At the Devil's Slide this year we camped at the Hells Gate campground again. Bill and Ross (also Missoula racers) had a high end cabin on the Snake that we thought of poaching in on but later decided otherwise. We like tents. Another racer from Missoula came by and introduced himself, Kaleb, who camped also with us at our site. (below photos by Doug at Scott Trost photography in Lewiston)
We had a nice pre-ride Saturday evening after our earlier activities (see below posts) of the day. I think Bill (training for the 24 solo worlds) did a 5 or 6 hour ride Saturday and caught up with us on our pre-ride. It went well with no significant goat heads (thorns in the area) in our tires. The race again started in Mr. 270's (Jack O'Connor) Heritage Center area. We had a nice visit there again Sunday after the race. O'Connor spent a lot of his life in Lewiston. We own and enjoy many of O'Connor's books.The race for me went as follows. Felt great at the start. Held on to Bill (in first) for a good part of the first loop with my HR at 167 average. Legs felt great. Got to start area for second loop (experts did three of the above posted loop - about 6 miles) and my rear tire went down. Ok, no problem, pulled out a cartridge and fixed the tire and went to insert it back on and the disc would not go in between the break pads. The clip was crinkled and I could not get the pads separated properly. So, maintaining my composure, I hiked down to the truck and took my surgical pliers off of my fly vest and proceeded to somewhat fix the issue. In the meantime, while I fumbed with tools at the truck, I watched the guy with a Fat Cyclist jersey and a pink single speed (he got 2nd) ride through the area with a couple of other guys with him. I had complemented him on his bike on the course.
At this point, I thought I should accept my first DNF, but decided to stay on the course anyway and make sure my teammate (son Todd) was getting his first race on clipless pedals done. I climbed the hill and down went my front tire. I used my last tube to fix this situation. So now I'm out of tubes and Bill rides by offering me one of his (he's running tubeless- of course) and I decline. I go down the slide (bike on map) a second time and get to the bottom area along the Snake cliffs and, yep, my front tire goes down again. Three flats with goat heads responsible for each. Sean does a good job alerting everyone to this issue and highly recommends tubeless, but some of us need to listen better! So, I rode in on the rim (it's a pretty sandy trail) and Todd was having a peanut butter sandwich on the back gate having completed the course and perfectly content indeed! "I heard you had a mechanical." He said. "My rear tire went down at the finish and my chain came off on the course but I fixed it." He continued. I did not go for a third lap, accepting defeat to the thorns. My SID's seals are toast too. Bill won the race by a country mile. Kaleb also had three flats. Ross completed the race. Twin River's gave away a lot of great swag to all attendees and had great volunteers. We went through five tubes as my rear tire was flat again when we got home after a hike up Canyon Creek Trail along the Lochsa.
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