Better..Best..Bad..Bagged it.

Thats how it went at the Ore-to-Shore. Bit of Drama for many. The start was hard and the body was in a bit of shock after not doing any race efforts for 3 weeks. I was red lining it up the first big hill and was feeling slow. Then in the flat sandy 4- wheeler trails I could hardly crawl back up to the wheel in front of me which was 10 feet away. I finally told myself to suck it up. After all, a big part of racing is mental toughness too. Everyone else is feeling the same pain.I was doing BETTER then last year as I was in the top 15. About 10-15 miles into the race I see Sam about 50 yards up stop and the Eppens on the tandem coming towards me. I glance right to see a course arrow pointing right. From 3rd place (Doug) back to me had all gone straight instead of right. everyone but Doug came back. I guess Doug didn't realize it until a couple miles out when he came to a house.I was now sitting in my BEST Ore-to-Shore position ever. Once Brian and Kim Eppen came up to me on the tandem, I jumped on for a free ride as were about 6 others. The "Eppen Express" was in full effect..the whistle on the train goes WHOOOOOT,WHOOOOOT.(That one's for Doug). When we hit the deep woodchip and sandy uphills on the 4-wheeler trail 20 miles in 1 guy had a small gap on us and I began to chase with Sam on my wheel. At mile 25, Misery hill appeared before me. Misery hill is about 100yds long and is a difficult hike-a-bike, loose rock filled, sandy hill. When I arrived at the bottom Brian Matter was just hopping back on his bike at the top. A couple boulder strewn rollers latter I was leading a group of about 6 in 4th position with Sam on my wheel. This is where the race turned BAD. I was climbing a hill when my chain snapped on me. Sam stopped and I frantically searched his camelbak for a chain tool but he didn't have one. I told him to just go after about 30 seconds. I was about 2 miles out from an aid station so I began the hike. A rider that passed by dropped me a tool after 5-10 min. of hiking. When I was going to take the broken link out I noticed that where I needed to break it was indeed the master link, which meant I didn't even need the chain tool to fix it. Ok, so I started rolling again just to finish the race and get back home. I made it up the long pavement stair stepper climb and began descending through the 4-wheeler trails. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, they did.At 14 miles to go, a rock split my tire clean open on the sidewall from tread to bead. I patched it with a GU packet and limped it a couple miles to some aid personnel who had duct tape. After putting some duct tape in the tire I limped it another 2 miles to another aid station and decided to BAG IT. They gave me a 4-wheeler ride to yet another aid station where they wrapped the entire tire and rim to hold it better. I then had to ride the last 8 miles on the road through town into the finish area in Marquette. I was getting tired and feeling a bonk coming on because I was out there for over 3hrs. Sam went on to take 8th. Next time I'm bringing everything I need to get back including some duct tape.

This was going to be my racing rig, until the kid who owned it beat me up and took it back.


I still think Doug Swanson is responsible for this. He was pretty loopy during the preride.


This is how I limped it back for 3 miles before getting a ride on the 4 wheeler

At aid station visit #3 this is the repair that they fixed me up with before riding the remaining 8 miles on the pavement to the finish.