55 Minutes of Standing

The weather was nice today. After days of dreary rain we woke up to a teeny bit of sun. Over the course of the morning and early afternoon that turned into a healthy portion of sun. I spent the morning reading about realism, but the whole time I couldn't help thinking about going for a ride.

I took my cross bike. Aside from being filthy from last weekend's gravel ride, it required no tinkering or pre-ride maintenance. Plus that last dirt road ride was so much fun I was itching to explore more.

The afternoon was windier than I was expecting, but it was still nice to be out. So I just got down into the drops and rode at a relatively relaxed pace and listened to the wind.

After an hour or so I came out on some pavement. It was a very short section but it was enough to relax. I did, however, notice that my saddle was a little lower than I would like it to be. I pulled over to raise it a half a centimeter or so. When I had it all lined up, I tightened the bolt, but just when it was about perfect the threads in the seatpost clamp snapped. Shit. I stood there for a few minutes thinking about what to do. But there was really only one option. Ride home.

I was lucky in that I was near a paved road that I normally ride on and so wouldn't have to take any gravel back. But it still took me 55 minutes. Standing the whole way. My legs, somewhat surprisingly, were not too bothered by this. I just kept it in the big ring and in many ways it felt like I was climbing some smooth single track on the single speed. But my hands and back were extremely fatigued. I'm not in the habit of doing anything like pushups, so supporting my upper body on the handlebars for that length of time was not fun.

But I made it home. Now I'm sitting outside enjoying a Leine's Red and am very thankful that I'm not racing my bike this weekend. And it is quite the weekend for racing. Iowa City has its big weekend. The road race is tomorrow and the crit is downtown on Sunday. Decorah is having its mountain bike time trial on Sunday as well. Those are some sweet trails and I highly recommend checking it out. And if neither of these options are really your cup of tea you can take on the entire state in the third annual Trans-Iowa race, a 325 mile gravel road race. If you attempt this, I suggest that at the very least you make sure you have a new and functional seatpost clamp.