re: tOfficial Cycling Thread

How was Tnats for you all?

My son's frame didn't come in, so we built up my bike last minute for the race. Nothing but problems with the build all weekend leading up to the race, but we felt pretty good about things by race day. He was feeling fast and strong.

The plan was to take Stage 1 fairly easy, as he's been having issues with arm pump and just wanted to stay clean and build pace through the day. He finished 7th in U21 Pro for Stage 1. We were pretty stoked on that, as he was hoping for a finish between 5th and 10th and really just wanted to stack times with his peers to see where he stands with the folks he'll be racing at nationals. Top 3 u21 are all closer to 20 years of age, and he's 16. So we were happy with stage 1.

Stage 2: rear wheel blew up and bike seized up sending him OTB. He had to walk down and ended up losing any chance of a decent finish as he was 3 minutes off the pace due to the mechanical. Gets to the bottom, and crank is also bent and bars are loose. Straighten crank sort of (made for weird foot position when pushing into corners). Swap out wheel, tighten and straighten bars, let's go. Attitude is still good because he just wanted to throw down two more runs and see where he stacked.

Stage 3: Feeling strong, then pushes into corner. We'd had problem with the starnut backing out, and it happened again and bars turned. Major crash. He thought he'd broken ribs. Lays on side of trail then realizes only knocked the breath out of him. Lost over a minute on the stage due to crash.

Stage 4: Just finish at this point. 12th on this stage.

Rough day, but he was stoked on the pace on stage 1. Learned a lot and had a great time riding and hanging with folks. Next big race is Mt. Nebo BME at this point.