goings on
the 24 hour race in Cool, CA was interesting. rained like hell. lots of mud, beer, and burned out brakes.
after riding the first 2 laps back-to-back.
the various solo and team efforts ran the gamut of 5 hours of riding to 24 hours of riding as comfort, motivation, and equipment allowed. perhaps the guys can post their results in comments rather than me try to remember all the details. in our case, a 4 man comprised of Matt F., Greg from Downieville Outfitters, Nathan A. from Truckee, and moi. Matt L. helped out with bike and light maintenance. we were riding under the Jet Lights banner (impressive technology in those locally made riding lights!), we got in 15 laps by time the race ended (early too!) at 10am on Sunday. Our last man, Matt F. charged his morning lap in an hour and 18 minutes and was gunning to finish another lap for us, but called it at the aid station when he saw the writing on the wall. he know he wasn’t going to finish in time for that last lap to count and decided to just roll on the road back to the venue. i’d been standing around in my cover-alls with cans of beer in the pockets since 9am waiting to hollar him in. killer effort Matt!
rockin' the end game, Matt finished the race Strong for Jet Lights
preliminary lap split times for our team
| Lap | Time | Rider | Splits |
| 0 | 12:00:00 | 0 | |
| 1 | 13:13:19 | Mark | 1:13:19 |
| 2 | 14:27:46 | Mark | 1:14:27 |
| 3 | 15:43:48 | Nate | 1:16:02 |
| 4 | 16:57:32 | Nate | 1:13:44 |
| 5 | 18:11:23 | Greg | 1:13:51 |
| 6 | 19:28:53 | Greg | 1:17:30 |
| 7 | 20:50:22 | Matt | 1:21:29 |
| 8 | 22:25:13 | Matt | 1:34:51 |
| 9 | 23:47:08 | Mark | 1:21:55 |
| 10 | 1:17:17 | Mark | 1:30:09 |
| 11 | 2:44:05 | Nate | 1:26:48 |
| 12 | 4:17:05 | Nate | 1:33:00 |
| 13 | 5:48:01 | Greg | 1:30:56 |
| 14 | 7:16:50 | Greg | 1:28:49 |
| 15 | 8:42:42 | Matt | 1:25:52 |
| 16 | 10:01:00 | Matt | N/A |
fun racing with all you guys. thanks for getting me on board. 2nd place ain’t bad!
missing from this pic is Greg
ended up with a chest/sinus cold after all that fun in the rain and missed at least half of the work week. on Thursday i felt OK enough to work and just couldn’t pass up the bike commute on a blue bird spring day. riding up Keystone C. i got to watch a HUGE Army helicopter pluck an abandoned Chevy SUV out of the canyon. now that’s cool.
it's not everyday you see one of these hovering IN keystone c.
see ya!
Good Times! Is that what they call a “Handle” of Whiskey? Shucks…
Well done McD. Sorry to see the old chevy go.
Nice! I can’t say that I would have done any riding in the rain. I’m not into that. But thanks to you all for doing the Strip proud!
Glad that truck is gone. I wonder how long it’ll take to be replaced…
-M
Great report JR! I rode 4 laps as part of an 8 hr solo effort. Finish time was ’bout 6:35 pm but they still haven’t posted final results so my placing remains to be seen. Mud was everywhere, took days to get it all out. Had to get new bearings for the rear hub and new brake pads all around. That and a good scratch on my left cornea (out of the vision area) was about the extent of damage. Good times and it was great riding with TBS again. When’s the next one?
–J
suffer solstice 2009! no plans for 24 hour races in the foreseeable future, but do plan to attempt the VT125 followed by the SSWC09 in Sept in Colorado. if i did do another 24 hour race this summer, i’d be very interested in the 24 hours in the sage race again. folks and terrain there are an absolute blast!
McD