Joe Martin Stage Race

Fifty miles into the first stage of the professional cycling event Joe Martin Stage race, that tours the surrounding area of Fayetteville Arkansas, I crashed when a rider was unable to control his bike over some rough rail road tracks and causes a major pile up of about 20 riders. I was the first rider to hit the crashed rider and some how landed on my feet but my bike was not so lucky and all the crashers seemed to have landed on it. The pressure form the crashing riders broke my bikes fork and I was in a situation where I was questioning whether I would continue the race.

Luckily, Jose from Sram Neutral support pulled up with his spare bikes. I asked him if I could borrow one since my bike was in a bad way. He quickly got a bike down for me and asked one of his support staff to change my pedals while he attended to the other riders involved in the crash. I was quickly on my way and pushed myself hard over the next 50 miles in an attempt to not be eliminated by the time cut. This was my first ride with the new Sram Force road group. I quickly got used to the rear derailleur shifter and really found the double tap design to be very fast and responsive. The front derailleur shifter caused me a bit more trouble and I found myself stuck in the big ring going into climbs. After complaining to other racers, they got me to relax and helped me realize that I was getting to excited going into the hills and was over shifting causing the double tap to release the front derailleur and the reengage it all in the same shift.

Jose allowed me to use the Sram neutral bike for the rest of the stage race. I found the bike and the Sram road group very satisfactory. I would return the bike to Jose after every stage and he would clean the bike and have it ready for me at the beginning of each stage. After the stage race was over, I missed the professional level treatment Jose had afforded me.

At the Tri-Peaks, stage race in Russellville Arkansas the next week I went to thank Jose for helping me the previous week. My team had mailed me a new fork and I was able to replace it with the verbal instructions Jose had given me. I had not been able to true my wheels so about one hour before the start of the first stage of the Tri-Peaks stage race Jose once again saved me and brought my wheels back in true and they have been solid ever since.

Thank you Sram and Jose for supporting road cycling and events like Joe Martin, Tri-Peaks.