Roadie in the woods.
Torin isn't just a skinny tire rider anymore. Sorta.
Last weekend I took part in the Bear Brook Classic MTB race, hosted by State 9 Racing and the second stop on the BUBBA Trophy Series.
(Prepare for a lot of bike shots, not many photos emerged from my race.)
Believe it or not, I do not normally race mountain bikes, mostly due to the fact that I do not, in fact, own a mountain bike. To remedy this, I was riding a loaner bike, provided by Tyrol Sports Group.
The ride in question: the SwixHR Circo Gigante M.
Although I do not have much to compare it to, this 27.5+ aluminum hardtail rode rather well, and didn't feel overly heavy despite topping 30 pounds.
My first rides on the bike didn't go quite according to plan.
Day one saw a slow-ish leak in the rear tube where the rim strip decided to poke through. Patched up and continuing on my test ride, I could tell that things were still a tad soft, but left it up to me not fully reinflating the tire.
Next time I rode everything was fine. I topped off the tires for my course preview on race day and went on my merry way. Until I hit the rocky section of the course.
With roughly an hour-and-a-half before my race, and two-and-a-half miles away from my car, my rear tire suddenly went flat. 'Suddenly,' of course, being the term used when you don't want to initially admit that you landed wheel first on the sharp edge of a rock and suffered a massive pinch flat.
Two miles of bikerunning is not the way I imagined my pre-ride going.
I got back to the start with an hour before my start, and not having a 27.5+ tube available, I initially tried to see if I could patch the holes.
I couldn't.
Now having a half hour, I went searching for anything that could help. Turns out not many people carry tubes nowadays (thank you tubeless...).
As it turned out, hidden in the depths of my toolbox was a 29" tube that worked just fine. Five minutes to start.
I sprinted to the line at the last minute for staging, and got a few comments about being a roadie and about the size of my tires.
The gun goes off, and as there was no real 'hole shot' to fight for in our field, we went out comfortably hard. I settled into third for a little bit, but quickly made use of the two-lane access road to move into the lead.
A couple of minutes into the woods, I didn't have anybody within sight, but just kept pushing along, figuring that just because I couldn't see them didn't mean they weren't close. it is the forest after all.
But as it turns out I was wrong. There wasn't anybody near me after the first ten minutes, and I rode the rest of the race solo.
Once I reached the top of the course (where I flatted just hours before), I figured I would be riding the rest of the course blind, having not really previewed it beforehand. Apparently, switchbacked descents handle a little differently on a bike rather than running.
By the finish, I had put nearly four-and-a-half minutes into the rest of my field for the win. And then the waiting began.
Technically, there were two races going on: the one for my age group, and the one for the whole category. I had won the AG race, but we had to wait for everyone to come through for the Overall Cat 3 results.
I won both. My time of 31:46 was nearly a minute faster than the next fastest racer, all on a borrowed bike and my first time.
(Prepare for a lot of bike shots, not many photos emerged from my race.)
Believe it or not, I do not normally race mountain bikes, mostly due to the fact that I do not, in fact, own a mountain bike. To remedy this, I was riding a loaner bike, provided by Tyrol Sports Group.
The ride in question: the SwixHR Circo Gigante M.
Although I do not have much to compare it to, this 27.5+ aluminum hardtail rode rather well, and didn't feel overly heavy despite topping 30 pounds.
My first rides on the bike didn't go quite according to plan.
Day one saw a slow-ish leak in the rear tube where the rim strip decided to poke through. Patched up and continuing on my test ride, I could tell that things were still a tad soft, but left it up to me not fully reinflating the tire.
Next time I rode everything was fine. I topped off the tires for my course preview on race day and went on my merry way. Until I hit the rocky section of the course.
With roughly an hour-and-a-half before my race, and two-and-a-half miles away from my car, my rear tire suddenly went flat. 'Suddenly,' of course, being the term used when you don't want to initially admit that you landed wheel first on the sharp edge of a rock and suffered a massive pinch flat.
Two miles of bikerunning is not the way I imagined my pre-ride going.
I got back to the start with an hour before my start, and not having a 27.5+ tube available, I initially tried to see if I could patch the holes.
I couldn't.
Now having a half hour, I went searching for anything that could help. Turns out not many people carry tubes nowadays (thank you tubeless...).
As it turned out, hidden in the depths of my toolbox was a 29" tube that worked just fine. Five minutes to start.
I sprinted to the line at the last minute for staging, and got a few comments about being a roadie and about the size of my tires.
But as it turns out I was wrong. There wasn't anybody near me after the first ten minutes, and I rode the rest of the race solo.
By the finish, I had put nearly four-and-a-half minutes into the rest of my field for the win. And then the waiting began.
Technically, there were two races going on: the one for my age group, and the one for the whole category. I had won the AG race, but we had to wait for everyone to come through for the Overall Cat 3 results.
I won both. My time of 31:46 was nearly a minute faster than the next fastest racer, all on a borrowed bike and my first time.
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