King and Queen of the Watershed '24

I belly up to the bar at Revolution Cycles at 4:30PM on Saturday.  The first thing I see is a customer picking up his 20" folding bike.  He's wearing what looks like cafeteria worker plastic gloves.  Not one minute passes and a woman walks in the door with an old pink beach cruiser saying she spoke with someone about storing her bike for a few months.  She's also wearing cafeteria worker plastic gloves.

After some confusing conversation about who spoke to who and what "storing a bike "indefinitely meant, I got to ask Watts what the gloves were about. 

"I dunno.  I've never seen it before and now... ?"

From there, the shop closed and a weight weenie discussion started over GRX VS XT pedals.

Same but different... but same.

I'm gonna backpedal a bit here.  Watts had asked me if I wanted to do K&Q on suspension forks this year or stick with rigid as per the ush.

Rigid Pros:
It's how we do it because... burrito.

Squish Pros:
Watts already had a suspension fork on his bike from our trip last week.
I'm really enjoying my new behk, and it's looking like this might be my last chance to race it until... ?
Suspension is comfortable.
I wanted to find out if I got all the creaks outta my bike.

So, suspension it is.

Out for pre-race carbo and also rita loading for the King and Queen of the Watershed.

We did not go that hard in the paint.  Wisdom?  Age?  Maturity?  Tired?  Bellies full of free tortilla chips and possibly a few vurps on both our parts? 

Dunno.

As we do, we ride the thirteen something miles to the start of the first timed stage from Watt's house (after a mandatory stop at Revolution Cycles to pick up the things and also the stuff) instead of taking the complimentary shuttle.  I ask Watts to start in front of me, because history has shown he is faster... even tho he said he wasn't feeling fit... but he always says that.  It's super slick, and I'm regretting my choice of a well-worn (but not worn-out) Aspen, as I dodge trees and try to keep my collar bones intact.  I do end up catching him before the finish, so there's that.  I start Stage Two in front of him, but then my neck hurt from looking over my shoulder every few minutes... so I start Stage Three after him... and caught him again.

On the way to Stage Four is usually where the wheels come off my bus.  Less about the enjoyment of a frosty beverage someone mighta left in the woods for us, but more about me seeing pizza at the aid station, eating pizza, eating even more pizza, and a couple hot peppers... just a half mile from the second longest and very lumpy Shady Side/Owl's Roost course.  In all my infinite wisdom, I eschew my favorite tasty woods treat, deciding it would be better to have blood in my legs and not rushing to my digestive system to process something food-like in appearance and taste.

Whaddaya know?  It works.   I don't end up feeling like total ass for thirty minutes. 

Note to self: pizza during full gas efforts = no buneos.

Stage Five is relatively short and punchy (like me).  It works out in my favor since I suck at the "power thing" and also the "handling component," but I can go down things and up things.

In the end...
 

After almost two hours of racing, how does it feel to finish one minute thirty nine seconds behind a thirty eight year old on a full squish single speed with muscles that are worth flexing and most of a functional hat?

Dammit.  Slightly bitter.  At myself mostly.  Seeing that I was third on the first three stages, second on the fourth (by .7 seconds), and then the fastest on the last stage?  Makes me think I didn't try hard enough... or I can use the age old excuse that we elderly people toss about... " I don't even warm up for the first (insert insane amount miles)."

We did a thing, and then we did other things.

We once again managed to shut it all down...

And once again, we ended up riding home in the dark.

I love, love, love this event.  So much fun and a little bit of sadness as this might the last of the 2024 "season" for me.  At least if it is, it ended on a very high note (winning the last stage counts as a win in my book).