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There's something undeniably attractive about endurance mountain biking. Race two of Tailwind Promotions Super Series was a 4 hour event that saw me riding 4hrs:20 something minutes.
My Koiled single speed.
It is all the small things at these races that make it a great event for me. Let me share some.- The sound of dirt crunching under my tires
- The simplicity of pedalling my single speed
- Zipping through the single track
- That painful feeling in my legs when attacking a climb
- Watching other riders suffer - with a smile/grimace
- Asking another rider "how's your ride going?"
- Overcoming discomfort, hunger, thirst, tiredness...
- Hearing my friends in the transition giving me a "c'mon dog, smash 'em!"
Just a little insight. There are more. Feel free to visit this FB page and share what you like and don't like about endurance mountain bike races.
Shannon at Koiled has designed and built a beautiful bike
Single Speeding was the perfect bike for this race. I saw 4 of the top riders of the day walking back to the transition area with broken derailleurs, all at the same time on the same part of the track!
A pressure blaster cleaned it. 1/2 a can of water displacing spray lubed it. All I needed to replace was a chain. It was on its last race anyway.
How did my race go? I had a tiny regret that I could have pedalled harder in a previous 8 hour race. So this time I hit the pedals hard. I tested out my legs and the legs of the other single speeders. There was absolutely n o t h i n g left in the tank. That's exactly how I like it too ;-)
I came across lots of tough-arsed solo riders for this shorter race. Often looking back at their race number, seeing they're solo, then yelling, "SOLO-MAN/SOLO-WOMAN!" giving them a little something to temporarily pull their heads out of the hurt locker.
Ride of the day goes to....drum roll.....
Shannon and his very pretty and very tough daughter! She was a pleasure to share pre-race banter with in the Koiled transition tent. She was visibly tired at the end of the race but still in great spirits.
Darn, she'll be kicking our butts in the solo category soon!
Until next time, don't stop pedalling and moving forward or you'll fall off.
dog
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