Bad luck, bad legs, bad race

Alright, so I decided to go hit Barlow High School for a little race before the big opener at Alpenrose.

What a mess.

We started off, things were okay, but then people started riding away from me.  The bumps just killed me today, in more ways than one.

It took me a while to realize my front brake was rubbing my rim.  Well, I knew something was wrong, but when I actually tried to spin the wheel with my hand and it would not budge, I knew I had a little problem.   Turns out I hit a bump and it knocked my left hood down the bars a bit, which  tightened the brake to the rim and also screwed up my front derailleur.   I just didn't think it was rubbing that hard.  I hate it when that happens.  Took me a couple laps to realize this.

My rear wheel also managed to come loose, so I had to stop and tighten that up.  And I lost a chain at the top of a run-up.   Lots of stopping today, but that wasn't my biggest problem.

Biggest problem:  I'm slow, kids.  Slow.  But it's okay, I'll keep plugging away and we'll see how things go.

I had fun, so that's what I'm going with for my Barlow race report:  Slow, but fun.

Photo courtesy Dave Roth.