Thursday. Musta been Thursday. I'd finally decided that if I was ever gonna run the oval 30 X 13 gear combo, now was the shit or get off the pot moment. I'd been paying attention to how I ride my tarck bike to and from work and decided that a larger gear would work just fine... for "reasons." I tossed on the cog, a shorter chain, tensioned it up so the tight spot (oval big) wasn't too tight to keep the cranks from free spinning, and for good measure, swapped the front 2.6 Forekaster for a 2.4 Aspen.
Saturday. Smart decision or not, I joined up with a group ride in the Pisgah. Ain't been since December somethingth, and I could feel that I was losing my thousand yard stare by riding nothing but Shart Tarck and Sad Dads™. The Vassago Radimus Meatplow V.9 needed to be ridden, although them fresh sticky Minions were gonna make it hard to stay outta the red on the climbs. I have my Wahoo LEDs set for heart rate zones, so I needed to do my best to stay in the oranges and outta the apples. Aside from a few moments where I let pride mess with my plans climbing up Spencer Branch, I was a very good boy.
Some boring Shart Tarck points stuff.
Although Seth didn't do the first single speed race, he dominated the double points race last week, essentially Jimmy Superfly Snuka'ing his way from the top rope up into the top four overall. I didn't anticipate that, so I got pushed back into sixth, and more importantly, outta the gift cards. Fortunately, Seth is sitting the fourth race out, so with my five point lead on Daniel, I just need to keep him in sight and make sure that no more than one or two people get between us over the next two races if he finishes ahead of me.
The race itself.
Although I clipped in on the first try, I dropped back at the start trying to get on top of the big gear. Once I got it moving, I could stand on it and get up to 23mph+ on a slight incline, so I gained it all back and went first into the left hand turn towards the finish line arch. I hit the plastic electrical cord guard on the pavement and heard a terrible noise. Perhaps some bit of it was loose and rattling about?
It didn't take a whole lotta effort to stay up with the leaders down the final paved downhill, although when I was spinning the gear up, I heard a noise... the same noise from before. Uh oh.
It's working. It's really working.
Until it doesn't.
Lap two, hit a little wonky dip in the gravel road and ka-chang. Chain drop. Stop to walk it back on, lose two spots. Hop back on, get into the lumpy bit of woods. Chain drop. This is going to be a long Shart Tarck day.
That's pretty much how my last three laps go. I'm trying to keep things less bouncy and more deliberate, but the chain makes bad noises all over the place. I fight back a few spots, and have the next two passes planned out on the final lap. Get Calvin on the steep part before the false flat, close to gap to Chris there, ride his wheel to the final gravel up where I can use my weight (or lack thereof) against him... time to lean into it...
Chain drop... and it goes out over the dropout, and because the chain is so short, it doesn't leave me much slack to fight it back into place. Instead of making my next and final two catches, I lose another place during the struggle. Gawdammit and the salt in the wound is that I'm wearing my white gloves, and I'm seeing the results of fiddling with the dirty chain soiling my happiness in all the ways possible.
Daniel not only beat my dick off, he put three riders between us. Now instead of a five point advantage going into the final race, it's one point. So if he beats me next week, it's a tie... and the tie goes to the person who finishes the last race on top.
So... I shoulda stuck with my 32 tooth non-oval ring and bought a fourteen (or at least a fifteen?) or mebbe at least over-tightened the chain at the big spot in the oval or just settled with good enough because 32 X16 was fine. Not ideal, but fine.
But that's not me now, is it?
I set multiple PRs (if you think STRAVA is accurate), and I had my highest average heart rate at a Shart Tacrk race. I also had my fastest lap times on laps three and four even though I was pedaling cautiously. I coulda went faster, and it hurt way less than normal. I lost close to a minute on the two laps I needed to stop and put the chain back on three times. Dammit.
We got a week of rain coming up, so when I got home on Sunday, the Forekaster went back on, as well as the week one 32 X 16. At least I've made the last race more interesting (at least for me).
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