One Hundred Thirty-One
I finished 8th in the Cat 5 race at Banana Belt II. I used a freewheel this time. I left the house around 9:30 Sunday morning with a 47 tooth chainring and my 18 tooth freewheel. After a couple of miles, I turned around and came back home. I decided my gearing was too low, so I swapped out the chainring for the old 53 tooth ring that came with the bike. (I felt kind of stupid for shelling out all that money for the shiny 47 tooth ring. More stuff for my inventory, I suppose.) It was getting kind of late to ride to the race, so Matthew and I car-pooled to Hagg Lake.
For most of the race the pace seemed slow to me. A solo break was 1:30 ahead of us at one point (around the 3rd lap?). Later he was 2:00 ahead. I think we could have ridden much faster if we had a good paceline going with everyone taking turns at the front. I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about, though. So I'd better just keep my mouth shut.
On the first significant descent, I got some serious shimmy action going. I hadn't read much about shimmy (a.k.a. wheel wobble) before the race, so I didn't really know how to react. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that my hands were on the top of the bars near the stem. After that, I kept my hands on the hoods and didn't have any more trouble. Maybe the wheel started wobbling because I had more weight on my saddle when my hands were on the top, who knows? I have noticed that the bike started to shimmy more after I got the new fork with the disk brake, especially when I ride no-handed at higher speeds. At least I've got some more things to try next time it happens.
A mile or two from the finish I broke away from the pack for the first time. I thought I might have a chance to place higher by going long instead of trying to sprint at the end. A few guys stayed with me. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else. But that plan soon fizzled when a pace car slowed us all down because we were gaining on a group in front of us, and they didn't want us all sprinting on top of each other. At least the final sprint was up hill. That's definately the ideal way to finish on a single-speed.
For most of the race the pace seemed slow to me. A solo break was 1:30 ahead of us at one point (around the 3rd lap?). Later he was 2:00 ahead. I think we could have ridden much faster if we had a good paceline going with everyone taking turns at the front. I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about, though. So I'd better just keep my mouth shut.
On the first significant descent, I got some serious shimmy action going. I hadn't read much about shimmy (a.k.a. wheel wobble) before the race, so I didn't really know how to react. I thought it might have something to do with the fact that my hands were on the top of the bars near the stem. After that, I kept my hands on the hoods and didn't have any more trouble. Maybe the wheel started wobbling because I had more weight on my saddle when my hands were on the top, who knows? I have noticed that the bike started to shimmy more after I got the new fork with the disk brake, especially when I ride no-handed at higher speeds. At least I've got some more things to try next time it happens.
A mile or two from the finish I broke away from the pack for the first time. I thought I might have a chance to place higher by going long instead of trying to sprint at the end. A few guys stayed with me. I'm not sure what happened to everyone else. But that plan soon fizzled when a pace car slowed us all down because we were gaining on a group in front of us, and they didn't want us all sprinting on top of each other. At least the final sprint was up hill. That's definately the ideal way to finish on a single-speed.
posted by Sabertooth Salmon at 1:34 PM
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