Triple D Part #2

TUNNEL AT FARLEY ON THE WAY TO DYERSVILLE THE TURN AROUND POINT

I was in my territory now. I am on this part of the trail well over 50 times a year. My energy levels felt good and I felt like pedaling. Maintaining a pace that kept my heart rate in the upper end I was starting to catch two riders in front of me.  I chase better than I can lead and I was working at getting closer to these two. Realizing I've taken in only a small amount of fluid and not a thing to eat. I woofed down some Reese’s Peanutbutter cups, and a Fruit bar
  while holding a steady pedal. Next I tried to suck fluid out of both water bottles that had turned to mostly slush. I double insulated both bottles in an attempt to delay freezing, one contained Monster Pop and the other Gatorade. Shaking and sucking on the bottle let me drink about half of the contents the remainder was ice slush. Chad’s pizza in Dyersville was about 10 miles away would have to be my next drink.

Working on my pace I passed the two riders in front of me. With my heavily studded Fat Dillinger tires I could move faster on these icy sections then many of the riders without the studs.

The lead riders were starting to pass me in the opposite direction now. A.J. was holding a lead and looking quite focused and holding a fast pace. A.J. would go on to win this race and told me later that he developed a technique when his stud less bike would start to slide out he would put his feet on the ground and hop off the seat and slide through and then remount the bike without crashing or stopping.

A.J. was followed by Drew, last year’s winner. Joe my friend from S.D. was in 5^th and looking strong. Lance, Marcus, and others were starting to head to the finsh about 30 away.

I could see Tina, Mikael, Troy, and Erv; up in front of me now on a long stretch headed the same direction as I was. I recognized them because they had spent a few minutes talking to me when I was tube changing back on the trail. I set myself to catch them and started gaining. Shortly something didn’t look right. They were off their bikes and standing in a tight group. I feared someone was down, someone crashed on this hard ice. I pulled up and realized Mikael had gone down hard. He was now standing and trying to move his hand which I could tell was quite painful. His bike had a few broken parts.

Picture of Mikael and  I one week earlier.

Mikael decided to get back on the bike, and the 5 of us mounted our rigs and started pedaling. I felt like picking up the pace and slowly started moving out ahead.

Arriving in Dyersville at Chad’s Pizza the turnaround point and place to refuel. There were hot pitchers of tea on the table and I poured some in both of my water bottles melting the slush and drinking both bottles down as a mix of luke warm tea monster pop and the other Gatorade. Next I drank about 40 ounces of lemon aid and grabbed three pieces of pizza off the smorgasbord table. Filled one bottle with hot water the other with Lemon Aid for the return trip, along with putting a couple of candy bars in my pocket. Chad's Pizza was being good to us cyclists. There were at least a dozen riders there ahead of me and more coming in behind me.

Feeling fluidized, refueled, and I was able to unstick my jacket zipper now with energy to burn I decided to get back on the road. The last 8 miles here there was a hellacious fore wind to fight. Now it was payback time with a tail wind.

Moving right along, and headed back, I was feeling good for about 5 miles then bike started to feel not ‘right’. I looked back at my rear wheel and saw it was now going flat. I said aloud, “You’ve got to be kidding me?” several times talking to myself. I used up my spare tube with flat #1 and now would have to patch. The lug bolts were froze over with ice as previously and had to be thawed out putting each end in my mouth and letting them thaw out. I found the tiny air leak and applied glue, waited, and placed the patch over the hole and compressed. Tube inserted in tire on rim and tire bead set inside rim and air pump was put to work. After about 150 pumps I mounted tire on bike tightened wheel lugs and added additional air.

 

I picked up my mess and prepared bike to roll on down the trail. Pushing my fingertips into the rear tire as a habit of checking air pressure and felt tire was getting softer. Ahggggggggggggg!!!!! It was losing air. Ok starting all over again. Removed tube and realized the glue was not looking right. Had a slight stickiness to it. I’m thinking it is not going to set at 8 degrees F. I’m thinking I am done with the race. DNF. Not going to finish. This sucks. I needed to make a phone call, walk to a road. Call it quits. I looked down the trail and there were three riders coming my way headed to the turnaround point. I would encourage them to keep moving, as I was stopping.


 

TO BE CONTINUED.