singleWHAT?

By chandlerdelinks

September 14, 2011 Comments

After finishing second diddle to Nate Morse in the Cat 3 race, Todd and I took to the course with camera and camcorder for the Elite Men’s race.

As I mentioned earlier, Christian Heule showed up to test out his legs before he flew out to Vegas (where I now sit, writing this post).

Photo: Todd Prekaski

Recently recruited rider, Dylan McNicholas, had every intention of winning this race, and while I sensed disappointment and a hint of concern in his eyes upon learning of Christian’s presence, I also so some excitement at the opportunity to race against one of the World’s elite European riders; Christian was 7th at Worlds last year and is the current, six-time Swiss National Champion.

I told Dylan I would waste my fingers’ energy if he could stay with Christian for the length of the entire race. He only stayed with Christian for about 50 of the 60 minutes, but that’s good enough, I guess. Especially since he rode hard enough to go “completely numb from the neck down,” as he put it.

In all honesty, it was an impressive ride by Dylan and I think he had a lot of people asking themselves if Dylan might actually be able to pull this one off. Especially after he bridged from a chase group, alone, to Christian. And then he took the lead.

Photo: Todd Prekaski

Enough about the stupid Elite race, let’s talk about my first ever SingleSpeed race.

Shortly after the finish of the elite race, I saw Todd kitted back up and working on his bike.

“What the eff?”

“I got peer-pressured into doing the single speed race. And it was only $10.”

I turned to the #weenar of the Elite Race, and, technically, my new teammate, Christian, and asked him to borrow $10.”

“I have to go to the car….”

His voice trailed off as I lost interest in his tall tale so I asked the next victim.

I registered, kitted back up, asked for some gear selection advice, thank you, Bruce Kapsten, zip-tied my shifters and took to the start line in the last row next to David “I have the World fooled into thinking I am actually a nice guy, but I’m actually 70% evil” Wilcox and Todd.

The whistle blew, as it typically does, and we were off. I sliced and diced my way to the top ten, where David Wilcox was pretending to be exhausted from riding for 60 minutes, 10 minutes earlier, with Mark McCormack. Big deal, the guy’s old enough to be a Grandfather.

So, this was the first time I have ever entered a single speed race, and it was weird. One gear? Never feels right.

I had been concerned about it being to hard, but once we hit the back stretch/fire road I was doing about 130 RPMs to maintain some speed.

Jerry Chabot bitched about something back there. What else is new?

As we entered the single track I was in about 5th or 6th place, behind Doug Kennedy, Matt Myette, Mike Rowell, Curtis Boivin and CJ Congrove.

I have made it clear in the past that running is not an option. So this meant I was going to be sprinting at 100% at the entry to every rise on this course to ensure making it over every rise on the bike.

More pics at Russ Cambell’s Site

I think I might have figured something out, because I was catching people. Slowly, but surely. This is something I have never, ever done, in any race of any kind. I typically choose to do the opposite.

Speaking of choosing:

Thank you Tim Johnson and Tosh.0

Long story short, the race continued on and I managed to catch people I have never been able to finish anywhere near…for example, Doug Kennedy here. I watched him disappear into the horizon many a time last season, until he upgraded to a Cat 2 and left me all alone with the youngsters in the B Race.

I can hear you breathing hard, Doug. You should consider getting one of these bikes.

With about two or three laps to go, I finally caught the leader, Matt Myette.

Then it was just me and the open grass, dirt, pavement, and sand.

Sand?

I continued doing my little micro-bursts of 130 RPMs on the faster sections of the course and maintained speed heading into the rises and it seemed to be working.

As a matter of fact, I think I was going so fast I was like a dog with his head out the window on the freeway as I went through the barriers at Mach 3.

The wife will say, “That’s not very flattering, Chan.” And I will say, “Weenar.”

I thought about puking.

I thought about giving up.

But there were too many people counting on me out there. So I did what they needed to carry them into the work. I won.

That’s right. I was the Weenar. First time ever.

To this, my dear friend, peer, and teammate Tim Johnson Twittered:

Haha. Still need to win a B Race, Tim, so not just yet.

I am a little confused about what to do now, since I have reached yet another lofty goal.

Do I try to win with no training? Is training even necessary with these bikes and wheels setups?

Oh wait, what am I talking about? There’s a little ol’ lady looking to steal my thunder soon…I better stay focused to defend the honor of all those with honor.

You can count on me, America. And by me, I mean the Weenar.

Oh, and one more thing, Nate Morse suggested I look at the Race Predictor for the opening weekend of the Verge Series in Vermont this weekend.

cycloWHAT?