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Has it come to this? Greg and I will finally beat Dwayne, one way or another. Nah, he still beat us.


Sure was glad I had titanium bolts holding my disc brake rotors to my hubs. Sure was glad I bucked up for the carbon fiber handle bar. Sure was glad I invested more than the cost of an entry level mountain bike in my XTR crankset. Sure was glad when my bike weighed 70 pounds last Saturday at the Bone Bender 6 hour in Kansas City. It rained all night and up to the start on this mostly flat ll mile loop we planned on spending a quarter of a day on. Didn't look so bad from the parking lot. It wasn't so bad for the first few miles.

By that point I was running 5th or 6th and Dwayne was in the top three. I could see their tracks and that was the only way I knew that I was near the top 5 because they were gone! They managed to ride through sections that quickly became a peanut butter fest for the rest of us. Bike stopped dead in its tracks. Walk ten feet spend copious amounts of time and energy cleaning the wheels so they could roll, repeat, repeat, repeat.....Gloves covered in goo, no hopes for a shift from this point on with the Grip Shift. I pushed on and told myself this was my one and only lap, quiting for sure. Conditions improved and then worsened. I found myself pushing my racing sled until it wouldn't roll, cleaning handful after handful of a thick mixture of mud and leaves from my tires. I would try to ride again, slinging huge blobs of mud and come to an abrupt halt. Enough, if I continue to babble about this, I might not sleep tonight.

I finished my first lap in just under 2 hours! The last mile and a half of the course wasn't as bad and it lulled me into thinking,"it's not that bad, I can do another one". Whatever, I went back out. When I neared the section that gave me trouble on the first lap I almost pulled off on the bike path and called it. I didn't. Continued on and what had taken me what seemed like an hour had become a completely rideable section that was over and done with in about 45 seconds. Couldn't believe it! I later came to some still unridable stuff and some that was worse than the first lap.

The third lap saw better conditions and a fourth would have been almost normal. The really "wet" sections got worse, but didn't slow you down much. I finished lap 3 at 5:37 and wasn't sure how far behind me 3rd place was. I lubed my chain and grabbed a fresh bottle and waited. At 5:45 Stephen Carney rolled in. I presented to him that he could settle for third or we could go out and battle it out for second. It didn't take him long to opt for the third place finish. I keep getting second to Dwayne, but in most cases I'm having to ride a lot less than him. Hard to believe that it took me 5 hours and 37 minutes to ride 33 miles. I knew this would be a race of attrition.

We cleaned our stuff for the next hour and a half and then headed south for some food. Dinner was awful, we found a hotel and then assessed the badness that we had put out bikes through. More cleaning and lubing, then to bed. Got up early and headed further south to Neosho for the race #3 of the Midwest Fat Tire Series, Le Tour de Tick. It poured on us for the first hour plus. Then it started to clear off. When we got there it looked pretty wet. Did I mention that I'm sick of racing in the wet? All we heard was how good this trail manages water, OK.

All in all it wasn't too bad. No pre-ride to speak of, just a few sprints down the road to make sure the bike was working and to wake up the legs. Small showing of dedicated racing freaks put me in third going into the woods. I was riding with Dwayne and Jason Stiger, the one from the Rim Wrecker. Just over a mile into the race I had a flat. 1" long cut in the sidewall of my rear tire with about 1/2" completely through, Stan's sealant didn't have a chance. My guess is that it cut earlier and when I bottomed out in a dip, it tore open. That's racing, it's what you do now that will make you or break you. I carry two tubes and a tire lever with about 18" of duct tape wrapped around it for this very occasion. I made up a boot with 3 or 4 layers of duct tape and tried to stick it to the inside of my tire. It fell out when I had the tube in and tire about 80% of the way on. Trying to put it back in the tire came off.........................I eventually got it and aired up my tire. ALL of the beginners had now passed me. I started to ride up the climb I had stopped on and I could tell that the CO2 cartridge I used was insufficient and needed a bit more air. Soon I was rolling. The bummer is after a flat and now riding with a tube, wondering if my patch will hold, I never ride the same. No excuses, just can't trust the thing and constantly wonder if "that root" I hit was too hard and will I pinch flat?

I immediately began my trudge through the beginner field on almost all single track. Most were more than happy to let me by. Larger groups would prove difficult, but would eventually fall to my heroic efforts. Last place, by a long shot after the first lap. It wasn't long before I passed the first marathon class racer. At least I wasn't in last now. One by one I slowly picked off the next and the next. Greg was riding strong and very consistent. Todd Holtman was cheering us on and letting me know of my progress. Not that my goal was to catch Greg, but getting a time check on him told me how I was doing. 9 min behind, 6 min behind, 4 min behind and then seconds entering the last lap. I was pretty sure Greg was in third and I in fourth. For all I knew he was going to put the hammer down like he had on our ride with Dwayne just a week ago and I would never see him. I knew this was my last lap so I was giving it all I had. It took a while for me to catch him. He was climbing way faster than me, but I had more power on the flats and the advantage on the descents. I got by him on a short steep bump that he picked the wrong gear for and had to hop off and walk. Soon I had a solid lead until we came to the longest grunt of a climb. Not much, but given the conditions it was the toughest part for me. When I got to the top Greg was right with me. I think he worked really hard to catch me and it wasn't long and I had a gap again.

Unlike the Bone Bender, the conditions worsened as this race went on, we were just trying to stay upright. I was no where near catching Jason and Dwayne was out on his 6th lap by himself. I can take pride in the fact that I didn't quit. Would I have caught Jason without the flat? Don't know but I'd bet if I came up behind him near the end he would have done what was needed to stay away.


All in all a good weekend. Thanks to Greg for driving and thanks to Craig Basler for kindly loaning us his car rack so we didn't have to destroy our top tubes. That's a ton to do in about 39 hours.