was the furthest thing from my mind.  Still as I walked past the cooler on the way to the start, I grabbed a PBR anyways.  One for old time's sake.

Before the start, Ray once again reminded us to please not stand around in the woods all day drinking.  I realized I'd better drink my beer right there and then so as to meet the elevated expectations.

photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

Good news, Buck was going to ride with us.  I'm sure he would help keep us in line...

or not.  We (Dejay, Buck, McKeegan and I) ended up splayed out in the grass behind the awaiting peleton soaking up the atmosphere and figuring out a way to have fun and keep everyone happy.

 

photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

It wasn't gonna be easy.

We rode into the woods, safe in the knowledge that as long as we weren't dead last, we weren't truly inconveniencing anyone.  Tucked away somewhere towards the rear, we found a nice spot in the woods and had a beer.  Even though I had not been smart enough to bring a pack, I was at least smart enough to ride with those who did.
Beers finished, we rolled on.

We made our way back into the rear of the field, crossed a road, saw Timmy D, rolled into more woods, and then Buck flatted.  It's always best to flat within sight of a volunteer Timmy who happens to have a floor pump. 

Time for another beer.

The flat was all but fixed when a geared rider came along with one of his shifty bits dangling about awkwardly.  Who better to fix that than a bunch of single speeders (and honorary single speeder for the day, Derek Bissett)?

Zip-ties, duct tape, more beer...

photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

We had to photo-document the moment so we could show Ray that it wasn't all our fault we were out there so long.

photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

We got him up and rolling and went on our merry way.  Down Panther Town, up the climb, over to the aid station (that had beer but not liquor this year), and onto the last big climb of the day.  Somewhere on that climb, we found a spring coming out of the mountain... so we sat and had a beer.

And then more mountain cycling, one or two more trails to go, and then Vlad was standing in the woods with more beer... so we stopped.

The race ended with the usual and customary trails that are all around the Boy Scout camp, giving you a sense of being close to home, but not really.  Once we popped into familiar surroundings, we ended up passing by the shop area set-up by Freeze Thaw.  They had coolers, coolers with beer.

We stopped.

Reloaded, we headed for the finish.

 photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

Impromptu foot down... I lost.

 photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

And like that, the 2013 Trans-Sylvania Epic was over.

 photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

And there was much rejoicing.

 photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

Then it was pool time, where I ended up getting midget tossed more than once.

 photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

Fortunately PBR with pool water in it doesn't taste much different than PBR with no pool water in it.

  photo cred: A.E. Landes/TSE

For those keeping track, I ended up 4th overall in the single speed class.  My first year at TSE off the podium, probably not my last.  Yes, there was an infamous Stage 8.  I opted out after last year's debacle where I almost crushed a person slightly smaller than me.  Trying to do a beer related race after spending the morning drinking was more than I could imagine, so I mellowed out, hung around, spectated, and enjoyed the company of friends that I probably won't see for another year.

I'll be back... I think.

I mean, the world's supposed to end before then, so I don't want to over-plan.