The Epic 90 was an awesome race. April ended with racing 540 miles! After last weekend with Iowa Wind and Rock, my job was to help Molly for the entire day. My legs has seemed to recover very good but with Dirty Kanza coming up June 1st, I need to make sure I am ready.
The rain stopped about 30 minutes before we started off. Once we go going things started to warm up and it turned out to get a nice day. There was a little wind that we had to deal with, but nothing like Iowa.
Molly was sitting in 3rd for the first half of the race. Around mile 50 the bad luck set in. A huge nail punctured Molly's rear tire. The big problem was I couldn't get the nut off the valve stem to put a tube in. After about 20 minutes another rider stopped with a pliers and I was able to remove the nut. We were back on the road but a few women had now passed us. Once we got to the checkpoint around mile 62, we saw the 3rd place woman leave as we pulled into the checkpoint. Bad luck was to strike again a couple miles later. Just down the road, Molly got her second flat. This time we got things changed a little faster but this time the tire wouldn't go back on the rim very easy.
Unfortunately, we continued to chase but never saw the 3rd place woman. Molly came in 4th for the day on a very hilly course. With all the problems that happened, she had a great race. I was happy to block the wind and pull her up the hills all day.
I think it is fun to help out teammates like this. I felt really strong all day and that gives me some confidence going into the rest of the year. I am also thankful for Josh, Don and Kent for putting on a great event. The Epic is a world class event. The field was stacked with great riders, amazing (hard) course, and fully stocked checkpoints.
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