Training objective: Some serious rides this weekend in the mountains now you have them at your back stoep. Just long hours Sat and Sunday, 4-5 hours and some hard, long climbing at a tempo pace with the heart rate at 140-155 bpm’s and the cadence between 70-80 rpm’s to work on some good power. Windy, wet and rather sloppy sandy/gravel/muddy roads (my rear wheel was sinking in about 1 cm for all by the first and last 10 km’s of the ride). Stopped at the 50 minute mark to get rid of my hi-viz rain jacket – it was just too hot inside that thing – I had lights anyway, so wasn’t too worried about being seen, despite the low-lying clouds and rain. Then I got a flat about 20 minutes later on a descent when I noticed my front tire was getting awfully squishy. It was completely empty by the time I hit the brakes and stopped. I didn’t see any sign of a puncture and the Stan’s Race Sealant was still good, so I tried re-inflating it. No luck with bomb #1, nor bomb #2. So, rather than end up stranded in the middle of nowhere, I removed the valve stem and stuck a tube in (I always carry two spare tubes just in case – and I had 4-5 bombs with me, left over from the 36One). That’s when I noticed the valve seemed faulty – so, no puncture, just a valve issue. Inflated the tube and got underway pretty quickly. The Vittoria Saguaro’s were still on the bike for the 36One where fast rolling was the KPI – they weren’t great for these muddy conditions. Will switch over to the tires I’ll use for the Attakwas (also better puncture resistance – critical on that ride due to all the jagged rocks and the sharp thorns along the sides of the jeep tracks). Was getting rather parched from the 2-hour mark on, but realized I lost all but a dribble of my PVM Octane when I flipped the bike to repair the tire. That was an amateur move, wasn’t it? I decided to keep the ride to about 3.5 hours instead of 4-5 partly because of this, as well as the strong headwind and drive train issues