L-M-L

This past Saturday was the Lakeville-Millville-Lakeville race, or, my return to riding a bike for more than 12 miles. I had heard grumblings about this race for a little over a year and was interested because I thought that it would be nice to get a race in before the Ragnarok. The race was supposed to have ditches, swamps, pastures, etc. but with the very long winter I don't think it is a possibility.
With the temperatures well below freezing in the mornings, and warming up in the afternoons I knew that the race was going to get sloppy at some point. I decided to ride my Monocog geared at 40x18. It proved to be a pretty good choice.

The start

The race was set for 80+ miles starting at Harry's Cafe in Lakeville. We started a little after 8 with a slow roll out. Once we hit the gravel it was still fairly slow. Over the first 4 miles I was still fairly close to the lead group, but I could tell that they were not pushing it, at all.

Right around mile 9 I started hearing a creaking noise coming from my drivetrain. I have taken the cranks off the bike the night before and cleaned, and re-greased them so my first thought was that I had somehow put them back on incorrectly. I pedaled on as it seemed to be just a noise. A mile later I felt a lot more tension as I was trying to pedal. Having not ridden much my first thought was that I just wasn't in great shape and that my body was already tiring. A long look back at mile 13 revealed that the lockring for my rear cog had some loose, causing the cog to slip all over the place and ruin the chain line. I stopped and spun it back on and tightened it with my hand the best I could and was back on my way. I worried about it coming loose again for the next 30 miles. I linked up with a couple guys shortly after that and we rode together into the checkpoint at Milltown Cycles. At Milltown they had bacon and donuts waiting for us, along with our second set of directions. I got Ben to tighten down my lockring and it was trouble free the remainder of the way. Milltown Cycles is a cool little shop that I have never been to before. I have heard many good things about it, but it is just too far away. After about a 10 minute break I was back on the road.

The second half started out pretty nice. There was some pavement and my water tube unfroze so I had something to drink. I recall about mile 50 the road started to get a little tacky. Dirt was starting to stick to the tired. At one point we went down closed dirt road that was muddy as shit. I made it though most of it, but had to stop and walk a small portion of it. Not fun. From there the roads were wet and icy. I just kept pushing towards the end. Mud was really starting to accumulate on the bike and myself. I wanted to be done. The miles seemed to be going by pretty quickly though despite my 11-13 mph pace. With 5 miles to go I passed 3 people and was determined to not let them catch me before the end. My legs were getting that warm tingly feeling that comes when they are too warm and starting to overheat. I would take a couple sips of water and that seemed to cool them down a bit.

I finished the race in 24th place out of 61 starters. Not too bad for the first long ride of the season. Afterwards in the swag box I picked up a set of Jagwire deraileur cables that I thought would look nice on the new bike. I donated two chains that I noticed had already been taken.

Afterwards I changed and went back into Harry's for a beer and a burger. It was nice to catch up with some people that I hadn't seen in a while as well.

It was a great race, well put on and organized, with the donations going to a great cause.

Thanks to Larry and all the volunteers that made it happen. I'll be back again next year.

My clothes looks worse.