SSWC 2008
My team-mate Conrad wrote in his recent blog on cwcracing.org about the culture of the race. True indeed, the only thing that really flies is how whacky you can make yourself and the less serious you take it the more fun it is. I only found out the day before that it almost mandatory to wear some sort of fancy dress. With no time to re-plan my get-up I settled for regular riding gear but I must admit I felt somewhat out of place.
As far as equipment goes, I was very stoked to get a 20 tooth sprocket from White Industries which suited the course far batter than the 18 tooth I had on my bike originally. It helped a bunch on the climbs which were pretty frequent but was not very useful on what flat riding there was, which was not much. The compromise was well worth it.
The race kicked off at around 9am and it was a le mans start which made for some good laughs with guy's running around the first obstacle (cattle pen) in both directions. If that was not a challenge enough, the biking started by trying to ride through the 400 odd running mountain bikers charging for their bikes. We started the first loop by going straight up a 2.7 mile climb which at the summit was where the first hike-a-bike was and that was not the last. The group in front quickly settled and there were only a few changes throughout. Carl Decker (winner) and Mark Weir (2nd) controlled the race from start to finish leaving everyone else the race for the rest. I had a good first lap but took it easier than I probably should have but perhaps the plan was good in the end. Team-mate and friend Conrad "Connie" Snover was just ahead of me and I could see his yellow fur around the odd corner but his gap stayed pretty much constant throughout the first lap (10miles). At the beginning of the second lap I picked things up a bit and caught Conrad about halfway though. We rode together for about 2 miles when just after a rocky dismount section I hit a nasty root head and lost all the air out of my front tire. As quick as I could I charged it with a full can of big air but managed to loose most of that with a leaking valve. Air was escaping from the tubeless valve at the base because I pushed too hard getting the Big Air valve onto my valve and it lost it's seal. I tightened the valve and salvaged what air was left (15psi). It took about 30sec to get that sorted out and by the time I got back on I had been passed by two guy's and my team-mate was gone. I chased hard and on the final switchback descent I misread the closeness of the first 180 degree turn and blew right through it, hitting the brakes hard to try reduce the consequence and had a big crash into the bushes. With that behind me, the 15psi still intact but with the rim now bent I had to nurse what was left of my front end and hold onto what position I was in. The low pressure in the front tire made for some interesting corners and on more than a few occasions I think I scared some photographers with the glare of white coming from my eyeballs. I got nabbed at the line by one more guy and finished in 12th place. Conrad held onto 8th place. I am completely stoked with my result being only the 2nd single speed race I have ever done. Bring on SSWC 2009 Durango, Colorado.
