Two weekends ago I did the iron hill challenge race. I set my bike up with my new continental mountain kings 2.4”… I set the rear up tubeless… they are nice tires… sizing is a little off more like a 2.25 but they are tall extenuating the 29er feel. Rolling over and absorbing bumps noticeably better than the maxis ingnitors that I was running before (especially in messy rock gardens)… they run a little sketchy on the road being tall with large nobs but seeing as they are mountain bike tires and they weren’t meant to ride on the road I suppose I cant complain about that. (even though I just did)
Ok back to the race… it was a hot day 90 something degrees and course was super flat and fast… my new big aggressive tires didn’t suit this course but I’m not one to buy and switch out tires to suit particular races. I think people who do have a mild case of OCD.
I didn’t start very strong but I was slowly passing people and expecting to real in more as the heat got to people. A lap and a half in I got a flat… in the rear.. the one I was riding tubeless…I could hear the air leaking out and the sealant wasn’t doing the trick so I put a tube in… it took me a while to fix it and by the time I did I pretty much gave up on a respectable placing… I rode the rest of the race with teammate Jay Dodge (who was riding strong, winning the masters men).
I haven’t looked yet to see what the issue was with the tire… I’ve done 6 races so far and have had flats during 3 of them…
I heard Greg lemon would stop and let the air out of his tires when he was doing bad during races… with the high frequency of flats I imagine people are thinking I am pulling a Greg lemon… I’m not but I am getting so many flats that it seem unbelievable to me and probably others… hopefully I can figure out away to avoid flats in the future so I can regain my reputation as a 5th -10 th place finisher (on a good day).
