Later I really tried to shift into the big ring, hoping that if the cable had slipped it'd have slipped just a little. No luck. By the end of the race I could feel the cable head poking out of the lever - the cable had no tension on it. Ends up I broke a cable housing stop, making "while I race" repairs virtually impossible.
What all that means is that I raced a lot of the race in the 39T ring, with an 11-23 cassette in back. I only used the 11T and 12T, and the 12T was pretty light for the pace. This is the equivalent of a 53x15 and 53x16, for those of you Juniors and those who know about gearing.
Curiously enough, when reviewing the clip to find where I lost the big ring, I noticed that my pedaling action smoothed out significantly once I had to spin. It was tough to find that spot - I don't look obviously at the cranks when I first discover the problem since I thought such an action would alert others to my problem and encourage them to attack. I also thought that it was temporary and that it'd be okay in a lap or two. That wasn't the case, of course.
But the lesson here - forced to use easier gears, I relearned how to pedal more smoothly.
Enjoy.
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3 comments:
Nice job - that's what these races are for: experimenting. Though your experiment wasn't exactly, um, planned.
And what's with that guy and the swerve? I hope it wasn't intentional (fatigue?). If it was, then that's poor form of another kind. Racing's risky enough without antics.
I get that the video is private ;(
Uploading a corrected version. It'll be live briefly. Sorry about that.
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