Bobtail Sadness

Yesterday we headed to northwest CT for the Winstead Woods MTB race. It's not that far as the crow flies but given that there aren't any highways that lead directly to it from Boston, we were up at 4:15am for a 2.5 hr drive. It was a hazy, hot and humid northeast morning. The roads were empty. No getting lost, no bad weather, no wheels falling off the car, no excitement. We saved that for after the race. ;-)

S decided she was going to race this weekend and would be tackling the First Timer division. We registered, got the bikes ready and headed off to pre-ride the 5 mile course (1 lap for her division, 2 for mine). The start was in the parking lot - a short (50 yd) asphalt uphill with a right turn onto a ball field. From there it hit a the dirt into a rock garden which once I figured out the line was nicely able to ride. Out of the rock garden into a short, steep hill with a right hand turn onto a downhill fireroad. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Not really. Heavily rutted from water and dirt bikes - the kind with motors. ;-) In addition, lots of loose rocks and gravel. I didn't mind it all that much but could appreciate the difficulty in a race where visibility could be limited by other riders in front. (And sure enough, in one of the later races, two guys crashed in that section and headed to the hospital for some stitches. Hope they're doing ok.) The rest of the course featured some nice single-track, a long uphill climb on a surface like previously described downhill fireroad (hated that bit). Then a nice downhill section, some more ATV roads, some more single track (that was eventually eliminated from the course by the officials) and then it opened up into what I call a "Sound of Music Hill". Basically, wide open hill with long grass with a path mowed in the middle. So you climbed out of the woods up the grassy hill and then descended down more grass. On the descent there were lots of triple down arrows. I kept waiting for the descent to steepen or some hidden holes in the grass but nothing. I started to forget about the signs, picked up speed and was about to re-enter the woods. Whoa! Jammed on the brakes hard as the trail turned steeply down into the woods, with a left hand turn and some gnarly rocks. I'm sure some riders tasted bark on that one. Ick. So this next section was a fairly steep downhill through the woods. I rode it pretty tentatively in the pre-ride but did better in the race. Popped out of the woods into the athletic field and a grass sprint to the finish line. My impression was: definitely not my favorite course. Not too technical and yet hard in some spots. Not the worst I've done either.

S was funny about the pre-ride. She took one look at that ugly first fireroad and said, "Nuh huh. Ain't happening." and rode back to the car and worried for an hour while I finished up the lap. I was really hoping she wouldn't bail. And she didn't. :)

We headed to the start line. As usual, we were starting behind all the guys and juniors. More fun for me, I've decided. Definitely wanted to be first into the rock garden because I just knew that was going to cause problems. Really didn't want to get stuck behind someone there and then have to deal with passing on the rutted fireroad. Way too dangerous. So punched it at the whistle, first onto the dirt, rode the rock garden (yay!) and didn't see another woman on the trail for the rest of the race. Passed a bunch of juniors and 3 of the guys in the 50+ division. I rode hard (hr was over 90% the entire race) and fairly well. Fell twice - one was so quick I have no idea what happened. The other I clicked out my right foot but a rock leaned my bike left. Couldn't get the left foot out in time. Slo-mo tip over. Arghh. No wonder I still ride beginners.

At the end of the race, I headed back to the car (a.k.a Bobtail) and saw S's bike already on the rack and she was changed out of her bike clothes. I thought, "She either quit the race or did really well." She did really well. First place! Podium, baby! Yeah! I also finished first and kept the leader's jersey. Happy dances all around.

So we were stoked. Got our medals and schwag (another cool new jersey!), packed up the Bobtail and headed home. Our plan - get home by 1pm, take a shower, hang out on the couch and watch the Tour, eat some delicious dinner. Ah...if only....

We stopped a few miles away from the race for some DD iced coffee. Then decided sandwiches would be nice so picked up some panini at Panera. While sitting in the car with it running, AC on, eating our celebratory lunch and getting juiced on more caffeine, I noticed the bobtail's temperature gauge pegged in the red. Uh oh. As soon as I said, "We better drive to cool down the engine.", we heard a loud POP followed by a huge cloud of steam rising from the hood. ~sigh

Looked under the hood. Nothing obviously wrong. Called the guy with all the answers (a.k.a. Dad) who suggested trying again after it cooled but doubted it would help. We did. It didn't. Pulled off Rt. 44 into a strip mall parking lot. We set up camp in a shady grassy area and killed time for 3 hours while AAA came to tow the car to Hartford and our friend PFFC, who went totally above and beyond the call of friendship duty and drove from Somerville to pick us up. And unfortunately, she had to deal with weekend traffic and road construction making the drive even longer than it had to be. I fell asleep in the back seat on the drive home. Woke up on the Mass Pike with the downpour from hell in progress. At least that got the mud off the bikes.

So my 10 year old car is apparently on its last tires. Totally love that car (almost as much as the MINI). A blast to drive and now with its bike rack and stickers, it's a totally rockin' bike mobile. I just hope it lasts through cross season.