Originally Posted by Bah Humbug

And it was damn amateur hour out on the MUP this morning. At the start of my second loop down the trail I saw two people sitting fixing a wheel; when I asked if they were ok they asked if I had a pump. It turns out B had already stopped to help A, and between them they had one CO2 that had been left screwed into the chuck and slowly leaked out, and was fused to the chuck. I used my chuck and CO2 to inflate the tire and... it immediately popped because he hadn't checked the tire, and the tire had a good 1/2" gash in the sidewall from hitting whatever he hit, which also had driven a spike of clincher bead into the tire. Tire shot, new tube shot, rim likely shot, and he had no idea on anything.

Meanwhile, before even trying my CO2, I hear a crash behind me, because some tri girl out with one of the big local groups wiped out. She stone-cold ignored the 4-5 people asking if she was ok and rode on, so I guess she was, but wow.

In the end I bailed halfway through lap 3 because I couldn't take it any more.