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By
David Alden
(photo: Tom, after the fall)
Tires exploded,
chains exploded, Tom exploded… who's fool idea was
this anyway?
Originally, Jean and I wanted to do a 50-mile
ride up at Lynn Woods as part of our preparation for the
Vermont 50, and since misery loves company, we invited everyone
else who wanted to do so to come along too.
Nathan's IronMan race got cancelled (due
to the fires in Colorado) so he was game, as was Tom Martin,
who is also registered for the Vermont 50. A few others
decided to come out and do some miles with us: Doug Salb,
Tim Corning, Arsen, Jason Byrnes and Tom Merrill.
Now unfortunately, Jean had been away for
a couple of days and hadn't been feeling well at all, so
she decided to scale back her ride and just see how she
felt.
Tom Martin arrived at Lynn Woods first,
at about 6:00, and had already done a few miles by the time
that Nathan, Tim, Arsen and myself showed up at 7:00.
We waited around for about 15 minutes for
Bill Byrne (who swore that he was going to be there) and
then finally took off.
As a warm-up we started out on a good little
fire road loop…a fire road loop that has a nice little
rock jump about halfway through it… a rock jump that
spelled disaster for Tom Martin. Did the pre-load from the
full suspension mess him up? Was it voo-doo? Whatever it
was, his weight was a little too far forward, the fork bottomed
out and Tom went flying.
He finally came to rest about 25 feet from
the jump and about 10 feet away from his bike. It was ugly.
I had to make "the call" to his wife and we walked
(limped, hobbled) out of there.
Tom was whisked away to the emergency room
and Tim, Nathan, Arsen and myself were left to carry on.
Soon Tim had to leave (they're dropping
like flies), but Jean and Jason and Doug were on their way.
Before they got there we hooked up with another rider, Dan,
and did a loop around the lake. Some of the trails were
probably a little too much on Arsen, as this was his first
ride on his new bike - with toe clips- but he's tough.
We made it back down to the parking lot
and Arsen had to leave while Jason got ready to ride. Jason,
Nathan and I did a nice little climb up to stone tower (i.e.
a technical steep lungbuster) and then went right back down
to meet Jean and Doug.
Our group started out with the same fire-road
warm-up loop, but I got a flat. Nathan, Jason, Doug and
Jean carried on while I battled ants and swapped tubes.
I met them back down at the cars (to get an extra tube)
and we went back up the same God forsaken hill that leads
from the parking lot yet again (by the end of the day we
HATED that hill).
Jean still wasn't feeling well and Jason
is still getting back into the swing of things after breaking
his elbow so they went their way and Nathan, Doug and I
went ours.
We went all over the place, from Steel
Tower to Overlook Trail to route 1 to Cornell Path. Back
and forth, up and down, over and over again. As the day
wore on, Doug got a flat and broke his chain, my tire exploded
while we were just standing still and I was starting to
get tired.
Tom Merrill arrived and we knocked out
another 18 miles or so (although at one point Doug told
us to just leave him, sort of a "just go on without
me…" thing, but he rallied) and finally decided
to call it a day when the cycling computer said 50.15 at
the top of the Stone Tower hill.
It was a LONG day, and I think Nathan almost
had to slow down just a hair towards the end. Not much,
but maybe just a little. Maybe I was hallucinating.
Now we wait for Tom Martin to get back
to the trails (4-8 weeks) as he recovers from a separated
shoulder, torn hamstring and multiple abrasions.
Thanks to Jean, Jason, Doug, Nathan, Tim,
Tom, Tom and Arsen for joining me and helping make the Lynn
Woods 50 possible.
Needless to say, I am SICK of Lynn Woods
at this point, but I'll be back, and I'll want to do another
50 sometime soon too…
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