1 down 5 to go

The prologue is done.  As it turned out, the rain stopped shortly before our start time, and the sun even poked out to warm us up.  In fact, the trails were only slightly muddy, but for the most part, in great condition.  I wish my lungs were as well conditioned.   Jon set a pretty fast clip, and I just tried to hang on.  Despite riding in the red zone for most of the time trial, I actually felt pretty good.  Even more surprising, I recovered quick and felt reasonably healthy afterward.  Plenty of singlespeeders passed us on the climb up, but we didn't get passed by anyone in our class (we were the last to go).   The prologue was cut short by 700 feet of climbing (mercifully), so it was a nice little surprise when we hit the top of Nightmare on Baldy and saw the finishing tent.  The only drama of the ride was on the way back down, my bike started making a frightening noise. "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR".  "What the?" "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR".   Jon figured out that the problem was with my freehub.  It was making that ugly grinding noise. We made it back to town, and we stopped in to see the guys at Avalanche Sports.  Outside, hosing down his bike, was Josh Tostado.  For those who don't know who Josh is, he's a local legend and crazy strong mountain biker.  He's won the last thousand Breck 100 races.  He had been out earlier marking the course and had gotten caught in that nasty storm.  I rolled in and told him about my bike troubles.  To my surprise he casually replied,"Is it going, 'GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR'?"  I looked at him incredulously and sheepishly replied, "um, yeah". 

 "It's your freehub.  It just needs to be cleaned and lubed."

"Oh, thanks."

"No worries.  Go talk to Rich about it, he'll take care of you."

I went in and began to tell Rich about my troubles.  Just as casually as Josh, he replied, "Is it going 'GRRRRRRRRRRRRR'?".

"Um, yeah"

"It's your freehub.  We can get you fixed up, no sweat."

What is it with these guys?  When a patient comes into the ER, I don't ever give em the "Is it going clickety clack, beep beep?  Oh, well, it's your mesenteric sciatic cerebellum .  We'll get you fixed up, no problem."  And certainly not before the registration clerk has shaken them down for the co-pay first.  

In any case, Rich hooked me up, and I'm good as new.  

Thanks, Avalanche.  You guys kick ass.

Here's a pic from the top.  I'm pretty sure that neither of us could look any goofier.

 

More tomorrow.

out.