2014 Singlespeed-A-Palooza

Pampa

Well-Known Member
Hey JMartz, sorry to hear about your injury. I hope you feel better soon and enjoy Colorado some other way.

My recap:

I came into the race with little training/riding, about the same as last year and I had the same goal as last year too: be in the top half of Open Men. That was my "base" goal and it's really not very motivating/fun so I had also some "targets" I wanted to chase :)

I got to the start a little late and was at the end of the group when I see Woody inching up on the side and decided to stick to his wheel even before the race started :) We went off and I'm pedaling as fast as I can to keep up with the group. I knew I was gonna have to pedal like a hamster in this part and I installed a cadence sensor in the bike just to know how much. The avg. for that fire road section was above 100 with a stretch of .6 miles at the beginning between 118 and 127 rpms :drooling: Ironically, given the low gearing I was running (32-18), I managed to stay with the group during the flat sections of the fire roads but as soon as we hit the hills I started to drop back.

Somewhere in the fire road I lost Woody's wheel and started to follow Mitch. I entered the ST behind him with a solid train ahead of us so I rode his wheel for a while and recovered a bit until I noticed that the train ahead of was starting to spread apart and I started to make some passes. I probably passed 5 people over the following few miles and ended up at the head of that little train but I didn't manage to put a gap on them. It looked to me that we were all going faster for a while and we started to catch up to to other riders. I think at this point I caught up with Pearl and passed him.

Sometime after that I got a flat. Luckily I put some air, wiggled the tire and the Stans sealed it. I probably lost less than 2 min but I got passed by 5 riders. I caught and pass a couple but I was also passed but two riders over the next few miles. The las part of the race I battling back and forth with a rider until the very end. I would pass him in flattish and/or muddy sections and he would pass me on the hills. I finished a few sec behind him. This year I was about 1 min "faster" than last year and ended up 43/97 vs. 47/96 las year.

As always Darkhorse people ran a great race. I had fun and it was great to see, even if briefly, people I enjoy racing and riding with. Unfortunately, I had to leave right after I finished since it was my son's birthday and I went straight to see him at a soccer match (it was hard to drive by the barbecue smell as I was leaving!).

After the soccer match I went home, loaded the bikes for my wife, 3 boys and me, and we went for our first family ride of the season to Deer Park. We only did 8.5 miles but it killed me since there was a lot of riding slow, starting and stopping and I was in my SS.

I'm still sore today but at least I'm not hurt so I'm already looking forward to the next race.
 
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jShort

2018 Fantasy Football Toilet Bowl Lead Technician
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Hey JMartz, sorry to hear about your injury. I hope you feel better soon and enjoy Colorado some other way.

I don't know about jmartz, but I'm sure I could find a way to enjoy Colorado with out a bike!
I'm sure Sunday will be a special day for the whole state.
 

2Julianas

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
I'm one of the 11 uni riders. We all appreciate you guys sharing the race with us!
Did having us in front of you guys cause any problems?

UNICYCLES ROCK!! Hats off to all of you, I couldn't even ride a unicycle across the parking lot. And I too felt a bit lame riding by on my two wheels, especially if I felt like I was struggling.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Nice job Segundo. Its always good to see you at a race, one of these days when your kids are older and u have time to train u will be killing other SS'ers.:D
 

UtahJoe

Team Workhorse
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Was that the long mud "trail"? On a casual ride that might be fun. At the last leg of a race it was hiking. On a uni, that kind of mud takes like 10x energy.



Yep, I made that video. I'm a computer geek and wanted to know what the passing would be like. The simulation looks worse than the much slower reality. Knowing 250 bikers were hunting me down helped push me too.

Mad props, thats an awesome video. Kinda what I would expect from someone who would race a unicycle for 24 miles :)
 

Pampa

Well-Known Member
Nice job Segundo. Its always good to see you at a race, one of these days when your kids are older and u have time to train u will be killing other SS'ers.:D

Thank you Iggy. Looking forward to follow your footsteps and getting faster while getting older, at least for a while :)
 
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