Team Calleva does "the Chill"

On January 12^th, Nick Josties and Noah Klemm joined 56 other teams for the awesome Adventure Addicts “the Chill” race at Little Bennett Regional Park in Clarksburg, MD.

While temperatures were in the upper 30s, the Chill still had plenty of rushing, nearly frozen water to keep things Chill. All the recent rain made for a muddy mess and limited the mountain biking section, adding more trekking. This was probably good for Team Calleva since Noah suffered a derailleur hanger break 15 minutes into the biking section. Not having a spare (or a Dima), Noah proceeded to single-speed the bike and tough it out until another major mechanical failure (rear skewer break) made riding impossible. Undaunted Nick “Shoelace” Josties fashioned an “expedient skewer” from his shoelace and the team proceeded to hike-a-bike as many of the remaining CPs as they could.

One innovative aspect to the course that allowed for additional decisionmaking and maximum use of the space were the “CP windows”. While each of the regular CPs was worth 1 point, the Addicts added several CP windows to the course. Each “window” was a group of 3 optional checkpoints fairly close to each other. Each window or group was worth 1 point but racers only got credit for the point if they got all 3 CPs. It was a pretty cool way of making some points worth more than others and adding to the on the course decision-making.

With a bike out of commission clearing the course in 6 hours just wasn’t an option. Nick and Noah finished 37^th overall and 7^th in the division despite the mishaps. Thanks to Andy and Michelle at Adventure Addicts for an awesome winter race!