Someone told me that South Lake Tahoe adds 100,000 residents during the 4th of July Weekend. I said, "Holy s*it," and thanked the bike gods for low land racing this weekend.

So, today I tried out Leesville Gap for the first time and it was highlighted by flat tires. The first flat happened at the base of the climb. That sucked, but I had a tube.

I took the decent with reckless abandon and caught a chase group. I was surprised to find a motivated group of riders willing to work. That's unusual and it was fun to be a part of.

We eventually caught the lead group. Soon after I followed Jesse Miller-Smith as he attacked up the next climb. Unfortunately, he flatted after the decent and I started to get a slow leak a few miles later. I prayed it was a super slow leak, but it was not.

To be fair, I did check my tires and put a new one on the back before the race. Well actually, I swapped it out with one from my wife's bike (did I forget to tell you about that honey?).

I tried to nurse it home while hallucinating in the hot sun. At one point I thought I could hear Dave Towle talking about runway models.

That's about when the cat 3 follow car passed me and Musa was there to offer me a wheel. I asked what happened to him and he said, "You got two flats, what do you think happened?"

And that was Leesville Flat, err, I mean Gap.