Never work on your bike the night before a race…at 7pm the night before I decided to switch the rear cog to the 20t from the 21t. I made the swap and did a quick ride over to the trailhead to get signed in. At the first little rise on the way over I gave it a little power and “crunch, crunch, crunch”…damnit…don’t do work on your bike the night before…Fortunately I was able to just flip the cog around and it mated with the chain a lot better (close enough). Maybe the one tangible benefit of riding a single speed is that there are so many fewer parts and its a lot more forgiving mechanically.

Anyhow, Katie had left me home alone for the weekend, so all I had to do was take care of myself? On Saturday morning, despite being awake for 2 hours before I wanted to leave, I still managed to get way behind and had to rush out of the door. I made the short ride over to the trailhead using that as a warmup, dropped off some aid station stuff, and found my way over to the starting area.

The start this year was pretty mild for a lot longer than usual. In past years as soon as we made the right turn onto 477 things went “live” and the pace picked up pretty significantly. This year though, things stayed pretty neutral all the way past the stables. It wasn’t until we really started up the climb that things really spread out. I was trying not to go too hard early but I did want to get up that first climb in a decent position. I ended up getting in right behind Nina from CTS and just held on to her wheel all the way up the climb, Thanks Nina. Which seemed like a pretty good strategy, she kept a really even pace, something I’m not capable of on my own for some reason. I was however on the edge of sustainable but feeling good and strong. 

Things were going pretty well for a while, in and out of Aid 1, onto 215 which kicked off about an hour or so of solo riding. I didn’t see anyone in front of or behind me for a long time. I made pretty good time up 215, again working hard not to overdo it. Making sure to keep track of how much I was eating and drinking. I was still feeling pretty good. The heart rate monitor was suggesting I might have been pushing a little much but I was feeling good so I went with it. After making the left on to 4663 it felt good to have the “Meat” of the course behind me. 

I was riding the mountain bike with super durable 2.2 inch tires so I was kind of looking forward to the chunkiness of the 4663C descent and Wolf Mountain Road. The 4663c descent was a ripping good time, much more fun being able to just let it all hang out and not be thinking about my tires. I did notice a few skid marks in some of the turns that indicated a few people in front of me might have been having too much fun.

A little more pavement and onto Wolf Mountain Road, the seemingly minimally maintained “road”. The bike I was on was perfect for this and honestly made it a lot of fun. I spent a lot of time on roads like that up in WV and boy do I enjoy them, they bring a new life into riding gravel roads. Unfortunately it’s not that long of a road so that kind of fun was short lived.

After the Wolf Mountain section as soon as you start heading towards home there is a climb on Tanasee Gap Rd. This climb is sun exposed, it’s steep, and it sucked. Looking back, I think that grunt of a climb is where things started to unravel. I tried to hold it together on the rest of the pavement and made it to aid 3 relatively unscathed but it was getting hot and I faded…fast. The climb back up to Gloucester Gap was where the wheels came off, the power was gone, heart rate didn’t want to cooperate, and I was hot.

I made it up to Gloucester and cruised down the descent, staying conservative, trying to take advantage of as much “free” speed as I could. Made the left onto 475B and settled into a slow humbling climb. A few riders passed me, one of them, Garth, noticing the single speed, let me know Chris wasn’t too far back. While this wasn’t unexpected it was not quite what I wanted to hear at the moment. I still couldn’t really find anything in the tank. Finally I hit 276, then make the right onto 477. Matt, the recent transplant to Asheville, comes around and lets me know Chris is close. Yeah yeah, finally I see Club Gap Trail, I know from here to the top the grade of the climb eases up. I started to push a little more and what do you know my legs cooperate a little. I’m able to stay on top of the gear again, albeit just barely, but I don’t feel like I’m going backwards.

I got moving, which I think was just in the nick of time. I really didn’t want to “race” Chris to the finish. This may have included the descent which would have been really sketchy if we were racing home, and then a flatter 2 miles at the bottom. I think a gravel descent with some flat at the bottom probably favors Chris so I really didn’t want him to see how close he was. Finally I went over the top, then down, with only a few “oh $%^&” moments I hit the stables and kept the pace high all the way out to the pavement. Checking over my shoulder repeatedly.

I came in at 5:26 something with Chris coming in just a minute and a half later. I’m not sure how I hung on but I can’t complain. I didn’t quite have the day I hoped for but it was better than I was actually prepared for I believe. In reality 4 1/2 of the 5 1/2 hours were pretty good, which isn’t bad for how I prepared and how hard I went out. I was a little bit faster this year than last but also didn’t have the mechanical/water bottle issues that I did last year. So ultimately my moving time may have been a little slower. After looking at the results it appears that a lot of people had slower times this year than last. I think the loose conditions and heat played may have played a big part in that.

Since I was home alone for the weekend I was able to stay and hang out for a bit after the race. I had a few beers, sat in the river, caught up with some old friends, made a few new ones. It was a pretty darn fun Saturday. However I still missed having Katie and the kids waiting at the finish, it’s so much fun to come to the line with them there.