I love telling good luck stories. Here’s one that I get to star in. After the race on Sunday evening, I made the 20 minute drive back to my house with my bike on the trailer hitch rack. Took my bike off the rack, leaned it against the garage wall and never gave it another thought. Until today…
It’s Saturday, so I thought I’d take a short ride, about 30 miles. I got all suited-up and rolled out of the driveway. Gave it about five pedal strokes, and reached on to the aero bars and shifted - SNAP!!!
Broke a shifter cable 10 seconds into my ride. It worked perfect over the last 112 miles. Sure happy it didn’t break around mile 30 last Sunday…would’ve made for a long and painful day.
A trip to the bike shop and ten bucks later, I’m back in business. Talk about luck…
A similar thing happened to me at IMFL, except it happened when I dismounted into T2.
The very second I hopped of the bike, BAM! - both tires blew out, my fork cracked, the brand-new wipperman chain snapped, which shot into the front wheel, sending a flying spoke past my left eye (lodging in my helmet), the seatpost dropped into the seat tube, the stem bolts stripped, sending my aerobars straight south into the broken front wheel, which pulled my derailleur cables clean out of the downtube, severing them both. The rear skewer snapped like a twig, causing the rear wheel to break loose, which sent the rear triangle of the bike crashing to the pavement, grinding the rear derailleur into shards. The sparks that flew from the grinding dropouts landed in my saddle pack, causing a raging fire that ignited my CO2 inflators like scud missles, which sailed above the transition tent ahead & crashed through windows on the 4th & 9th floor of the host hotel, one of which lodged in the minifridge in room 413 (which, of course, had to be opened & the contents discarded - costing me more than the window replacements). The amazing thing is, the only part that slowed me down in transition was when the heat from the passing CO2 cartridge-missiles melted my aerobotte, causing the remaining Gatorade to spill everywhere, totally soaking my feet. It took me a good 15 seconds of towelling off to get that crap from between my toes.
Despite dropping from 1st to 2nd overall (by 14 seconds - go figure), my first Ironman was a raging success. The bike didn’t fare so well, but she did get me to transition without a hitch. Funny how luck works, isn’t it?
After the Banquet on Friday I finished setting my bike up, rode it around the parking lot of the hotel go back up to the room and see that one of the seat rails snapped in two. Fortunately, the Expo had the exact same seat.
Just like what they said to me about my thread on “Best Flat Tire I Ever Had…”, I was secretly hoping to read about a car-load of hot co-eds who found you after the race and thought you needed a special massage. Oh the disappointment.
Sorry to disappoint. You need to check the Penthouse Forum, not the ST Forum. It’ll start off like this: I’m a Senior at a large midwestern university…
I finished my first triathlon and my friend and I put our backs back in his truck and checked on times for the awards, when we came back my tire was flat. How much of a bummer would it have been to flat in your first race!
A week after IMFL my indoor trainer class starts. I haven’t ridden om my bike since the race.
We strart the class and about 20 minutes in my carbon seat shatters and I fall backwards to the floor, lightly slicing my bicept against the still-attached seat shard.
I wasn’t injured other than shocked and, fortunately, had a spare carbon saddle in my trunk that was much better made (though not as comfortable). Replaced and continued the class.
During 17 years of racing, shit is bound to happen:
During the bike leg of a tri in Virginia, which has some good solid climbs, my bike looses its ability to shift out of the 12 cog. I do well on the down hills but have to grind the uphills. I have no idea why I lost shifting and I figure I’d lose more time stopping and trying to fix it. Make it back to T2…finish the run…When I unrack my bike the rear wheel falls totally out of the dropouts. The rear quick release had somehow unlatched half way through the 18 mile bike leg.
Or
The race when the front brake caliper came loose and slammed to one side, rubbing on the rim. I spent the entire race with one hand on the aerobar and one reaching down and holding the caliper away from the rim.
