GRrrrrrraaaaaoooooorrrrrrrrr! Sea Otter 4/7/06

STAGE TWO: TIME TRIAL Friday, April 7, 2006

The second stage of the Sea Otter Classic is the time trial. The women were sent off at 30 second intervals on a 2-mile course within the confines of Laguna Seca. The day was sunny, bright and chilly.

Today was a day of race troubles. Again, I arrived early to figure out what time I would be heading out for the time trail. For some reason the promoters for this race have not been well-organized. They had two different overall start times posted for the women’s time trial and no individual times listed. I went from the registration booth to begging other team managers for information on the time trial individual start times. Either no one knew or and the rest were guessing. Finally, after a good 20 minute search, I ran into my race pal, Christie, and she hooked me up with good information. Phew!

Much to my dismay, figuring out start times was going to be the least of my day’s problems. I began my warm-up with my bike on the trainer. It was going well considering my legs were feeling a little overcooked from yesterday. My legs were starting to open up and I was getting mentally prepared to gut it out for the under 10 minute race. I was on my last hard effort and all off a sudden I heard a loud POP! At first I thought it was my front tire going flat. No worries-I…..no Stephen would be able to change that fast enough to get to the start line on time. But that was not the problem. I blew the seal on my front fork/shock! Yes folks, a brand new shock with less than five rides on it and I already broke it. Grrrrrraaaaaooooorrrrrr! It was not something that was going to be fixed in less than five minutes. So Stephen pumped it up and I went off to ride the race with a blown front shock and the fron disc brake dragging hard.

I got to the start line on time and busted a gut trying to go fast on the “2 mile” course. I think they shortened the course because everything was still so muddy and sloppy. My goal was to not burn my legs out too fast – give myself a little time and then let’r rip! Well, on a blown out shock pedaling hard was a lost cause, with a disc brake that was dragging I felt like I was trying to move a cement wall. Also, with no air pressure in the shock it was like riding a full rigid bike-something I have not done since my purple Jamis many moons ago. I came across the finish line a little less muddy than yesterday and hightailed it to the bike wash to get my ride prepped for another tour of a neutral support tent.

Today’s neutral support of choice was Answer/Manitou. They had me pull the shock off the bike and leave it with them for an overhaul. I was so happy that they were going to be able to fix it. Phew again! Several hours later I went back to pick it up and the nice mechanic told me that the factory had “forgotten” to put oil in it before shipping it. No worries, I was happy that it was good to go with time to put the bike back together and go for a short spin.

No dice. While Stephen was remounting the shock and the disc brakes, the threads were stripped and the front disc brake could not be reattached. Grrrrrraaaaaooooorrrrrr! I hopped in the car for another trip back to the Answer/Manitou tent to see what if anything could be done to save the day. The nice mechanic now has my squashed caterpillar green fork ready to rethread it and will help put the bike back together tomorrow morning. Hopefully, that will give me enough time to spare before the third stage. Yikes!

Mechanicals aside, I finished 55th today. I am not pleased with the results, knowing I can do much better. But what I am learning is that mountain bike racing throws many different types of obstacles in your way that you have to adapt to or learn how to deal with quickly without wasting too much energy. I am keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow will be a better day-even though we are getting more rain. Grrrrrraaaaaooooorrrrrr!