Pick a voice
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I have quite a few voices in my head. All suggesting various options. Choose wisely they say. The morning started off early with tornado sirens at 2:30am. Mother nature spared us so with only one race under the belt this season we headed down with the rest of the Nebraska wrecking crew to Kansas City for the KC Cup at Landahl park. The fatal flaw was questioning myself. My pre-race spidey sense said 36×19, my pre-race conversation with Cam Chambers said 36×18. Choose wisely? I chose wrong.
Landahl is known for epic rock. But the course was void of the gnarliest sections. hence the 36×18 decsion. With all the Semi-Pro/Expert gents lined up, I found myself a meager third row. Managed to maintain a decent position after the horn and settled in just outside the top ten with fellow SSer Brad Sullivan in tow. We freight trained through the opening lap breaking into the top ten. I could here Brad’s heavy breathing behind me as I muscled my slightly bigger gear through the turns. All was not well though. By the middle of lap two, my oversized gear had me backing off as I went into recovery mode. Brad cruised away quickly and by the end of the second lap I started coming back around.
Lap 3 saw me team up with Josh Taylor and we were on a mission to keep those behind at bay. My recovery was short lived as the fourth and final lap was catching up with me. The legs weren’t feeling so good as my over geared Ferrous was feeling sluggish. With about a mile to go, Wes Bierman had caught me up from behind and was looking to pass. Luckily we were entering the last high speed section of the course followed by a slick rocky decent. I decided it was do or die and drew on what little I had left. Sprinting on a SS is interesting but I was able to pull it off by a mere 3 seconds coming in 7th in the 30-39 expert race field and 11th overall.
A sixer gave me time to think about the day. Lesson learned
Elsewhere around the course, teamates Liz and Tom brought home the podium rides, 2nd and 2nd. The 29er Crew was in full effect. More to come fo’ sho’. Tom was only bested by Steve “Real Deal” Jarret who flew his Superfly to not only the 40-49 win but the overall win as well. My wife Anne worked over the sport women’s field and climbed the top step aboard her Paragon.
Post race grub at Gate’s Bar-B-Que with KC Rep Patrick put a Damn fine finish to a damn fine weekend.
hey matk
nice meeting and riding with you during race……its been a long time since i had someone that late in a race to kind of work with and pace off of. i wasn’t necessarily paying close attention to your cadence or gearing, but you didn’t seem to be struggling anymore than myself. you are smooth as hell in the tight twisty stuff. im glad you couldn’t see me behind you bouncing off of trees trying to stay with you. i’ll be the first to admit i am not brave enough to race a singlespeed. you guys that do always impress the hell out of me. even not hitting a ton of the rocky stuff at landahl, it still seems like a bitch of a loop they gave us on a one-geared bike. to me, its tough enough trying to keep up with the ‘big goys’ on a geared bike.
thinks for the 3rd lap pull. it would’ve been nice to stay together. i’m glad it didn’t come down to that last downhill rocky section though, cuz i probalbly would’ve tried some cheeky move and attempted to sprint you to the line and then i wouldve felt like a real jackass. especially if i sucked your wheel for more than a lap.
thanks for the shout and till next time. here’s to some dry weather!
taylor