Finally, the last stop at mile 45. It was already 10 AM. I feasted on M&M peanuts and took a clif shot. Refilled my bottle and chatted a little bit then off we went. Surprisingly, except for the sore back, everything else felt good. I called Angel to tell her to be at the finish at 10:45 to 11:00. Still the route was flat and without much wind. We pedaled for about half an hour and when I glanced at my cyclometer. 56 miles it said. About 4 more miles and we're home free! "We are on track to finish this thing in just a little over 4 hours", I thought. Way faster than I had hoped for. We were caught by a small group by then. We had just started to pedal after the light turned green when I felt my rear wheel swerve. The last time I felt that was about a year ago - when I had a flat tire. "No, not now!". In my 2 years of road cycling, I had only gotten a flat tire twice and only once out on the road. I looked down to my rear tire and sure enough, it had lost almost all its air. I stopped and did not attempt to let Sonny know as he was a few bikes ahead of me. I figured, at most, it would take me 15 minutes to fix it. Wrong! 20 minutes in it, I was still trying to get the tire back into the wheel and couldn't manage to completely seal it back in. Before that, I ran my finger through the tire's interior wall to find what caused the flat. I could not feel a thing so I figured it was a pinch flat and put a new tube on. I screwed the wheel back on and started to ride. By that time, I had wasted about 30 minutes already!
I saw another finishing cyclist and I followed him turn left at the next light, and then I felt that swerve again! "This can't be happening! I am so close to the finish and I get 2 flats in one day while I only had 2 flats in my almost 2 years of cycling??" I got off in front of an old establishment and removed the rear wheel once again. Ran my finger once more around the tire and felt this really tiny wire. I got it off and replaced the tube and started sealing the tire back on to the wheel again. My hands and arms were tired. I couldn't seem to seal the tire into the wheel again. I used the tire lever (which I knew could potentially damage the tube). When I finally did seal it, I inflated it with the only CO2 I had left and it filled it only for a few seconds before it deflated. My heart sunk as that was my last CO2 and tube. By this time, it was already almost 12 noon.
The sag wagon passed and gave me a CO2 and a tube. Problem was, I didn't notice he gave me tube with a schrader valve and my wheel only can fit a presta valve. So I didn't have a choice but to call Angel. I asked her to go back to the hotel and get me the remaining tubes and CO2. I felt relieved as I knew, she was coming to bring what I needed.
Remember that expensive paper weight that used to be a GPS? Well, this is when Angel needed it most but it continued to suck by failing to get a GPS signal. After about 30 minutes of driving around, she was able to figure out where I was exactly. I quickly changed the tubes and sealed the tire (maybe due to my adrenalin, it did not take too long this time). 2 guys who did the century passed me. I followed them to the finish. Finally, after almost 2 hours, I made it to the finish!!! Thinking back, if I had just walked, I would have gotten to the finish sooner. I almost felt like riding with Angel back to the hotel but figured, I had biked too long, around 57 miles to just quit. Sonny waited and I imagine must have been worried and curious where I had been.
So I did get the medal. Slipped it into my pocket and rode back to the hotel. What I thought would be a smooth ride with a few bumps turned almost into a nightmare. But all's well that ends well. I don't really know what I would have done without Angel's help. Would I do it again? Absolutely!
Afterwards, we treated ourselves to a good meal at Joe's Steak House located just a block away from the hotel.
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