The NUE series started with a bang, for me it actually sounded more like a POP! I had nothing in my legs. I felt better after the Vision Quest than I did at mile 10 of this 100 mile race, which made for a long day. I was dropped from the front group with in the first mile or two and I thought I had no chance of catching them. I tried to find a rhythm and I ended up catching up the the four Singlespeeders in front of me on the first flat road section. I recovered for a little while and tried to pick up the pace to see if my legs had arrived yet. They hadn't, they must have still been in Texas. Hopefully they will show up before Dirt, Sweat and Gears.
Back to the race... Shortly after the second aid station the five of us were on our own(that's a whole other story). I started cramping, Tim took a little longer that the rest of us, some had better legs. From here on out I was in survival mode... Just trying to finish.
I can't remember when it happened but the five of us passed Floyd Landis(you might remember him from the Tour de France, he did pretty well a couple years ago) . After a while on my own Floyd was riding with me(on my bad day???), we rode together for almost two hours. He's a pretty funny guy... here is a little of my interview with Floyd:
FuzzyJohn: What have you been doing lately?
Floyd Landis: hanging out with Lawyer's.
FJ: Training through races really doesn't work for me...
FL: Try not training and partying, it doesn't work either.
FJ: What's you favorite part about Mountain bike races.
FL: you can stop at aid stations every 15 miles.
After a while Floyd pulled away from me and I was by myself on the slow road home. a few other singlespeeders passed me before the end. I ended up 7th place out of 41 singlespeed finishers in the race, not too bad for such a horrible race. I just hope I don't have anymore bad days...
