kenyonchris
07-14-2009, 06:22 PM
It has been so hot here in North Texas that we decided to ditch the road bikes and opt for the shade of the MTB trail at a nearby lake. I went with an officer friend who faithfully rides with me, even though I inadvertently drop him regularly on the road bike (I am fitter and better equipped) and have to pick him up off the trail on the mountain bike. He is game, if bruised.
We decided to ride a small trail that the bike instructor is going to use on Friday with his new bike officer class. I am going to go along and wanted to scope it out beforehand. It turned out to be the worst!! Terribly marked, boring for parts and impossible in others. And very short. I came out irritated that I had wasted my time and never got my heart rate up. So we loaded up and went to a much harder, more technical, and longer trail with the idea to ride it as far as the IMPOSSIBLE part, then turn and come back (about 13 or so miles). It was 10:30 and about 90 degrees or so when we started.
About halfway through I came across a little rock garden. Not hard, but you gotta pick your line carefully. Two riders ahead were walking through it. I took my eye off my line to look at them, and wham...down I went, rolling on to my back. A few cuts and bruises, and my broken hand took a blow, but nothing debilitating. My friend got a good chuckle about helping me up, usually it is the other way around.
Just as we hit the turnaround, his chain broke. I had a chain tool and we got it patched, but about 100 yards back down the trail, it broke again, this time taking the entire derailleur with it. Agh. I sent him back to the halfway parking lot, and set off for home to get the car and come get him. So I was FLYING home, it was getting hotter and hotter, of course I ran out of Cytomax, when I missed a turn due to my unusual speed and grabbed my handlebar on a tree and wound up upside down in the brush on the other side of the trail. I managed to grab a branch on the way down and was able to do a Nadia Comenichi move, but then was stuck upside down, hand on tree, still clipped in. It was let go and fall on my head, or wait for someone to come get me. The blood was running to my head, so I finally opted to fall. Into a sticker bush.
I finally got back to the lot, branches sticking out of my helmet, sand stuck to the sweat on my legs, partially delirious from dehydration, to find my buddy, who had hitched a ride with a passerby. He gave me the "what on EARTH??" look, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
I did, however, get a good workout out of it.
We decided to ride a small trail that the bike instructor is going to use on Friday with his new bike officer class. I am going to go along and wanted to scope it out beforehand. It turned out to be the worst!! Terribly marked, boring for parts and impossible in others. And very short. I came out irritated that I had wasted my time and never got my heart rate up. So we loaded up and went to a much harder, more technical, and longer trail with the idea to ride it as far as the IMPOSSIBLE part, then turn and come back (about 13 or so miles). It was 10:30 and about 90 degrees or so when we started.
About halfway through I came across a little rock garden. Not hard, but you gotta pick your line carefully. Two riders ahead were walking through it. I took my eye off my line to look at them, and wham...down I went, rolling on to my back. A few cuts and bruises, and my broken hand took a blow, but nothing debilitating. My friend got a good chuckle about helping me up, usually it is the other way around.
Just as we hit the turnaround, his chain broke. I had a chain tool and we got it patched, but about 100 yards back down the trail, it broke again, this time taking the entire derailleur with it. Agh. I sent him back to the halfway parking lot, and set off for home to get the car and come get him. So I was FLYING home, it was getting hotter and hotter, of course I ran out of Cytomax, when I missed a turn due to my unusual speed and grabbed my handlebar on a tree and wound up upside down in the brush on the other side of the trail. I managed to grab a branch on the way down and was able to do a Nadia Comenichi move, but then was stuck upside down, hand on tree, still clipped in. It was let go and fall on my head, or wait for someone to come get me. The blood was running to my head, so I finally opted to fall. Into a sticker bush.
I finally got back to the lot, branches sticking out of my helmet, sand stuck to the sweat on my legs, partially delirious from dehydration, to find my buddy, who had hitched a ride with a passerby. He gave me the "what on EARTH??" look, but wisely kept his mouth shut.
I did, however, get a good workout out of it.