My Marquis de Sade ride

Well it didn’t turn out exactly as I had planned. First indication was when I put my shoes on and hopped on the bike. One cleat which I had to adjust the night before was simply too far to the outside of the shoe causing it to rub on the crank arm. Lucky I had another pair with me.

I popped on the other pair and took off just 30 seconds ahead of the main group of riders. When we got to the first part of Callahan Mountain everything seemed ok. Callahan just comes up too soon for  me and I struggled to get up its steep grade. I did stop once but did not have to walk.

Over Callahan and off to the Greenville Watershed was much easier, even than I remember. Climbing the watershed was also easier than I remember. I was feeling pretty good. I was cautious coming down Pearson Falls as that was where I had my crash last year.

Now on Hwy 176 headed toward Howard’s Gap. Somewhere just before the turn while descending I hit a huge pothole. It was enough that I managed to twist my handlebars downward. I also noticed that my rear wheel was now rubbing the brake. I managed to open up the quick release a little and keep going. I made it to the base of Howard’s Gap and adjusted the handlebars. At the same time I spun the rear wheel which didn’t look too bad and readjusted the brakes to stop the rub.

Braking and Howard’s Gap don’t seem to go hand in hand on this ride. Either that or some riders are just plain unlucky or stupid. As I was climbing up and ambulance passed me and just up ahead I saw several riders on the side of the road. One was being attended to by paramedics. From the account I heard he was riding down with another cyclist, got too fast missed a turn and t-boned the other rider. Damaged the second riders bike, but did not hurt the rider himself. Tumbling off the side of the road suffered a broken collar bone, cracked ribs and possibly a punctured lung. Just earlier another rider wiped out on the same corner as he was descending too fast and ran off the road into the bushes. He was unhurt but his bike was trashed.

If they had only read my article about braking this most likely would not have happened!

I  managed up Howard’s Gap making only three stops. I did not have to walk. It is basically a 1.5 mile 14% continuous grade. I thought that wasn’t too bad. when I got to the top I noticed that the brake rub had returned. I adjusted the brakes again and rode off to White Oak.

On the way to White Oak I was accompanied by another rider who mentioned the badly out of true wheel. I told him I knew about it and would check it again at the rest stop at the base of White Oak. Once at the rest stop I filled the bottles and checked the wheel. Now it was so badly out of true it was simply unridable. Upon closer inspection I found  the rim was cracked. And not a small crack either. It was enough to cause a catastrophic failure. My day was done. So unhappily I waited for the SAG to bring me back to the school.

I was able to cover 40 of the 85 miles and at least I did make it up one of the steep climbs.