ORAMM

Quite possibly my worst day on a bike since,…..well since ORAMM last year. At least last year I had an injury to use as an excuse. Everything started out great, I worked my way through the field with Shawn picking of riders left and right on the opening pavement and the beginning of the first gravel road climb. Then all of a sudden my rear shifter would not budge and I started freaking out. I stood on the side of the road about 5 minutes screwing with my non-cooperating shifter until mechanic extraordinaire John Magnusson rolled up on me. One touch of his magic fingers and all of a sudden the shifter worked perfectly and continued to work all day. I hung with John on the silly push up the side of a mountain that got added to the course this year all the way to the top of Kitsuma. He was a little more aggressive at passing than I was going down Kitsuma so I didn’t see him again until the start up to Star Gap. I was still feeling good but had lost some time to my mechanical.

Somewhere along the grassy road of death I think I realized I wasn’t drinking anything and I wasn’t feeling very strong on the steeper climbs. By ¾ of the way up Curtis Creek my calves were feeling twitchy so I pulled over to sit down a while. John and Jeff caught me there and we all sat and had a snack. John was ill and out of water so I gave him half of what I had left in my pack. We mounted back up and I was feeling allot better. We made it to the top and I went to fill up my bottles and pack but to my disbelief the rest stop was out of water! I couldn’t believe it, the most important rest stop in the whole event and they had nothing to drink but Red Bull and Coke. No problem the volunteers said theirs water 7 miles up the road on the Blue Ridge Parkway. So seven miles with no water already dehydrated with a steady stream of Harleys passing me, I finally got some water.

I made my way up onto heartbreak and I thought I’d be able to drink and recover some on the way down. I started getting into the descent passing tons of other riders until I came up on someone pushing their bike over some off-camber roots and I had to lock it up hard to avoid running them over. As I got on the brakes and off the back of the saddle tensing for impact, I went into a full body cramp. I was so balled up I couldn’t even rotate my leg to unclip from the peddle, all I could do was just crash the bike into the rhododendron and lay there in a ball of tensed muscle and aluminum bike on the ground. That’s pretty much where my day officially ended. I sat on the side of the trail until I could straighten out my legs. When I finally got back on the bike I was cramping every other peddle stroke. My nerves were shot and It was hard to focus on getting the big bike around the downhill switchbacks. I went OTB at one switchback knocking the wind out of myself. I pretty much decided then I had had plenty and there was no way I was going to climb that gravel road again for the pleasure of pushing my bike up Kitsuma one last time. So I rolled back to town and laid on the ground until it was time to go home.

A few pictures Tara snapped at the start Harpers Crew first shot


Harpers Crew Second shot


Justin from Team Yazoo in Nashville rocking the Surly Cross Check singlespeed with bar mounted stero system and bad ass jersey


I doubt I will ride ORAMM again, it’s a fairly expensive day once you figure hotel and entry fee, and its nearly all road with just a little single-track thrown in here and there and most of the single track is either too crowded or I’m too wiped to enjoy it even on a good day. The post ride meal sucks and the rest stops don’t even have water, plus they didn’t give me a t-shirt.

Thanks to Tara and Noah for putting up with me all weekend.

Noah recently got a few “big” toys. First he got a chair that helps him sit up on his own


He also got a backpack to ride in


We tried to Get Noah his own sprinkler after he liked this one so much but they where already sold out for the summer


Noah fond his toes this week


He can hardly keep them out of his mouth


Candy and John stopped by to see us this week amid their move to Florida, they where towing their huge spider boat with them.


Ride Log:
Monday, Jeff and I road from bar to bar in West Knox, Im not sure if we road more miles than beer we drank but im calling it a neer even ratio 1:00
Friday, Levi and I spun around the Ridge, 1:00
Sunday, ORAMM 8:00+