Last weekend was my first race of the season: The Albuquerque Big Friggin Loop (an NMES event). 9am start for both the 55 and 102 mile options. I was planning on riding the 102 on the B'snatch 1x10 MTB. The cross bikers dropped us MTB peeps heading up Tramway. I didn't try to give chase - too early for that. Hit the first bit of single track and then heading up the hill to the water tower Dylan (doing the 55) blasts by. He walks the rock chute on the other side; I ride it but he is immediately behind me and I let him by. About a minute later on a turn that dips into the arroyo and then rolls over a little rock slab coming out of it I break an aluminum I9 spoke. The rock slab doesn't have a ledge to it but I somehow managed to be leaning way right of the bike in the berm and when I went to crank out of it I must have side loaded the wheel. Ping!
I keep riding after an inspection stop, albeit gingerly. Wilder and Nick roll by. I pass Anatoly on his SS cross bike. I pass the Scalo peeps after one of them wrecks and they all stop. I follow my GPS instead of just using my common sense and knowledge of the trail system and make two short detours in the south foothills. I get off course going through the neighborhoods leading to Tramyway Rd. The GPS is being a real pain in the ass by this point and the track is disappearing, leaving a blank screen every few minutes. We ride as a group back towards downtown. Jason and I split to follow the course after the others decide on a beer stop. We ride together till the turn onto Rio Grande for the 55 milers. I continue on. Left to myself again I notice that the rear wheel is less true then it was earlier. The tire is about to buzz the stays. I get off course again on Bobby Foster Rd., worry about riding on the west mesa (where I have no idea of where I'm going) and bail to the Bosque trails back to the finish. I see a group of three other riders get to the clipboard seconds before me and so I sign out once their done. Good for 5th place. Sixty-five slow miles followed by some Whataburger to fill my stomach and sorrows.
Short Tuesday night ride with Mike and Jason (a different Jason). First ride back on the SS MTB. Legs were still sore and even 9 miles was enough.
Saturday was buckle down day: 104 miles on the SSCX. Rode "around the mountain" and then added the Juan Tomas loop in Tijeras and a few miles of single track in the Foothills on the way home.
