Don’t THINK just RIDE!!!

Those of you who know me well might say that I could be a tad… Well, how do I say it… OCD about bike racing…Now most of the time (according to your prospective) this is a huge attribute when it comes to training, etc.. I have a drive to constantly want to get faster, a speed freak if you will.. Now my wife is the “other” prospective that thinks I am nuts, but that is another topic altogether.
This last weekend as you probably know was Crocodile Rock MTB Race at Perry Lake. This is where my OCD bit me straight in the arse! We get there early which I like to do, I would rather piddle around than pull a Lansen and show up 20 min before start time. During the pre lap I find out that it’s a rather flat course, basically just one little climb at the end. This does not suit how I like to ride, I tend to do better when there is a bunch of climbing like out at Krug. Soooo…. I decide to break the number #1 rule (because I am ocd) DON’T CHANGE YOUR BIKE SETUP RIGHT BEFORE A RACE!!!

I decide that the course is too flat to race a smaller gear in the Cat 2’s and put a 16t on my bike 45 min before the race starts. AND my partners in crime did not stop this insanity either! Well the 16t is smaller than the 18t which put some play in my chain. I was a bit worried about it, but I had a chain tensioner on it so I thought what the hell, just run it beeoch.. After we started the race, during the first section of rocks/tree roots I was hearing a hell of a lot of chain slap, now being on a single speed , I immediately knew I had made a remarkably stupid decision. The start actually went well, right off the start I was 3 back, then Denny w/ 360 (riding like a mad man) passed me and we shortly after saw one of the top 2 on the side fixing a flat. Game on right? Nope… I threw my damn chain just like I knew I was going to.. Put it back on and there was know one around so I hammered my way along.. Threw it again… This time two guys passed me.. Put it back on hammered again, and caught up with them.. Threw it again! At this point you can imagine the obscenities I was shouting at the top of my lungs! I knew top 3 was out of the question right then and there, the course as too fast to catch anyone with any serious time on you.. So this is how the first two laps went for me… And yes it does get worse…

Last lap about 1/3 the way through, I am going 150% to try and limit the damage when I caught the chain half on and half off the front chainring and bent the sob.. So now not only do I know what a colossal of an idiot I am, I have all kinds of time to think about it while I am walking my bike out of the woods while seeing EVERYONE pass me… I think my favorite comment was by one of the experts “bummer dude”…

It even gets better, after about ½ mile of walking I figure its going to take me an hour or so to hoof it out. So I put the bike down find the nearest rock and pound the damn front chainring into submission. Got it to where I could do about 2/3 of a pedal stroke without tossing the chain. So here I am pumping my right leg ½ pedal strokes to get out of there. Even caught up with a guy… Huh... Ended the day DFL!! By some miracle I am still retaining 1st in the UFD series, go figure…
Results for Crock Rock here...