Three flats!

After a cold night in the tent and then a long queue for the toilets Chitts and I finally arrived at the start line at about 7.20am and were well back in the pack. When I finally got over the start line and got moving, I started to work through the pack towards the front but there seemed like a lot of slower riders that were in front of me and there were numerous traffic jams for no obvious reason. Cruised into the first transition feeling great at about 1 hour 26 minute having passed large numbers of riders, average heart rate was in the 140s and average speed up around 20km/h. All good - no cramps this time (unlike Angry Doctor), I am eating , drinking, front derailleur shifting problems now sorted and I am thinking I have a chance of a sub 6 hour time until...

Stans sealant starts spraying out of the back tyre in the Virgin Blue single track. Tyre goes down and I try and pump it up - nope. Wack in a spare tube (one of those ultra-thin Maxxis tubes). Chitts catches up to me and we ride together to the 55km water stop and then I head off down the rocky descent that follows and the ultra-thin tube decides to blow! I am out of tubes so I ask a guy for his and he says no - he needs it (fair enough). So I wait for Chitts - I know he is running tubeless so he'll give me his tube. He eventually shows up and I install the second tube for the day and pump it up and off I go. Spirits are a bit low now and I plod on through to about the 65km mark when I notice that the 2nd tube has a slow leak. What the!!! This is getting ridiculous. I pull of the rear wheel and I notice a broken spoke and the wheel is totally out of true. A guy shows up and saves me by giving me his tube which I pump up really hard and ride off. I dump the two blow tubes with a Marshall and keep riding thinking there is no way I am going to finish this race all I need to do is get back to the transition area and get the sag van. Get back to the road heading back to transition and feeling better - bike seems to be OK so at transition I decide to risk it and try to finish the Fling. Start to pass a lot of people in the Specialized stage and the body is feeling great even if the bike isnt until I fly into a sharp left hand turn and the front washes out on the gravel and i go down big time - cuts everywhere. Pass some guy on his unicyle next to an abandoned yacht (maybe I am dehydrated and delusional - but no)!!!

Finally I make it home. Total time 6 hours 45 minutes and ride time 6 hours 10 minutes so not too bad considering. I guess they will take off about 5 minutes for the transition times. Visit to the St Johns Ambulance for a clean up (they tell me they have already seen over 150 people so far). Anyway a great day and some lessons learned for next time:

- make sure bike is 100% beforehand (including fresh tyres)
- dont carry ultra-thin tubes
- get there early so you start near the front

Pulled the tyre off after the race to discover a massive blow to the rim which is what would have caused all the problems.

MB profile:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/7117976