This time around there was lots of mud, the bad kind, the not fun kind that cakes to your bike in a couple of seconds. There were definitely some fast sections of the course, but when we bombed into the infield, the mud took over.
I got 2nd in the ss race, the first lap I was leading good, but then my bike got mudded. The hutchinson bulldogs did not work well in this mud.
In the open race I started ok, I was really tired from all the running in the ss race. I was 7th I think and a guy in front me dismounted in into the mud, so me and everyone behind me did the same, while the top 5 or 6 got a 20 second gap in about 5 seconds. I lead the chase back on and got pretty tired. My bike was ok clean for the running so the grass sections I could go fast in.
I was racing Tufo Flexus tubulars, made in europe, 300 grams each, they felt pretty good in this kind of mud at 35psi, they didn't cake up or collect mud at all.
After 3 laps I went by the pits and thought I should grab my ss and let my geared bike get cleaned up, I didn't, and about 20 seconds later I broke my derailleur. Wish my rear derailleur was made in Germany like my hanger, since the hanger stayed straight as an arrow. I must of bumped it up against that wall going by the billboards after you hit the stairs/ramp.
So I walked/jogged the 1.5 mile course to get back to the pit, had a beer, and got on my Pake. My pake had a 30mm grifo in the back and a pirahna semi slick in the front. I never had to get off my bike once for the last 4 laps(except for the stairs), those tires rocked it in the mud. The 30mm grifo is smaller and has good tread, with the smaller tire you get more mud clearance while the piranha didn't collect any mud at all. It almost iceskated over all that mud. It made the race alot of fun. Maybe next time I'll be rocking a 29er rigid ss with 17psi in some stan's crow tires...that is the plan.
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