Saturday Before Buffalo

Two weeks ago I had been dominated by Matt Payne at Albert Lea. Matt has improved greatly this year but I was not satisfied with my race and even though I was turned the wrong way on the bike course I couldn't put my finger on how he could embarrass me by almost five minutes on a sprint course. Saturday morning I learned how when I realized my front tire was not holding air for more than a few hours. Apparently I was racing on a front tire with I'm guessing around 60PSI. I was wondering why it seemed so sluggish on the course. Frantic as I know it can take a day or two for the glue to dry on a tubular I went to Penn Cycle to see what could be done. I love my boys at Penn but there was nothing they could do so I called Jeremy Sartain. He told me to bring it down to Grand Performance and they would hook me up. On the way there I picked up some carbon brakes from another bike shop as the ones I had ordered at Penn nearly three weeks ago had not come in. When I got to Grand a young man named Pat helped me out and said he new what it was and how to fix it. Apparently the valve on Tofu tires are notorious for this and he used an old Samari technique to fix it. He told me that since I already had some glue on the rim and I was putting 130 PSI in the tire that as long as I didn't hit the corners too hard I would be fine. Then Pat looked at my cassette and told me that I would be able to go faster with a 11-32 cassette. "please explain" I said. I know I am pretty fast on the bike but I know nothing about bikes and gears. I just get on and go fast. Pat explained that it was like having a sixth gear in my car. Going down hill and having the wind at my back I would be able to gain another gear. "So your telling me all this time the guys I've been competing with have had another gear"? I asked. Without hesitation I had him throw on the new cassette and another bike tech put on the new brakes. I thanked Pat and told him he is a Michael Angelo of the bike, which he is, and walked out of Grand Performance with a huge smile on my face. Hopefully Matt doesn't know about the 11-32 but Pat helped me regain my dignity on Sunday by only loosing to Matt by a respectable four minutes on a longer course rather than nearly five on a short course.