Moab Thaw Massacre

This weekend was both the Thaw Massacre and the 6 Hours of Frog Hollow in Hurricane.

I was excited to do a race in Moab, so I chose the Thaw Massacre. The race is composed of just two long laps, which I thought were going to be about 2 hours each, so it didn't seem like a good one to take the family to. Additionally, three of the kids had other stuff going on. It turned out the laps were closer to 1.5 hours each and it would have been fine, but the weather was pretty cold and really windy, so it wasn't great camping weather.

I drove down Friday night and pulled off on the Klondike Bluffs road, and then slept in the back of the truck. In the morning I changed into my kit, got my bike ready, and marveled at how few people were there and that no one was out warming up, etc. When I got my number I learned the race had been delayed for two hours. Ah.

I don't know why podium photos are obligatory.
They aren't actually fun to look at.

After sitting around in the truck for two hours pondering the cold and the wind, it was time to start. After getting warmed up by the riding, the weather felt fine. There were places on the course that were incredibly windy, but it was not a particular problem.

Probably due to the cold, our group started really slowly. I was quickly into third, with a gap forming between first and second. Our group had a couple people, and then a large gap back to the rest of the group.

After passing the pro women and the guy in front of me, I had nearly caught John Gill, who was in first, when I caught my bar on a big boulder next to a switchback and crashed. That cost me some time. I straightened out my brakes and got going again.

I had nearly caught up to him, then my crank fell off. I had a quick-tool which I used to put it back on and got going again. A while later, the frisbee on my back wheel fell into the freewheel and jammed it. I was feeling pretty dumb about that last one, because it had happened once before and I had thought, "If it happens once, it will happen again" but then didn't take it off. Well, it did.

I had a good run for a while after that, and then my crank fell off again, almost in the same spot as on the first lap. Thinking about it afterward, I'm pretty sure when I torqued it originally, I accidentally used the cap torque rather than the spindle torque (and then the quick-tool is just too small to really crank it down).

Anyway, I fixed it again and pushed hard, catching John at the end of the slick-rock section. When I caught him, he sped up, and I was getting tired. In particular, he was descending a little better than me at that point. I couldn't make a pass and we finished like that.

I was a little disappointed because I think I might have won if I had prepared my bike better. The new bike is actually fantastic, the course was really fun, and I enjoyed the race, so overall I was satisfied.

After the race I drove home, just in time for the adult session of Stake Conference.