And that was my pit bike

Yesterday's picture was of the rear wheel from my pit bike, but more on that in a bit...

Despite nailing the registration hole shot, my sucktastic season to date and the inability to go to Glawstah meant that I was first guy called to the 4th row Saturday in Providence. I hit the start hard and got what I'll call an acceptable start especially for me. First lap was great... racing angry, banging elbows, blowing by 6 guys going up the stairs, fighting for every spot. I finally felt like I was in the race. Lap 2, more of the same... gauging where I was to the leaders, seeing that I was reeling in teammates, starting to settle in a bit. I figure I had moved up to about 30th or so and was still going in the right direction and then...

For anyone who knows what seems to be the typical Providence course, you ride a short section of pavement down by a pond, then take a right turn onto the grass/dirt to go up a short little hill and around a tree. As I hit the dirt and went to hit it up the hill, I was peddling air... dammit, chain off. But wait, I've got a chain guard and a third eye that's literally about 2mm away from the chain ring... how the falafel is my chain now under the third eye and sitting on the bottom bracket? Now before you jump to the obvious that the thing is at the wrong height, a number of bad experiences last year and some quality time with a mechanic have me 99.9% sure that it's in a safe spot to do what it does. Somehow though, I pulled a Houdini and dropped it down there. Of course that also means that I now have to kill the paint job on my frame while I twist the thing back out of the way to get the chain out. About 20-25 lost spots later, I have it back on, but now I'm basically asking to drop it again.

Coming up the road to see 3 to go, I had to decide if I wanted to roll the dice or grab the Surly out of the pits. The ANT is sooooooooooooo much better that I rolled right by pit 1 and tried to get some fire back. Of course this meant that about a minute later I dropped my chain again. Ok, to the pits it is. Not being pro, I'm in there fumbling bikes on and off the rack myself and dropping further back, basically putting myself out of any respectable contention and losing interest fast. But I soldiered on because it was a nice day and a nice course and maybe I could get a beer handup. About half a lap later on one of the many short steep uphills, I felt an unmistakeable pop from the rear end and looked down to see the rear wheel wobbling like parade watcher in Southie on St. Patty's day. Later I discovered that what I figured was an ordinary broken spoke was a broken hub (see yesterday's picture). Nice, my massive watts had pulled the damn thing apart. Did I mention I was about 30 seconds past pit 1 when this happened? Ok... any sense of motivation pretty much gone now... but hey, it will be fun to try and not get lapped.

I hacked around half a lap on wobble wheel and picked up the ANT again, figuring a chance of chain drops was at least less dangerous than a wheel which was coming apart. My lone goal now was to not get lapped (and maybe find that beer), but I was honestly hoping I didn't have to work too hard for it. Fast forward to the bell and they don't whistle me off so now it's just a parade. I made sure to wrap up DFL on the lead lap and then as I came onto the pavement I dropped down 2 or 3 gears and put in a all out sprint up the road like I was going for the win which garnered some sympathy cheers from the crowd at least. Did I mention I did have another chain drop in there somewhere? Yah, it was pretty much irrelevant and not unexpected.

So let's review... 3 dropped chains, one destroyed hub, 2 bike changes, zero beers. Yah, it was about as fun as it sounds. Got to hang for a while afterwards, chill with the guys, and heckle the fast people. It was a nice enough day to salvage some sense of fun...