Fortunately this time the pit was closer and i had a pit bike but still i was just about dead last before i got back on the course. On the approach to the pit the second time of the first lap neutral support was there standing with my bike, rear wheel all ready to go so I swapped back to my main bike. I spent a couple of laps trying to make up as many places as I could. Wind was a huge factor so drafting on the stretches heading south was a must.
Then I fell victim to trying to run too low of tire pressure. I'm still running clinchers and love the challenge Open Tubulars. I am also trying the latex innertubes and was thinking i could get away with a little lower tire pressure with the latex tube. I did 35psi on the rear but about lap 3 on the approach to the sand traps a section of the clincher bead came dislodged from the rear tire and I was forced to run the same section to the pit again. Switched to my pit bike and finished the race on that, trying to catch and pass the same 10 or 15 guys i had chased the first half of the race.
I ended up 36th and actually still had a ton of fun. The SRAM support was awesome and only today did i realize I ended up with a new skewer on my rear wheel that i need to return. I felt better than i thought i would given that I was racing on 4 1/2hrs of sleep due to having to work really late the night before. It was actually a nice little experiment on how to prepare myself during the week for something like this. I just made sure i got lots of sleep during the week. If I hadn't had the mechanicals it's hard to say wether I would have felt the same riding further up in the field but all in all it was a good race. I also really shortened my warmup and race day prep so i could get more sleep and I think that could have contributed to the mechanicals as I didn't have the time to go over the bike as well as I normally do.
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