workout log: 8 september 2007

Activity: road cycling
Location: Lewistown, MD > South Mountain, PA > Iron Springs, PA > Fairfield, PA
Distance: 52.8 miles (hilly)
Duration: 3:00
Weather: sunny, 73-89 degrees
Avg HR: 142 (max 170)
Type: aerobic

PPTC “South Mountain” ride. I forgot my water bottles, leaving them in my cooler, safely ensconced in the car. Oh well, not a big deal, as a fellow rider loaned me a bottle to tide me over until I could pick up a bottle at a convenience store.

It was a great ride: a group of about 10 riders, all but a few of us speedsters. I motored up the first hill with Al, and we dropped Gene “The Machine” and Team Cervelo from the get-go – a big difference from the beginning of the summer, for sure! We rode into Pennsylvania by Ft. Ritchie, and then took the easiest possible route up South Mountain to our rest stop (which is going out of business, unfortunately).

I’d been hearing noises from the rear derailleur area of my LeMond all day: it sounded like the derailleur wasn’t quite lined up properly. I thought little of it, as the bike rode perfectly well.

Then, a few miles after we intercepted the Civil War Century at mile 50 of our ride (and mile 73-or-so of the other ride), I heard a thunk-thunk-thunk coming from the area of the rear derailleur.

SHIT!

I couldn’t figure it out at first, but it got worse when I pedaled harder. And the bike felt like it was “swimming” along the road. Something was wrong, for sure, but I couldn’t peg it.

Then another glance at my rear derailleur revealed the problem: my frame had broken at the drive-side dropout. It was a full break, too, and the noise was the chainstay brushing against my cogset.

FUCK!

Fortunately, two of my fellow riders heard my cry of “broken frame!” and looped back to meet me. They double-checked that they had my cell number and continued on the ride, with one of them promising to pick me up wherever I ended up.

I then proceeded to loop back to Fairfield, riding a very slow, deliberate spin back to Fairfield, where the Civil War Century had a rest stop. I saw a lot of other PPTC friends there, and managed to arrange a SAG ride back to Thurmond, MD, where I could be met by my friend, Kevin, for a ride back to my car.

Needless to say, the 52-odd miles I rode were great, but my LeMond is no more. I’ll write more about it later. At the very least, I didn’t crash – that’s a big relief!