Strava Madness

Well I noticed on Strava that I'm only 12 seconds off a King of the Mountains on one of my local segments. As that was done on my singlespeed mountain bike it should be fairly easy to beat, especially as I've just set up the Peregrine as 'monster cross': fat tyres, rigid forks, gears and drops. That should make it easy to make up those seconds, especially as I can pedal down the down hill bit in the drops rather than coasting.

I don't think it's relevant but my best time was set when I was fitter, lighter, on a calm Summer's day on a dry trail. It's been raining for about a month here non-stop, the farmer down the road has built a huge wooden boat and the trail has about as much grip as a greased ice rink.

Ignoring the fact that the rain was horizontal I set off, warming up nicely on the 2 miles  to the start - OK I may have pushed a little too  hard but I was good to go. Up the first climb, I was certainly faster. Of course I couldn't prove it  as it was dark and the driving rain was blinding me but I had a plan and was sticking to it (unlike my tyres to the trail) nothing could go wrong. Over the crest of the first hill I changed gear in anticipation of cruising down the other side, and taking enough momentum to help me up the other side.

Which was great except the wind hit me like a train, no chance of coasting down there (not that that was on the agenda I was a dead cert for the podium) I changed back down through the gears working as hard to get down the hill as I was to get up it. Eventually I made it into the dip at the bottom. Literally. Being a minor valley, it was of course flooded and I came to an ungainly stop in the clay.

Hauling my bike out of the quicksand I attacked the final slope ignoring the wheel spinning in the clay making slower progress than I'd hoped, fighting both the wind and the hill. My lungs were making a desperate bid for freedom as I gasped for air. Perhaps now a tiny seed of doubt had planted itself in my mind?

And then that tiny seed grew into a fully fledged beanstalk as my rear wheel popped out of the dropout. This was of course due to the awesome power that I was putting down and nothing to do with shoddy maintenance. Taking shelter under the beanstalk I did the honourable thing. I gave up and headed for home.

So 'Anonymous Rider' your KOTM is safe for the time being. But I have you in my sights!