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| Big Pink Monster - Basecamp Yargo 9 hour Race |
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| Cale's Tallboy, and his sorta Tall-boy son |
5th lap began just as quickly as the previous 4. I caught a rider fairly quickly after starting the lap and passed him with ease. He was riding the 6 hour race, me the 9 hour. I couldn't help but wonder if he went too hard in the beginning and was bonking because of that, or if he was just not in the shape he'd hoped. I caught a glimpse of my friend Cale on this lap, and decided I would just keep my same pace as well as possible and maybe I'd catch him. Didn't see him again the rest of the lap. That guy is quick on his Tallboy...
6th lap starts, and I'm rolling along feeling very good. I come to a straightaway and up ahead I see Expert 9 hour rider Keith Kudlac bent over his bike. He hears me yelling something at him, looks up, and then goes right back to work. As I rolled closer to him, I could see something was clearly amiss. In this area, the race organizers had a long section of chains and tape, dividing the racers from the automotive-traffic along the edge of the road. Someone broke a section of the 'race tape' and it was blowing in the wind. Keith was pedaling by, when the wind shifted and the tape wrapped up around his cassette, and all through his derailleur jockey wheels until the bike wouldn't roll. So now he sat there, next the the road, pulling small ribbons and shreds of tape out of the wheel. I asked him if he needed help of course, but he just said he would be finished in a moment. I drank CarboRocket for the majority of the day, it left me with plenty of strength for a hard paced lap this far along in the race. While I'm stopped next to Keith, a young rider named Vincent Lee rolled by me. I thought to myself, "Hey, there goes Vincent!" I told Keith good luck and rolled after Vincent. I passed him and we talked for a few minutes until I felt good to push forward again. This turned out to be one of my faster laps of the day. Little did I know Cale was running out of energy up ahead, and I felt almost as good as my first lap. I took many corners and climbs just as fast as the first few laps of the day, and started closing the gap. About 7 miles into the 11 mile loop, I saw Cale waaaay up ahead. Hammering harder, I closed the gap until I could see him in much better detail. He was constantly looking back and saw me coming. We finished the lap a minute or two apart, and started another.
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On my 7th lap I caught Team IMBA-SORBA rider (and fellow GATR) David Greenwell, who was also singlespeeding along. Talking to him for a moment, and I looked back to find Cale again! He wasn't stopping! I told Dave I would see him later and took off to try and put a gap on Cale. Now I was starting to run out of energy though, and Cale stayed fairly close by. A quick note on David Greenwell: He raced the Cohutta 100 the weekend before, and this 7 laps at Fort Yargo was more of a 'recovery race' for him. Normally I would not be able to catch or pass him. Dude has serious skills.
I came across the finish line and had 58 minutes on the clock. I could probably muscle out one more lap in that time, but I knew how close I was to cramping up, and made the decision to call it a day. About 2 minutes later, Cale came rolling across the line. Another 8 or so, and Vincent finished up. I didn't even know Vincent was racing in Sport class, turns out, he was my direct competition. My time: 77 miles in 8:01. After the timing guys worked out a few bugs, and the lap times were correct, I showed up as 4th place out of the 12 in Sport class for the day. Turns out I would have gotten 3rd if I raced in the singlespeed class. Those Sport riders are a tough bunch. Wait, I mean... WE are a tough bunch :-)
Mark D. stopped by and grabbed a handful of Emergen-C from me. Later I found out he placed 1rst in his class. Great job Mark D.! Here is a picture of the results standings from the race.
