Mystery race #1 of the year is in the books. I had long considered doing the 12 Hours of Mesa Verde ever since I learned about it last year, but wasn’t planning on actually doing it until 2013 or later.  I was checking out their site last week and noticed they had a waitlist. Fresh off the heels of a new job, new motivation, and a will to get back to racing, I signed up on the waitlist and wouldn’t you know it, I got in just 4 days before the start of the race.

Now, this race was nowhere remotely on my radar. Not just this race, but a 12 hour ride period. I kinda knew in the back of my head 12 hours might be problematic, but I was willing to give it a shot anyways. I’ve ridden Phil’s World before and thought “How hard could it be?”… famous last words, right?

I drove out to Cortez Friday evening, got my packet, ate dinner, bought a few necessities at the grocery store, setup camp, found some Durango buds ( The Rocky Mountain Chocolate 4 man team, and DEVO crew ) then hit the hay. By the way, thanks for the chocolate that  night guys.

Saturday morning went by quickly. Alarm went off at 5:30. Downed some raw eggs and a banana. Got the feed station setup in solo alley. Attended mandatory racer’s meeting. Got dressed, checked bike, and made it to the start line just in time for the LeMan’s run. The start of this race had a lot of traffic. There were 800 total racers, and split between solos, duos, and 3-4 person teams, there were probably 275 racers at the start. To help thin it out, we took a lap around the fairgrounds (the staging/start/finish area) and then onto a jeep road for about a mile before hitting the trail.

I wanted to be in decent position, but I also wanted to make sure I hit the singletrack with some reserve. After all, my game plan was to start slow and ramp it up/keep it steady. I probably could have gone a little harder since I spent the first 8 miles or so of the 16.4 mile 99% singletrack loop in traffic at a slow place, but oh well. Something told me the chill pace was a good thing. Besides, I was trying to maintain more of a “long ride” mentality rather than a race. It was going to be a long day.

Lap 1 just kind of floated along. Somewhere in my drivetrain this awful creaking noise started to develop. I remembered that at the last race I could feel my bottom bracket starting to loosen up, so I figured the bearings were finally crapping out. Oh well, they would just have to last for one more race I thought, even if it was a 12 hour.

By the end of lap 1, the field had mostly thinned out and my bike noise problem had escalated to a ” annoying bird in agonizing pain” kind of level. I don’t know how else to explain it. Every pedal stroke under power was just creaking horribly. Luckily, I had brought my singlespeed as a backup, and it had a bottom bracket I could yank out and switch with the dying one in Sally. However, having fought a little to get ahead of traffic, I wasn’t ready to do it on this break, so I grabbed some fruit, changed bottles, and kept going.

Lap 2 was a little smoother and quicker since I didn’t have as much traffic to deal with. I was also oriented with the course and felt comfortable railing turns and launching jumps. The noise problem just got worse. In fact, I think it kept other racers away from me, either allowing me to pass quickly, or vice versa. It was driving me nuts. I thought through how I could swap the bottom brackets without losing too much time. It occurred to me that fellow Texan Payson McElveen and his teammates were a few tents down from mine and probably wouldn’t mind giving me a hand. They could remove the part while I was on lap 3 and have it ready to put in for lap 4. After asking them, they graciously obliged, and I was off for lap 3.

The noise this lap was beyond horrible. It was now up to the level of “spoiled rotten 3 year old not getting her way and won’t shutup til she does” status. If you have ever encountered such a thing, you know that this is much worse than “annoying bird in agonizing pain” level. I couldn’t wait for this lap to finish and change that part out. I was starting to feel some fatigue at this point but wasn’t worried about it.

End of that lap, sure enough, my new bottom bracket was waiting for me. They had led me to believe they would help me switch it out too, but that wasn’t the case. I didn’t really care though, I was glad for the help I did get and wasn’t really opposed to a long break anyways while I did some wrenching.

I set out for lap 4 after the extended break. It was a little toasty by this point, but I could see some clouds coming in, a welcome reprieve. The noise issue was only slightly better. Apparently, the real problem was somewhere in the cassette. The chain was super dry, but I think there was something more at play. Whatever the case, that damn creaking was still persisting and driving me nuts. Even though my legs were really starting to hurt now, and this course had a fair amount of climbing, I wished I had setup the bike singlespeed just to not deal with this effin noise.

About halfway through the lap those clouds didn’t disappoint and it began to rain lightly, with a little bit of snow mixed in. The trail was so dry that it wasn’t really enough water to make things muddy. In fact, when the rain let up, it packed down the course and left it slightly tacky. It was now supersonic fast! If only my body would have been. Last years’ winner did 8 laps, it was pretty clear I wouldn’t make that, but I was still hoping for 7 at this point.

I rolled through the start/finish, refueled, and made my way out for lap 5. Stuff was really aching now, but I remained hopeful I would catch a second wind and at least be able to ride 6 laps. Halfway through the lap, I realized this wouldn’t be a good idea. I felt strong naseau and my back and shoulder muscles just felt taxed to the limit, especially that bad shoulder. After 82 miles of moderately technical singletrack, 8 1/2 hours in the saddle dealing with a dying drivetrain, I decided to call it a day. I knew going into the race 12 hours was probably pushing it, but still, I felt a little bummed I couldn’t ride the full 12. On the other hand, I was completely obliterated, hadn’t crashed, hadn’t torn anything up, had a lot of fun, and felt it was a pretty training gig on my way towards San Juan Huts 200 at the end of June.

There remains one more mystery race before then. In some ways it will be more difficult than Mesa Verde, in others, it will be easier. One thing is almost certain, I will be rocking the one cog. It is unforeseen whether I will kick major ass, but that is a primary goal, among others. Stay tuned to read the ride report for this one. Might be this weekend, might be middle of June. Ahh, the suspense.