DH40...my perspective
Ok...so I don't know if I should laugh, cry, rant or all of the above...
I had a lot of fun anyway so it was all worth it.
We rode on the Singlespeed Sport category
First, I was riding with 2 of my buddies and the plan was to stick together, little did I know we were going to have all sorts of problems.
So we started good, caught in the pack and in the nice "cat and mouse" chase. I was surprised at the lack of technical ability of a lot of the riders out there, I mean, it was the SPORT category and in a park where technical is not an adjective I would use to describe that place. Perhaps I was stuck in the back of the "peloton", anyways, about mile 5-6 I start gaining ground on one of my buddies, only to fin out a little bit after that his rear wheel is all screwed up, rubbing the breaks (v-brakes) So we stop to try to true his wheel, after struggling a little we decide to go to the rest stop, perhaps a mechanic will be there to help him. Of course shit out of luck, no mechanics there, so we start to slow down. At one point my other buddy and me are way ahead of this guy so we decided to stop and wait. After a lot of waiting we went looking for him only to see him with his bike flipped over and still trying to fix the wheel. We couldn't do sh*t, so he started riding with no rear brake. We figured he'll suck it up and get help at the halfway point. Well, guess what, shit out of luck again. He had to ride all the way down to where the Specialized guy was only to find that the guy "wasn't set up for that" (that is what the mechanic told my buddy). So at this point I was going to keep riding and leave him there, but then again I remembered the original plan. RIDE TOGETHER. So I gave it my best shot, and we kinda got the wheel spinning nicely and were ready for lap two.
By this point we are already way way way back. We must've wasted around an hour and a half. So we are all pumped thinking we are finally going to enjoy the ride and perhaps do a much better job on the 2nd lap. Of course not!! A little bit after the start of the 2nd loop I find myself flying on the trail coming up on the grassy area, and this is where I made a terrible mistake! Dumb me I was coasting on a turn but instead of having my pedals parallel to the ground, I had one up and one down, and BAM!!! I must've hit the only rock in the whole freaking park and flying I go!!! In my head I am already thinking "freaking singulator is shot" with my luck recently that was my first thought. So I must've fled like 10 yds and the bike comes rolling hitting me in the head. I stand up, I look alright, no blood or real pain, so I look at my bike and the stupid front wheel is TACO-ed!!! CRAP!! it wouldn't spin at all!! FARK! So I take off the front brake (v-brakes again) and decide to keep spinning and try to fix it later. I took another look at the wheel and some of the spokes were very loose and I couldn't true it for shit. So I decide to finish the ride with no front brake. I did learn one thing: A "taco-ed" wheel doesn't corner the same way as a normal wheel
So I had to take it a little bit slower also because I lost control without having my front brake.
So after a while one of my friends starts cramping, so we stopped again to rest a little. Kept going for a while and again more cramping. After a while my other buddy starts cramping too. So this is starting to turn into a CRAMP FEST! But nobody wanted to call it quits. So these guys found the strength to keep pushing even when they were cramping. At this point we already knew we were the last ones out there, we hadn't seen any riders in a while.
We finally made it to the last checkpoint and they were all cleaned up and about to leave. DAMN! We were the last! In the last 5 miles we ran into a girl that had a TACO wheel too. But she was walking it, I felt really bad for her. At one point I passed a guy and I thought, GREAT! I will not be the last
But then one of my buddies was started having problems with his chain and we had to stop. And, yes, the guy passed us. LAST again (well, except for that girl, but I don't count her)
We finally made it to the road and the last stretch (climb). I took off and I said, at least I gotta beat my buddies
So I got to the finish line first and waited for them.
I was sad to see that they had DEFLATED the huge tire they had at the Start line I guess everybody was ready to leave
We headed up to the food area and I was happy to see they still had a lot of chicken and a lot of pasta. Awesome pasta!!! Or maybe I was starving, but it tasted like heaven!! Too bad they didn't have cold drinks or beer. But I had beer in my cooler!
Overall, it was an awesome race despite all the crap that we went through.
It is an awesome park for that type of race, single-speed long distance race. The race course is not technical at all. It has some short steep climbs, but nothing crazy, with the SS I had to walk 2 or 3, but they are definitely all doable.
I think they organization was awesome, it is a good deal, for I think $45 only, you get a t-shirt, a water bottle, a decal, drinks, chicken and pasta, and some other prizes for trivia and some stuff in the trails that I didn't understood well. Can't go wrong. And you get to ride 40 miles.
Now a couple of things I didn't like.
1) The trivia at the beginning. I mean, come on, the start is already very delayed and they have to bore us with some Q&A for prizes. They can do that at the end , no need to wait until everybody is finished. Another incentive to finish quickly, even if you are not top 3.
2) MECHANICS!!! There were none. At least I didn't see them. They should have had one at the mid-point, at least, and one CLOSE to the start/finish line NOT all the way to the back. I guess they had one, the SPECIALIZED guy, but it seemed to me, he only wanted to work on Specialized bikes or on bikes from cute girls. What kind of mechanic is not set up to true a wheel?
My buddy told me other guy in front of him, told the mechanic about shifting issues from mid to granny gear and the mechanic told him to RIDE the MIDDLE ring. WTF!?!?!, Oh but he did spend a lot of time with this cute girl, fixing her bike and teaching her all about how shock works. Totally unfair. And there was a guy there waiting for him. He had a specialized, so I guess he was OK after the mechanic was done with the girl.
The mechanics at the All-A-Muchy are awesome, they hooked me up once. And also at the Churn N Burn, it was 6am and this guy was all tired, resting, in his camp and he helped me with brakes. What an awesome guy!!! So good mechanics make a huge difference at races.
I was happy to get home and find that there was nobody here. (I have friends visiting from Mexico, so my wife took the out) So I was able to shower and sleep a little, although I would think I would've slept more, but for some reason I woke up after 1/2hr and I didn't feel very tired. So what do I do next, come upstairs to let it all out @ MTBNJ.COM
sorry for the long post, I guess I had a lot to say.
I would do it again for sure. Not too hard to improve my performance