Okay, quick little recap, as my brain is a little too fried still from the race to put too many worlds together coherently. Felt half decent off the start, plate number 52 so I had a lot of battling to do to move up through the field. Suffered quite a bit as the pace was pretty fast, but I found myself in a good position and knew that if I could hold onto the downhill I'd be able to reset my body a little with the rest and giver again on the climb. Sitting just 2 positions behind Amanda Sin going through the second feed/tech pit at the top of the climb (not sure where we would have been overall - probably top 1/4 from the sounds of it)......and my chain started jumping around a little. Not too sure what was happening, looked like it was jumping in the front so I rotated the barrel adjuster for the front derallieur and shifted into my easiest gear to spin it out.....all of a sudden, not 50 feet past the tech zone SNAP!!!! Broken chain. I looked down, panicked and start running...I was at the top, so it should be all down hill...well that's kinda what I remember....but there was actually a lot more uphill then I remember. I ended up loosing probably about 20-25 spots while running/coasting/pumping my bike down the mountain..grrrrr.
I get to the very bottom and jump off to run as fast as I can up through the start/finish to the bottom tech pit yelling that I need a new chain. Huge props to Trek Canada mechanic Zach Tatem for the wicked fast chain install....just enough time for me to grab a gel, switch my bottles, catch my breath from sprinting for so long....then jump back on my bike and hammer. Out of the pit I hammered (maybe a little too hard) to make up lost spots and found myself sitting around 45th.
Through the 3rd and 4th lap I continued to pick off spots slowly, but the effort of running and the 2nd lap caught up to me hard and fast. I was actually kinda expecting to get pulled and not do the last lap, so I hammered hard to make up a few spots....and totally gassed myself out for the last lap.
Bottom of the 5th lap, 4 girls passed me pretty easily before I was able to recover enough to push my pace a little again. I ended up riding the entire last lap by myself in no mans land....I actually though that I was the last one out there until I saw Kelli Emmett behind me on one of the switch backs. Pushed it hard to the top and suffered on the downhill, a little oxygen deprived and had a little troubles keeping a hold on my bars...hehe. 5 mins from the finish, on a pretty open section I heard the familiar sound of air and Stans squirting out of my rear tire!!!!.....grrrrrr.
Managed to ride it slowly to the bottom and jump off and run as hard as I could (for the second time) to the finish....keeping Kelli off my wheel by a mere 9 seconds....and finishing 45th on the day.
A little upset with how things turned out, but I'm happy with how I road....definitely left nothing out on the course. Thanks to everyone out on course for the encouragement...especially Regan running around :) Thanks to Zach and Taylor and the Batty's for all the race support as well.
Huge thanks to Steve Blick for helping me out with some new lenses for my Oakley Jawbones.......they worked great. My heart goes out to his family and son!!!!
Just finished the best pizza I think that I've ever had..great choice Regan on the pepperoi, mozza, basil, black olive and garlic...yummmmmmm. Tomorrow up to Vermont for the night, then on to Mont Sainte Anne :)
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