World Champs deja veux

I headed out to the local Tuesday Night World Championships last night which, this week, took place on the crit course at Joe Davis Stadium. The course is a pretty simple loop with 3 turns and one curve, providing good practice for bike handling... practice I can certainly use. Our plan was to do two 20min + 1 lap "races" so that we'd get to double up on the most exciting and important part: the finish.

So ater sitting on the back for a few laps and getting used to the turns, I headed to the front to mix it up a bit and felt surprisingly good. I took some pulls, chased a couple of people down, and tried not to get in anyone's way too much. About 16min into the first "race" I was bringing the pack through turn 2 when I felt my wheel slide. There was some dust in the corner so at first I thought nothing of it. However, it slid again and I realized that I had flatted.

At first I wasnt too upset because being a crit course, I could easily change the tire and get back in the action. Or so I thought... After pulling off the road I got right to work with the wheel and pretty quickly noticed a large (~1/8" long) piece of glass which had pierced my tire and tube. I had to struggle a bit to remove it but once I got it out of the tire I was pretty convinced I would be good to go. After replacing the tube, I attempted to pump it up but was getting nothing. I checked my pump but it was working so I took my new tube out of the tire only to find a hole in it. Awesome. It was like Clearwater all over again... Luckily someone else gave me a tube and I was back at it.... only to have the same problem.

Finally the third tube was the charm and I was ready to go. Unfortunately though by this time the group was finishing up the second race and the end of daylight was quickly approaching. This unfortunately meant I had to finish up the ride on the trainer, which I did, without too much hassle. After riding 1h10 outside, an extra 35min on the trainer with some hard efforts wasnt too bad, at all.

Next week the the TNWC heads to the hills... should be fun!