Pushing it to the Limit

In the past week I have done most of my riding on the mountain. Of the past 5 days, 3 of them have been MTB to the top of Tam. I have enjoyed an awesome break of easy riding and I am excited to get my training going again and these rides have felt like the perfect transition. Now it is not the trek up the mountain that I am so addicted to, but it is the flash back down. The beginning section of the descent is rocky as can be and is pretty brutal on the arms without about 2 pairs of gloves on, but once you get through that part it is straight adrenaline. There are a bunch of waterbars that are perfect for getting some air off of and millions of rocks. So I basically spend about 45% of the time in air while on the way down. With another 20% spent sliding through corners uncontrollably it is absolutely packed full of fun.

Well yesterday I went out for another ride up the mountain. The climb is great, it is so steady that I can find a rhythm and just go for hours. Plus I got out of school at 12:30 so there was no one on the trail. It was a beautiful day and views from the mountain were pretty great. Well in my usual rush to leave the house and get on the trail I just strapped my road kit on and didnt bother to grab a mtb tube. I have tubeless tires so they are super trustworthy. Well I made it to the top feeling great and I was excited for the descent back down to say the least. That is what I came for...

I started down sliding through the piles of rocks. Then I was off flying, hit each jump like there was no tomorrow. Pssssssss......done. A sliced tire is no good. Well I grabbed my kit and put the road tube that I had into the wheel. I always wondered if it would work, and it did. I stuck my CO2 into it and it was awesome. Felt like a solid wheel and I was ready to get going again. At first I thought that I better take it easy. But there was still so much to descend I could not help myself. I needed to fly. I began to push up the pace and I could feel the loss of control that I had with the road tube in the rear. It definitely was not the same, but that did not matter, I knew I wasnt going to crash.

I hit the next jump and...BANG. The top of the valve decided to explode off of my tube. I was finished. I took the tube out and began to roll slowly down the hill attempting to put all of my weight onto my front wheel. I couldnt take it though, I did not want to damage my beautiful Crossmax SL. So.....I stuffed all the dirt and grass that I could find into the tire. Jeze, it was actually pretty difficult to get the tire back onto the rim with all of the dirt in their. I finally got it back on, but I wasnt able to keep a lot of the dirt in. Oh well I was off again riding up on my front wheel cringing every time my rear wheel touched a rock. I passed a few people and then one guy offered me a tube. I was thrilled and I thanked him at least six times. I popped that in and just as I put the CO2 in. POP. The tube pushed out of the slide tire and I was done.

I sank back down the mountain. Then I climbed back up to 5 corners, where upon my arrival some lady sitting on the bench began to yell "FLAT TIRE, FLAT TIRE!!" As if I didnt know that I had just ridden 2 miles uphill with a flat!

Well I made it back home, with a pretty decent workout I must say. The worst part were my arms that had been locked up so much as I leaned forward for over an hour trying to keep my weight on my front wheel. I guess I shouldnt push it to the limit all of the time!