FreeWheel 2001by David Kincannon| Intro | Day 0 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | |
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FreeWheel
Day-4: Wednesday, June 13 Today is race day: Speed Wheel is tonight, but today we are racing for good campsites in Tahlequah for two nights, chicken and dumplings in Welling while it lasts, and it's about time to do laundry. I rode toward the sunrise this morning with Alex and Chris. We stopped on the dam at Tenkiller Ferry Lake for a look at some great scenery. The fruit stops were at the east end of the dam (20.5) and at Welling (54.8). The road sign that described the route best said steep hills and sharp curves next three miles. We came upon one extra steep hill. Chalk markings on the pavement warned cyclists to shift, shift, shift, shift, ....TOO LATE. This hill threw chains and forced several to walk up it. I found myself in completely the wrong gear, scrambling to downshift. By the time I was in the correct gear I had very little forward speed. I made it up by tacking (zigzagging back and forth). That tactic made the climb longer but less steep. There were a lot of laughs at that hill because it was kicking our rears. Monster Hill we called it. There was a lot of beautiful scenery around Tenkiller Lake. Most of the route was tree covered with occasional vistas over the lake. There were some interesting and fast downhills. On one of them, Chris comes whooshing around me on the left, then shortly later Alex is passing me on the right ... in the ditch. I watched in amazement. He never went down. I found out later that was the second time he did that. He was having a little problem with keeping his line on the road and braking at high speeds. He wised up and started taking the downhills a little slower, unlike "Crash Gordon". A mile out of Welling we pass a caution banner at the top of a hill that ended with a steep sharp blind curve to the right. Chris passed me on the left as I started to chicken out and was putting on the brakes. He had a good line on the left half of our lane. So did the oncoming truck in the middle of the road. Chris missed the truck but lost control of the back tire. With Chris now entered into the bucking broncho road rash rodeo and sliding straight instead of turning right, he was leaving me with very little road to work with. My brakes sounded like two squealing piggies as I tried to stop on pavement and not in the ditch. Bicycles are naturally top heavy, and with full brakes applied on a downhill, I got the tail to wag on the dog, but stayed shiny side up. Chris had road rash and a broken rear derailer. I rode ahead for help. That was the toughest mile I rode all week. Chris rode into Welling with his bicycle in the back of a Cherokee Nation ambulance (that's showing a bicycle the respect it deserves!). He eventually rode on in to Tahlequah on a borrowed mountain bike. Alex and I rode in to Tahlequah together and he stayed with me even though it became apparent that I had broken a spoke in the accident from the hard braking. The mechanics at the shop back home say that it was probably already damaged. I cut the broken spoke off at a Love's Store and rode the rest of the way in without rear brakes (one brake pad removed due to the severe wobble). I got to camp early only to find that personal SAGs had taken almost al of the shady campsites. With this, the broken spoke, and the accident early, I was not in a good mood at this point. However, "Scoutmaster"Jim found us another good campsite. Dan Zeroski drove us into town for Chinese food and afterwards we watch Speed Wheel and Brad Rogers in the Cat 5 criterium. David Kincannon | Intro | Day 0 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | |