Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Getting It All Together

I'm collecting up all my things and going through the checklists for the twelve hour this weekend. I will be heading out early on friday to ensure a good camping/pit area for the race. I have to do some last minute shopping tomorrow and plan to have the car packed tomorrow night to ensure a speedy exit in the morning.

I had the bike all tuned and dialed in for the race but decided to do one last ride yesterday just to have some fun. My friend's daughter is in town and went with us. She has only been using clipless pedals for about 2 weeks and is still a little sketchy getting unclipped. We rode about a mile and stop to regroup and explain the next section to her. As she pulls up along side of me, she forgets to unclip and falls. Normally not a big deal except for the fact that she slows her fall by bracing the end of her handlebar on my derailleur and hanger before hitting the ground. It couldn't have been more perfect aim and was equivalent to hitting the hanger with a hammer. We get up-righted and start to ride away and my drivetrain clunks and skips like crazy. NOOOOOOOO! A few cable adjustments allow me to finish the ride but a panicked call to the bike shop later that night arranges the necessary logistics for repairing the problem. Luckily the shop owner is good at calming my nerves and the bike should be back to race-ready by the time I leave. 

I'll recap the race when we get back.


1 comment:

grog said...

You didn't tell me that one of the falls f'd up your der . . . sorry about that. Hope it's just a simple adjustment . . .