At Saturdays Tour De Lilly around 40 folks showed up to take part in the ride. The weather was kinda cool but the sun was shining and everyone was ready to go. The tour started out by going up Son of Plantation which was kinda weird considering every time I have ever ridden that trail I was going the opposite direction. Half way up the trail the ride claimed it's first victim in the form of a broken derailleur only five miles into the ride. From there it was a right turn onto Plantation. With a pretty dry second half of the summer and some major trail clearing by the forest service the trail conditions were perfect. By the time we got to Davis Loop road everyone was starting to have a really great time, but we did loose two more riders who found the trails to be a little above what they were looking for.
The ride then took us up Pendleton Point trail which I had never ridden before. It was pretty darn technical even for Davis standards but was still fun. It was almost like a game when we rode up on hard sections to see who could do it with fewest or no dabs. About 3 miles into the trail I found myself following Matt Marcus when I saw him dab on one of the sections. I smiled and thought to myself "I can right that clean". I put a little extra pressure on the pedals and went for it. As I made it over the first few rock I knew I had it and then all of a sudden my back wheel stopped turning. I knew what was wrong even before I looked down. I had hit a rock a ripped my rear derailleur right off the bike.. I was pretty bummed to say the least. As I pushed my bike to an open part of the trail up ahead Ashland was standing there with looking at his bike. Turns out he hit the same rock I did. Lucky for him he only bent the derailleur a bit and was able to put it back into place. So for me to get back home I took a few links out of the chain to run it as a single speed. It worked well for about half a mile but then I noticed the cranks where starting to become hard to turn. Well it turned out that the chain hand jumped up one gear and caused the drive train to become really hard to turn. I tried everything to get the chain off but Ashland had the chain tool and all the others had taken off. I was in the middle of no where and had no clue which direction would be shorter to walk. I kept going in the direction we were traveling. Boy was that a wrong choice. After about 4 miles of pushing my back I made it to the road.. The rest of the day was spent in the shop putting my bike back together.. Maybe I get to finish the ride next year.
The next day I found myself in Charleston for the Creek to Peek race. Right after registration Steve Thorne came up to me and said Gina had just called and said there was a fire in the house. "Shit", I thought to myself. I didn't have my phone so I grabbed the first one I could find. I got Gina on the phone and she explained the house was full of smoke and had called Roger at the bike shop for help. Turns out the hot water heater had caught on fire in the basement. Thanks to Roger and Mikey for taking care of it since I was away. I decided at that point I better not race just in case Gina needed to talk on the phone again. Gina did call back and said everything was fine now, so I figured I could race again.
The start was fast and when we it the trails they were awesome! Things were going pretty well when all of a sudden I heard a snap. I had broken the rail of my seat. This was the second one I have broken this summer but unlike the first one this one was not ridible. Thankfully it was a short petal back to the start/finish area and didn't have a long haul like the day before. However it was the second day in a row that I could finish. I did get to spent time with the guys that make up the Charleston Crew (Larry, Steve, James), so that made up for a lot. I must say the Creek to Peek was a killer event and the guys went above and beyond.
Well I am back home now and the house smells like smoke but thankfully everyone is ok.
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