We stayed overnight at Joe's place in Davenport after an uneventful trip and got up bright and early(ish) to prepare the next morning. After leaving with roughly the exact amount of time required to get to the race remaining, I discovered that it's no problem to drive 55 in the 30 zones around the quad-cities - handy! What was truly a surprise was the train which we had to wait on while we could see the parking-lot for the venue. As the train slowed and then stopped, a plan was formed that we'd simply park on the side of the road and jump over the train car hitches with our bikes and ride the rest of the way. After driving a little further down the road, the end of the train appeared and we were able to drive around! I do regret that I did not take a picture of the guy who got out of his vehicle to yell and shake his fists at the train.
Arriving at the registration table with ten minutes (per the dj/announcer) until race-go, Cody got his number plate and was all set. Corrine and I were left to stand there and wait (on what I'm not sure) when someone in the registration tent answered a cell-phone call and promptly told the other volunteers that the race was closed to new entries. We were told that so long as we pre-registered (we had), we were still o.k. but between the time we handed our waivers back and receiving our number plates, the race was totally closed. Not racing in the correct category meant that any points earned that day were basically forfeit. We could choose to race Category-2 or a special Maverick class. Category-2 started too late and wouldn't work, so we did Maverick instead. This was a longer course as well as requiring one extra lap to be completed. It also counted for nothing series-wise and isn't even listed on USA-Cycling.
Shortly before Maverick race time, we were milling around and noticed a small line of people removing bar-end / integrated grips from their bikes and discussing where to get new clamps. Joe had also noticed an official going around telling people they had to come off. This was not good - both Corrine and I run Ergons with the shortest bar-end. I plan on resisting at first but then realize that an official is pulling people off the start line as well so it's inevitable. Thankfully there was a bike shop running a repair/support tent. They sold us new grips and even gave us a discount because we didn't have any more money to cover the asking price. The news later was that this is the first year that USA-Cycling ran a combined rulebook for both road and mountain-bike. A rule about no bar-ends for road cycling (and cyclocross) was then enforced against mountain biking. It apparently caused quite a stir, as it got a regional coordinator and technical director involved and suddenly fixed now.
Shiny new grips and number plate installed, we lined up near the front. This worked out about perfect for me as I finished only a couple places from where I started. It's such a huge waste of time and energy working your way through a crowd. It was a really cool course because it's different from most things I've ridden. I certainly wouldn't want to ride on broken concrete/bricks/re-bar all the time but it's fun to do something new. This island used to be home to a factory which has since become decayed and shrouded by replacement plant life.
Finishing 12 out of 39 in a harder category than planned, I felt pretty good about my fitness given that we've only been hitting it hard since Jan-1 (4-5hrs on trainers and 2-3hrs outside each week ever since). Most definitely it's going to get way better throughout the summer. I had a mini battle with another guy for the entire final lap and we did a big sprint to the finish. We tied (stats do not go past .01 resolution) for fastest finish sprint in the whole category. There was a timing gate a couple hundred yards from the actual finish gate so they were measuring that section. I had a new peak heart-rate of 207 and averaged 180 over the entire 70 minutes. I certainly would have burned completely out trying that last year!
I have no pictures of my own really so I'm using the ones provided by Hanson Photo, which look great.
Most photographs courtesy of Hanson Photo Design - thanks!
Minor component carnage - I'd completely forgotten about a cracked pedal body on my mountain-bike. I discovered it over a year ago when using the grease-gun on them. Grease started coming out of the crack instead of the shaft seal! Long story short, it almost became a major issue. I found it as below when unloading at home after the race. Good thing it survived until the finish. Due to the pedal construction, it won't completely fall apart even if that cleat boss tears off, but it would kinda suck to only have one side functioning the whole time.
The stainless-steel ring was just flopping around and you could almost pull it off.
Strip and clean.
I got a new body kit, loaded them with grease and reassembled. Good as new!
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