Race Season Delay Brought To You By Mother Nature

Mother nature decided to make up for last year’s drought in the span of one week. So far Indianapolis is on track to have one of the wettest springs in history, with most of the precipitation falling in the past 10 days.

The shenanigans started last week with a short burst of rain, which was then followed by a longer, train like system, which just parked itself over Indiana for over a day. Flooding ensued, which unfortunately, included Town Run Trail Park, the site of the first DINO race of the season this weekend.

While the race is billed as a “tune up” and would therefore not include awards or series points, I was still looking forward to getting into racing for this year. Well the aforementioned flood ended up cresting at almost 18 feet, while Town Run floods somewhere between 9 and 10 feet. So yeah, a lot of water.

Luckily, over the weekend the rain moved out and the water levels dropped quickly. Some dry days were ahead and HMBA planned multiple work sessions to get the trail ready for Saturday’s race. In another unfortunate turn of events, a chance of showers Tuesday night turned into another massive train like storm which laid down another 1.5 inches of rain and caused the river levels to rise, again flooding into Town Run, and resulting in the cancellation of the race.

Sort of a letdown, as I was anxious to see how the bike and I would handle what is usually a fast race. Next up is the DRT XC Time Trial at Brown County State Park on May 5. Other than the descent down Hesitation Point, which I will take with my typical conservative style, I am looking forward to tackling the many climbs on the course.

Hmmm…..no photos of note. Well, I did get some new parts including a new PG-990 cassette and PC 991 chain.

Shiny.

I also got a new front wheel, a Stans XTR Arch laced to an X7 hub.
 

Kind of goes with my rear wheel which is the same rim laced to an X9 hub. Problem is, I had a heck of a time getting a Maxxis Ignitor mounted. While I will likely try tubeless this year, for now I am running tubes and I punctured two while trying to mount the tire. Interestingly the rear wheel mounts very easily.