You win some, you lose some, and sometimes you DNF

Today was the first race of the season, the Dismal Dash 40K Time Trial, down in Suffolk, Virgina. My teammate Luis and I made the trip down to Chesapeake yesterday and stayed at an old friend of his, Bryan.

The drive down took a little under 5 hours and went well considering 95 is usually a mess most weekends. Once down there we hit a local mexican joint for dinner, the place had pretty good food and good atmosphere. Later we BS'ed watching a logging show on Discovery I think, and made fun of the rednecks in North Carolina. Around 10 or so headed to bed to try can get some sleep with the clocks moving forward an hour.

We woke up at 6 and pretty much did our standard routine that we did at training camp. Made breakfast, got cleaned up, then packed up our stuff and left.

We drove about 20 minutes or so to start location and started to unload the car and set things up to warm up after registration. So off to registration we went . . .

After we get back some fellow racers told me that my rear wheel which was setup with a wheel cover blew a tube, blowing the tire off the rim. Mistake number one trying new tires and tubes on race day. I was trying out Continental Supersonic Tyres and tubes which have a slimmer profile of 20cm versus the typical 23cm, and combined weigh about 100 grams less per wheel than regular butyl tubes and GP4000S tyres.

So off to change a tube, i bought four of the supersonic tubes and I was replacing it with one. I was very careful placing the tube properly in the clincher and tire. This of course took time, which wasnt on my side. My plan was to get on the trainer and warm up for about 51 minutes and then head to the blockhouse. Well by the time I got the tube seated to my liking and pumped it up it was 8:35 or so and my start time was 9:18.

Thirty minutes prior to start I take a gel and continue warming up. With a little more than 10 minutes until start time i stop. I decided to change shorts at the last minute and shirt as my shirt was wet and it was barely 50 F and I didnt want to risk getting cold on the course.

With minutes to spare I change my shorts / shirt, put the aero booties on and swap wheels and off I go. I arrive in time and head up to the block. They had a gentleman there holding the seat at the start which is nice to have so you dont have to worry about clipping, a very nice touch.

Go time... I start off strong, not too strong but I get down into a very nice position and just start spinning. Legs are feeling great, watts are there, HR is in the perfect spot, this is proving to be an awesome race so far . . . About a mile in I catch and past my 30 second man, then another and another and another. By mile 4.5 I caught up to all of the adult starters. . . it didnt last long.

At mile 5.3, I hear ssssssssssssssssssssssssss pop. My front tire flatted. Are you serious? yup. Game over.

I get off the bike and move to the other side of the road and start the 5 mile walk back. About a minute afterward a nice family who had two juniors racing pulled over and offered to change my tire. It was like my own personal support. But alas I declined, my motivation was shot, and so many things went wrong that it was just the nail in coffin. But they did give me a ride back to the start area which was very kind of them.

I got back to the car and just packed it up, I was pretty upset. I was feeling strong, and in the zone all shot to hell. I saw two other teammates Mitch and Ted and chatted with them as they prepped for their races.

Luis got back a little later as he started a few minutes after me. He was a bit worried as he had none done this distance before in an all out effort. I kept telling him leaving it all on the course being able to sprint at the end is a bad thing. Judging by his face and the sounds he made, well he had nothing left in the tank, he was running on fumes. One point on the way home he made the comment that he tried to use every muscle in body to make speed. He was extremely sore and could barely get off of his bike. I had been there and I envied it badly. I wanted to be in pain, I wish I was.

After about an hour and half of some walking around, stretching we finally get on our way home. Him still shot and me frustrated we left the flat lands and return home to NOVA. I did decide that I will channel this effort to Vint Hill next weekend. More on this later, but I am prepared to make people cry. ;)