Last night, I went out to Botanas for mexican with my old roommate James and a bunch of friends to wish James success as he moves to Iowa to pursue Higher-er education (PhD).Today was pretty insane. I can't think of any good word to sum it all up in one. I woke up and got ready to race in Franklin. I caught the Citizen and Citizen Youth races and then began getting ready for my own race. To start my warm up, I did a quick climb of the uphill start to get the heart rate up. At the top I began to hear a ping from my back wheel. Instinctively, I look down to see my rear wheel shimmying from side to side.
Upon further inspection I see the culprit - a broken spoke on the drive-side of the wheel. I felt my heart sink a little as I entertained the thought of spectating at a race I was supposed to be in. I checked with numerous people and at the shop tents and found no one who had a wheel I could borrow. I watched as racers started going off thinking today was just not meant-to-be. As Don was calling up the series leaders for my age-class, I bumped into Diana from the team who happened to have a wheel I could borrow! I swapped the wheels and ran to the Parktool tent to adjust my brakes. As I flew to the bottom of the hill and into the start, Don was calling all other riders to the line. I was not in the ideal starting position, but I was thankful to be in the start shoot at all!As we climbed the hill I was feeling great, but I could feel my chain skipping gears. As we hit the course lead-out, I was able to make a quick fine adjustment on-the-fly which seemed to fix things. The tight single track proved to be a problem as I was stuck behind a group of slower riders with no passing opportunities. As we got further into the lap, I was able to make a couple small passes but nothing substantial. Finally, I saw a spot in the trail ahead and yelled, "LEFT!" as I flew past the riders. I came into a section of fast single track called the Alpha Trail which helped me to bridge the gap to the next group of riders. As I neared the steep switchback climb up the back of the ski hill, I passed a few more riders and started seeing more guys from my age class. Climbing the start hill into lap two, I spotted Wenzlick and knew I was back in the race. I grabbed his wheel through the lead-out and into the single track. As we moved through some single track, I saw an opportunity to pass Ryan and the guys ahead. Ryan made the first move to the right and almost went down with another rider, as I went to the left to avoid a crash and was able to get ahead of the group. I admit that was not the nicest move I have ever made, but I was able to get in front of the group and onto the switchback climb first. I knew I was in the finishing stretch, so it was all or nothing. I found myself flying through the single track and pulling further ahead. I came through the last section of single track with no problems and turned onto the finish hill. I heard the announcer saying "places will be won and lost right here..." right then I looked back to see two guys on my wheel getting ready to make a move. At this, I stood up on the pedals and gave it everything I had left to get to the finish line first.
I could not believe that things worked out so well! It was truly a blessing to run into Diana at the last minute to borrow her wheel. When I checked the results I was excited to see I had managed to recover from a poor start to take 4th place in my age class with only seconds to spare!
Overall, I would say this was purely an amazing race and I definitely owe it to my team for being there in a pinch. A huge thanks to Diana from the Titletown Flyers for allowing me to use her wheel!!!-Andy
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