Oh Snap!

Saturday I was able to justify to myself not racing at Snowbird by doing the Strawberry-Wolf Creek loop with the Duke and Bull Elk. We were supposed to roll out at 7:00 a.m. to beat the heat but Denny didn't show up until 7:30. We stopped at the Heber crib for a bathroom break and then start up Daniels toward the lodge. I was feeling pretty good up the climb but noticed my chain was jumping in my middle gears. While stopped at the lodge I fixed the shifting issue or so I though. We rolled across Strawberry and as we are climbing up to Fruitland I hear a snap and suddenly find myself pushing pedals with no resistance.

Great! I'm at the half way point of the 125 mile ride and just snapped a chain. First, we start making phone calls, who is home who isn't? Luckily Crash McGee is home and she said could pick me up. At this point, I start thinking about quitting and just going home and hanging up the bike. I manage to get the chain pinned back together and I decided that it would take an hour for anyone to get to me so I might as well just ride to Hanna. At this point depression starts setting it. I start thinking about how miserable I am riding in the heat wondering what else is going to break. As we roll into Hanna I start to feel better. Thanks to a headwind the Bull Elk is rolling a really easy pace and this allows me to just relax and enjoy the ride on his wheel. After Hanna I figure I've gone this far why not finish and if I snap my chain someone will drive by and haul me up to the top of Wolf Creek. As we start up Wolf Creek I found myself staying on the Bull Elk's wheel. It took him 30 minutes to finally get me off this wheel and then I managed to spin up the climb within 15 minutes the Bull Elk. After a quick water refill we finish the 125 mile ride with 8,200 feet of climbing.