From then on, without anyone in front of me to judge my efforts by, I just rode hard trying to extend my lead. On the switchbacks in the back section I could see Ryan just a couple of seconds behind me. Each lap I'd get slightly further ahead on the long straight sections, but then he'd gain on me in the really rocky and rooted part. Each lap he was steadily getting closer. I was starting to feel the pressure and make mistakes.
On the final lap, coming through the off-camber section, I made the 180 left up the hill and went a bit too wide, clipping the course stake. Wouldn't have been a problem, except it popped out of the ground, and the metal pointy end went into my rear spokes. Anthony Skorochod caught the sequence here. Three spoke nipples sheared off, and one spoke got neatly wrapped around my cassette. It took me a while to realize what was going on, untangle the spokes and try to tuck them out of the way around some of the remaining spokes. I could then at least ride, but the bike was making a horrible racket, and something was definitely still dragging as it was really hard to turn the pedals. Ryan was long gone, and now Jack was gaining quickly. Shortly after he passed me, my derailleur got sucked up into my cassette and exploded, so I shouldered the bike and ran the last section of the course, hanging on to third place.
Despite my ravenous cassette eating bike parts, it felt like a good race. I'm not convinced I could have held Ryan off, but it was a good battle.
Stoudt's brewing was there with free beers, as well as someone grilling up delicious spicy sausages. Not a bad way to spend some post race spectating.
Fortunately Cutter's had a SRAM rear derailleur as well as the derailleur hanger in stock, so the bike will be ready to go with my tubeless wheelset for day 2.
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