2016 Singlespeed-A-Palooza Thread
- Thread starter Pearl
- Start date
Carl Sagan.
jake 😀
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
SSAP is an awesome event and I love seeing ALL THE PEOPLE there, but it demands a skill set I just don't have. Yesterday was the first time I've done it in four years because when it was in April it always conflicted with LBD, which is much more up my alley. And it hurt! Holding speed like that for 26 miles just feels so much harder than riding an endurance race-pace for 100+. And I'm fine with that - I just wish that I didn't have to cough up my lungs the whole drive home whenever I do a race like that.
I crashed early. I don't know the names of the trails there and thought that Schofield was Major Mike but apparently I was mistaken on that - I crashed in the mud at the bottom of Schofield. Total roadie move, that - first bit of singletrack and I'm on my ass. Or more accurately, I bailed and my bike crashed into a tree. No real damage, just a major holdup as I watched almost the entire field go by me before I could slot back into the line. Then I spent the entire day chasing riders in the distance. Since I had nothing else to do, I kept a count of all of them and by the time I finished the final tally was 41 passed and only 1 came back around me by the finish. I was really happy with that. I felt like I had pretty good legs all things considered - I rode almost everything, even that horrible short steep vertical climb (I was alone on that and actually said out loud to myself "why am I riding this?") The only place I ever had to dismount was that god awful mud climb in the field. I don't believe that was really a trail. I think it was just a mean joke by the Mayor that later on he felt bad about so he gave us those insanely delicious brownies. Those things were the bee's knees. Congrats to all who toed the line yesterday!
I crashed early. I don't know the names of the trails there and thought that Schofield was Major Mike but apparently I was mistaken on that - I crashed in the mud at the bottom of Schofield. Total roadie move, that - first bit of singletrack and I'm on my ass. Or more accurately, I bailed and my bike crashed into a tree. No real damage, just a major holdup as I watched almost the entire field go by me before I could slot back into the line. Then I spent the entire day chasing riders in the distance. Since I had nothing else to do, I kept a count of all of them and by the time I finished the final tally was 41 passed and only 1 came back around me by the finish. I was really happy with that. I felt like I had pretty good legs all things considered - I rode almost everything, even that horrible short steep vertical climb (I was alone on that and actually said out loud to myself "why am I riding this?") The only place I ever had to dismount was that god awful mud climb in the field. I don't believe that was really a trail. I think it was just a mean joke by the Mayor that later on he felt bad about so he gave us those insanely delicious brownies. Those things were the bee's knees. Congrats to all who toed the line yesterday!
Good seeing you yesterday martin...that pace is max XC death pace for sure. Or more like CX pace.
Hey you got to meet @The Heckler yesterday too!
Hey you got to meet @The Heckler yesterday too!
The Kalmyk
Well-Known Member
I know him personally. He couldn't make it around a city block on a bike,lol
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Yes I did! Exactly the reason I like going to these events even though I know I'm going to be on the pain train all day - meet cool people and get my ass handed to me by them! 😀
And great seeing you, too! And I look forward to hearing soon that you've come to your senses and thrown out all of your derailleurs ...
Shit, I didn't see any Brownies??? I did have 3 Ice Cream cones and a sandwich...
Good job out there Marty....always good to hang with you at a pre-race.. and post race. In between I do my own thing..
MOAR RECAPS! @extremedave @David Taylor etc...
1speed
Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Ohhhhh, there were brownies ... They had peanut butter and chocolate chips on them. Between that and the cream ale ... mmmmmmm-hmmm ...
Thanks JP.. I appreciate the love. This was the 1st race of a slow season.. The most relaxed race ever, good nights sleep helped. I had no great expectations for this this race since I have had a slow winter with only 800 miles under my belt this year and no real rides more then 20 miles. With that said I was just going to go out and do my thing. Once the race started I pushed pretty hard on the fire road and tried to keep up, but burnt out pretty fast, started getting depressed as more and more guys kept passing me before the singletrack. Once on the ST I was kinda bunched behind a long line which let my heart rate settle down a bit and then I just started working my way up at my pace. I pretty much did that right up until the last fire road towards the finish. That was the only rider of the day that I couldn't pull in, but I did cut his gap in half. I was happy with the result , felt good after the race and even felt good enough to get up for the 530 spin class this am.
My biggest shock of the race was the fact that when I came through the finish a bunch of you were still hanging right there and had just finished within the last 2 to 10 minutes. I was surprised that I was not that far off considering my race fitness. My first thought was that if I was that close to you guys you all really suck at SSing, but then I was like , WOW, those guys are all solid riders. So I guess did OK for being the oldest guy racing in the race.., Thanks again JP
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