DNF.. what else can you say>

For my own personal reasons the Dirtworks is a kind of spiritual event for me (yeah WTF..? as if any bike event could be classed as a spiritual.. then perhaps its the Buddhist temple...?.. who knows?) and this year I had trained hard for and was touting a 6 hour finish, having turned my lard ass from an 2009 8hour+ novice/newbie into the finely tuned wannabe road riding boy racer that I think I am today…

The two weeks leading up to this years Dirtworks was one of disappointment, with canceled training rides and work commitments (lets not forget the 5 day weekend preceding with vast amounts of Easter eggs and ANZAC day beers.. its damn un Australian to not have a beer or ten on Anzac day right??) then the last week it rained constantly, I found myself obsessively checking the BoM radar.. well F$@# me that clouds right over St Albans again.. I’d tell anyone that was in hear shot.. I became the weather forecast expert for Wisemans ferry.. studied (sometimes hourly) the rain fall charts for Central Mangrove and even compared previous years charts with the track conditions I could remember from previous races.. yes I was a real obsessive compulsive that week, unfortunately beer being the double edge sword medication of choice for that problem…

I was in two minds about starting this one, I’m not a fan of messing up my bikes in the mud as even with parts being relatively cheap at the moment with the strong AUS dollar, it still bugs me to ruin good bike bits in the mud.. so I had made the decision to pull out and do the 50 on my beat up training bike should it be raining on race day.

Race day dawned and its looking OK for the 100, lined up and started with the 2nd group this year, and made sensational time on the road to the first climb, rode about 1/3 of the climb before the lack of granny (2x10 29er) had me off walking saving the legs, got to the top and was a bit surprised by how much the water that was in the surface really sucked the speed out of the ride, but my training had me pushing through it.

I had strategized that I was not going to stop at the 28K mark as I had enough fluids for 2 1/2 hours, however given the extra strain of the ride this year, I stopped for about 60 sec to have a quick bite and check the camel that I was on my hydration plan.

From the 28K mark the track got a wee bit muddier, but was actually kinda fun, slipped off the side of a puddle into a full on swimming pool of mud (this is what I think caused my later shifting problems) and nearly lost it big time on a water bar (I’d never slid sideways into a jump at speed before) I caught up and tucked into a congo line for the run into the 50, this congo line was not moving fast enough but I still figured that I was on time for the 6 hours and that the slower progress would help me save the legs for later anyhow.. mud mud mud and some slippery saves later and I’m noticing that the front shifter is sluggish but I figure that it’s the mud, its still shifting OK, I drop a chain a couple times and the front mech is making some scraping noises on the chain (I try to tune it out with on the shifter) before long I’m at the 50 in a few minutes over 3 hours (a PB for the first 50 for me), I had planned a quicker 50, but given the conditions I'm happy with the time, a quick fill of the bladder some banana bread and I’m off.

The run up the hill from the ½ way point has previously been the spot where I start to struggle, but this year I rode it at a good pace, feeling OK off into the GNR, its here that I notice the complete lack of big ring (shifter stuck?), that’s OK it’s a 2x10 and I can make do with the little ring right? Not so.. now even with the benefits of the 2x10 its apparently bad to cross chain in a 2x10 and its here that I find out that trying to use any of the smaller gears on the cassette (the rear was also sluggish shifting by now) results in chain suck, caused by the mud and cross chaining, with the chain wedging up over the chain stay (I now know that this is a niner rip 9 issue and let me tell you its a deal breaker..as I’d recommend that you stay away from the RIP 9 purely because of this). I again try to select the big ring, I hear and feel a snap in the shifter (dam I think I just busted an X.0 shifter$) and now it’s the small ring only with the constant chain suck.. I figure that I can live with it as I can catch it from jamming it if I concentrate.

The GNR is muddy, but not all that bad, by now I’m actually not really enjoying the ride as much as I would like when I have a wee small stack on some slippery rocks, an awkward rear wheel bounce and weight shift had the front wheel slipped off line, queue an awkward slow OTB into some soft stuff (lucky) but it leaves me with some pain in the neck and shoulder, another minus for the day.

I ride on, the chain suck is now a constant and I’m not really having any fun at all, a rather rattly bumping chain sucking run down Sheppard’s gully, and another near death slippery moment at speed, I hit the road run into the canoe bridge.

Jackie and some friends are at the canoe bridge, apparently its quite the spectator sport and I thank the bridge ride failures for providing the hours worth of entertainment for the lovely Jackie and co.. Jackie spots me and can immediately tell that I’m not happy.

Now I had trained hard (even stooping to the lowness of a road bike to get the training K’s into the legs) for a sub 6 hour finish and it was nearing the canoe bridge (I was about 4ish hours into it) when I realized that I was not going to make it in the little ring with the constant chain suck .. even though the legs were feeling relatively good. I was totally gutted that all my expectations were evaporating fast, as in my mind it I was set on 6 hours or nothing, and I’d been pushing myself up till this point with the 6 hours in mind.. It was then that I threw the bike down in protest and declared that I was done for the day, it was an emotional moment and it was kinda tough to make that call, thus I’m not afraid to admit that it choked me up a wee bit.

So with that in mind I rode the canoe bridge (got the wrist band) yelled out a few swear words and simply turned right and rode the tar “road of shame” into town in granny gear.

Hindsight being a real bitch; I now totally wished I had continued onto the range spinning in granny gear, yes I feel like I cheated myself for bailing, next time I’ll think differently, think long and hard before I quit an event while I still have some hope of finishing.

I hear that some others were much less fortunate than I and ended the day in hospital, and here I am whining like a little girl about chain suck and a sore mangina.. we should all be so lucky eh?.. I wish those a speedy recovery.

I’ll be back next year to confront my quitting ass demons and to beat that 6 hour time