The Bacon Strip

“water, GU, on your left!” well meaning and dedicated aid station workers shouted to the riders as they streamed through Aid #2…

“bacon on the right!” clandestine crew taunted from the other side of the road. occasionally people acknowledged our offers, one fella shouted “bacon? i love it!” this good fella grabbed a strip and hit the trail all fired up.

and so the morning went - racers streaming through Aid #2 on their way to the top of the hill, the smell of bacon frying in a iron skillet, and cold Tecate chaser for the double dark french roast coffee that kept us going after the 0400 alpine start.

i was co-crewing with Jessica, Danielle, Eugene, Christine, Jerry, McKenzie & his wife Danielle. we were providing support for the Shredder on her geared Coconino, the Vulture on his argyle flame patterned Vulture 3×4, Nat on his skull and flames Vulture, and D-rock on a Nomad. aside from whipping up the fixin’s for breakfast burritos, we’d get the regular person approach the canopy, “you don’t happen to have a wrench, or some lube, or a left handed whirlie gig, do you?” sure! i’d spring to action, spill some beer, rummage through the box and 9/10 times bust out just the whirlie gig they were looking for, turn some wrenches, send them across the road to get food or water and have their rig dialed before they got nervous. and then, one of our riders came through, “dude! i feel great” was about spot-on for their upward bound visit, on the first lap, and “that is the sickest Jedi trail i’ve ridden!” on their downward bound visit.

Aid #2 was a hoot of a place to spend the day. racers passed through it on their outward bound effort and return effort of each lap, so we had people going everywhere, all day long. when breakfast wore off and the Tecate wasn’t enough, i tapped the keg of superb homebrew that Vulture brought to keep us in the right spirits for our efforts. he described it as a porter, flavored with bourbon soaked oak chips. i described it as epic-good-put-the-hurt-on-you session beer. fortunately, i stayed so busy tending to racers, cooking, and meeting my neighbors or i might have DNF’d my tour of duty if given unfettered access to my mug. cheers to Vulture for bringing us killer home brew!

“um, i’ve got to change gears real quick.. just, need to, get my Y-wrench here… 54 inches is all you need”

once we’d gotten everyone through for their first visit, i took the dogs on a stroll down the road, anchored them to the canopy again, and walked up into the Jedi stand

to snap some pics of descending riders. imagine this - climbing +5k feet on a gravel road, then another -1k-ish feet on trail and descending all of that vertical again on singletrack. now do it 2 more times and boyitellyouwhat, you’ve done some biking. for alot of racers, it was sub-9 to 11 hour deal (that is sick). for most racers, more like 11 to 13 (very impressive). i’ve finished in under 14 hours both times i’d done it, so i’ve got that going for me.

as riders reached Aid #2 climbing on their 2nd lap, wear and tear was beginning to show. we had some lingerers, eating, taking in shade and drinking. lots of lube and tune work for dusty drive trains also went down. race paces were being re-evaluated and the field was getting strung out. just under halfway through the mileage and vert for the day, i imagine some people had began bargaining with themselves or even listening to reason. the Shredder was out on her own climbing the rest of lap 2 while Nat and D-rock finished lap 2. Vulture spent a bit of time eating and chilling, before heading out for the last of 2’s climbing. Jerry and i joined him for fun and support, climbing to Aid #3 and enjoying the Alpine Trail on the return to #2.

Nat was holding together well and riding too fast, Shredder was doing awesome - happy, confident, and calculated in her effort and reserves as the afternoon went on. by time she’d gone through to finish her 2nd lap, Aid #2 began to look more like a triage with riders taking longer rests and beer slipping in with other engineered recovery drinks.

Vulture announced 2 was enough and he descended to the bottom of the course with Jerry, shredding the forever descent into Westfir, Aid #1, and the Start/Finish area. word on the street was that D-rock was swimming in the river and not likely to climb for lap #3. Nat was at it, in his happy place and full of hurt. Shredder was Shredding as much as a turtle will (middle aged mutant ninja turtle, that is). i resumed my efforts at helping passerbyers and quaffing barley pop, Coca-Cola, and chocolate chip cookies. then i passed out laying on some coolers.

by mid-afternoon we started hearing about cut-off times and limiting riders. no prob, we’re all accounted for, but hadn’t seen the Shredder in Aid #2 on her 3rd lap yet. she left Aid #1 and was supposedly climbing to #2, but when i heard the pit boss across the way say riders had about 25 minutes to get through Aid #2 to make the cut-off i poured myself out of my travel chair, put on my gear and span down course towards Aid #1. “i’m going to find her” i told the race people, “Amanda’s going to finish this” i said as i rode by the guys with clip boards. “that’s what we want!” was the response. she was a few miles out but chugging along merrily. “you’re doing awesome!” i told her as i turned to ride back to #2 along side her, “but you have to do it faster.” i don’t think she needed that bit of despiration, but getting pulled from the course after doing soooo much riding and feeling so well was not something i wanted us to face. Shedder dug deeper and when we rolled into #2 we rolled straight for our pit, topped her bottle off, and split. “you’re time critical” was all the officials said, giving us the green light to gogogo!

Shredder held a solid pace up to Aid #3, probably about the same as every time before, but 80 miles into it now. she hadn’t stopped for more that 10 or 15 minutes and just needed to get to the start of the Alpine Trail in good shape with plenty of day light. their shade was down and bugs were coming out, but everyone was waiting for Amanda up there. she was the last rider climbing and they wanted to see her through Aid #3, asking her how she felt and judging her condition. i filled my water supply, thanked everyone for their help and looked Justin, the station boss, straight in the eyes when he asked me, “you got her?” “she is solid, and i’ll be right behind her all the way to Aid #1.” “good man, now gogogo!” Justin told us. “just ride safe and i’ll tell Aid #2 to let you through.” we were off, climbing the start of the Alpine trail and generally just stoked. the trail was empty, Shredder was looking and riding excellent for the amount of saddle time she’d put in, and the low light coming in under the pines and decidious trees was off the wall. in many places it was dark and damp, in others the leaves above glowed as much as the moss and ground cover below. if there is a green room analogy for cycling, the last few miles of the Alpine Trail on a westward slope, catching in the last hour of daylight is it.

Shredder bombed the Alpine Trail for her 3rd time, no flats, no dabs, just a little boot packing, and rolled into the Finish area to a crowd of 6 or 8 officials applauding her efforts. Scott T, the organizer, congratulated her 15 hour finishing time and gave her a very special trophy, the DLBF 2007 hat - the only one in existence! Dead Last But Finished, now that’s my girl! Along with winning Kona longboard skate in the raffle and a CCP clock, i’d say it was clean sweep for the Shredder. we all had a super double fun time visiting with friends from Flagstaff days, occupying Eugene’s backyard (thanks for the hospitality!), keeping everyone up late drinking beer in the garage before the race, and riding new trails. can’t wait till next year, maybe i’ll try to get in to ride again - or maybe not. 18k feet of climbing, or all the beer, wrenching, and socializing you can handle, with ample trail riding the days before the event. tough call, who’s game for next year?