just forget about it...

Sunday morning July 13th 2008:

K & I have been looking forward to the Well Fit coached 56 mile bike training ride on the exact same course that will be used during the Steelhead Half IM race on August 2nd 2008. The group of about seventy of us riders met-up at the race transition area parking lot and attended a very short meeting and headed out on the open roads by 7:45am. Kristen rode with the pace group #2 which was to ride in the 15 to 17mph zone as I rode with group #1 which was to pace at 18 to 20mph.

The skies were pure sunshine without a cloud to be seen anywhere but the winds were a constant 20 to 25mph out of the WNW which we knew we were all going to have to challenge on the last 26 miles of this ride. I was cruising along up-front with an average rate of speed of 19.9mph with a max speed of 31.9 plus an average HR of 103bpm & max HR climbing a hill of 129bpm. Average cadence was spot-on at 92 rpm when…

…my training ride was absolutely deflated all too soon at minute 39:55, mile 13.4 into the course which was about two miles into the recently re-done/re-graveled road section of the biking course.

My front tube burst like a gun as I was riding 21mph through this horrible section of rode way just behind our 1st group pace leader. In this dangerous situation especially on this terrible gravel road you have to coast out to a stop with only using your rear wheel brake, I was very lucky I did not go down on the gravel. After I coasted to a stop I changed my inner tube and set-off at a more cautious pace of 12mph by myself on the gravel road as everyone from the ride was well past me at this point.

Then the unthinkable happened just about 1.1 miles from my 1st tube blow-out as my front tire tube burst once again causing me to stop for a second time to replace my front inner-tube once again. I then set-off once again at an easy 12mph pace on the gravel road since now I was really far behind everyone from the Well Fit training ride group.

Then at mile 16.9 on the gravel road when I was within 300 feet of the normal, good style roads beginning again my worst nightmare happened…my front tire burst not only the front inner-tube again but actually burst through my front tire itself destroying it completely. As I coasted to a stop my day was already done only 16.9 miles into what was suppose to be a 56 bike training ride for the Steelhead race I registered for next month. Even though I had a spare 650cc - 26" tire itself I had used up all my back-up spare 650cc - 26" inner-tubes plus I notice because of the 3 tube/tire blow-outs on this gravel road section the gravel destroyed my rim also. So there I sat on the side of the country road before the SAG wagon finally showed up to retrieve me the stranded cyclist about an hour later.

The gravel had very sharply machined down to jagged edges the rim assembly beyond usability & repair-ablity. Yesterday when we returned home to the Northwest suburb region of Chicagoland I had to scramble in a very big way to possibly find a unique size 650cc - 26" front rim so that I could continue training properly towards Steelhead 70.3. I was very luckily to find a replacement new Bontrager Race Lite rim that would work with my tri-tt/bike properly at Mission Bay Multisport yesterday which I purchased for $150.00 dollars.

I hold no fault to Well Fit which ran a top-notch training ride at all but I would like to see the Steelhead 70.3 IM organizer communicate with the city/county/state of Michigan about not only how dangerous/costly this gravel road section was for myself last Sunday but the possibility of this happening to others during the race day biking ride portion on August 2nd 2008. I would hate to see other racers have such a devastating day on race day as I experience last Sunday July 13th 2008.

This Steelhead bike course in its current state is absolutely totally un-acceptable for a 56 mile bike portion for anyone whom is racing that day. I was looking forward to my first Steelhead Half IM race on August 2nd 2006 but to be honest after last Sundays bike training ride disaster my motivation is very low at this point due to the poor quality of the biking roadways especially since cycling is my strongest ability.

On a totally different note K had a fantastic ride time about 3:12:xx timeframe. She said that the wind was the toughest part of the ride but other than that she felt trained properly for the distance and hills in this region of Michigan :-)

b