Others can chime in. The lap times I list below are tentative. Also, we're not sure what place we got. We left at 8:30 pm. The race was super fun. Everybody showed up, albeit late. Shannon road the 3rd lap. She pinch-flatted, fell and wounded her knee quite badly. Nonetheless, she finished strong (1:30 about). She was the heart of the team - she organized everything ... set up the tent, food and first aid stuff. Bruce (Shannon's BF) was also there, and he helped tremendously. Shannon really kept us all motivated. W/o her, I don't think this race would have happened! How's you knee girl? She couldn't even bend it yesterday. That fall she took was major. Jose road the 4th and 7th laps (avg. lap time @ about 1:14). He fell pretty badly on the second lap (Jose really hammers it downhill on his rigid!), but a shot of tequila had him chomping at the bit to ride more. Jose had some bike problems in the beg., but Jeff, Bruce and he fixed up his bike before the race. Jeff road the 2nd, 6th (flatted) and 9th laps (avg. lap time @ about 1:02). Jeff is super fast! Way to go. You are major inspiration. I road the 1st, 4th and 8th laps (avg. lap time @ about 1:14). My last lap took me 1:19; it was my first time night riding, and I almost wish Jose had done that lap! By the time Jose's turn came (for his 3rd lap), we only had an hour and 9 minutes left. So, we decided to call it quits. We tried to make Jeff do that lap, but his light was out. It would have taken 3-5 minutes to switch the light, and he was already tired from the lap he just finished in 1:05. So, we were really close to getting in another lap and placing. But, oh well. We had a blast and that's what's important. We got 9 laps in and came in 4th or 5th. We decided to enter into the open 4-man category (as opposed to single-speed category). There were no 4-man single-speed teams. Shannon raced on her geared bike so that we could enter the open category. Jeff, Jose and I road our single-speeds. Props to Jeff and Jose for toughing the techy stuff on rigids. And Jeff, I don't know how you managed three laps with 32-16 gearing. The hills on this course were steaper than anything we usually ride. There are 2 or 3 hike-a-bike sections. By the end of the race I was dragging my bike up those sections by a handle bar (I was that tired). ha ha. Oh, and the laps were about 10.5 miles each, although the first lap was maybe half a mile longer or something. We had a great time. Great company. I'm so glad everyone came out! Good times.
Wish I'd headed over to spectate now, sounds like alot of fun. I looked through the course on the Geoladders walk-through and it looked like a great course. Lots of singletrack. I'm come along to the next one :beer:
This was a super fun race.Thanks for the invite Sarah.The course was super fun.I'll admit this course was a little harder than I expected. Beautiful view of Vail Lake on the first mile stretch.After the 1st mile of fairly flat downhill fireroad.The climb begins.The climbing was pretty relentless for the next 2 or so miles.It was like climbing a never ending wall.I felt like I was gonna break my chain. Once you crested the climb, you were rewarded with a few miles of sweet downhill and amazing singletrack that flowed very well and allowed you to pick up some amazing speed.Really techy and fun(rocks,stutter bumps,super techy downhills,berms that were really fun hitting at speed).You would pick up so much speed in certain sections that you were able to powerslide through the turns and still come out with plenty of momentum left. The remainder of the course consisted of brief stints of gradual climbing, a couple hike a bike's mixed in with some downhill.Overall a great course and would recommend it to anyone that has never tried this event. Jose my tardy buddy.Its nice knowin I wasn't the only one that was late. Apparently Jose was out late Friday night at the bar.He's testing out a new training regime in hopes of enhancing his performance on the bike.Good job toughing it out and knocking in those laps. Thanks Shannon for setting us up and prepping everything.You rode awesome!!Sorry about the late arrival.I had a brief brain fart from lack of sleep.How's the leg? Also great job Sarah!!Way to tough it out.Great way to break you into night riding ehh!!I'd say you were probably one of the fastest women out there,behind your hero of course.Thanks again for letting be part of team!!
Good times... Wow, wish I would have known you all were there. We did a 3 man open team. First lap was great at 1:02. Not knowing what to expect, I took the Dam climb in an easy middle ring gear. The singletrack afterwards was a blast! Hit a top speed of 26 mph on the singletrack descent. Almost lost it going into the left hand turn! The Cheesegrater was also an unexpected surprise on the hardtail. Went right down the middle and lost a few fillings along the way. [-o-] While I was waiting for my teammate to come in for my second lap, I suddenly had the overpowering need to pee. Sure enough, that's when he crested the top of the last hill. I figured the urge would dissipate as soon as I hit the Dam climb. No dice. I stopped after only the first few hundred yards. Being the gentleman that I am, I stopped mid-stream when a female rider (Monique Sawiki) came around the bend. I figured I was good to go. Halfway up the Dam climb I had to stop again! That was crazy. I stopped more times than a week's worth of rides. Pulled a 1:09 with potty breaks. Not too bad. Felt the legs a little at the last hike-a-bike. I knew I'd have a tough 3rd lap. That wasn't the half of it. Hit the damn climb while still in the big ring. Popped it down into the middle ring and chainsuck...bad. I couldn't get the chain out so I had to loosen the crankarm to pull the chain free. And here all I had was a Crank Bros mini multi tool. I struggled forever to loosen that damn bolt. I finally broke it loose, released the chain and started to tighten everything back up. The self-extracting bolt had unthreaded and should be tightened with a spanner wrench. Um, yeah. I carry one of those in my pack with the torque wrench. After several minutes of finger tightening and monkeying around with the multi tool, I was back on my way. 1:28 lap. Ugh! I pretty much pulled us out of contention with that one. We finished with only 9 laps. We still had a great time and I was one of the lucky winners of a cash ticket out on the course! Woohoo! My teammate also won a water purifier. We'll be back in June.
"Only 9 laps." I wish I did that many laps! I only managed 5 laps. I called it a day early on as I had absolutely no legs. Here's my excuse. :wave:
It sounds like everyone had a great race... well except for MP3, but it sounds like he is taking it in stride and will be doing great again in no time. Congrat's to Monique Sawicki! First solo finisher (male and female!) What a woman!! I was lucky enough to have dinner with Monique (and her husband Ron) and Deejay Burtch. Deejay finished 3rd overall and was on a two man team. What quality athletes they are. Great personalities, healthy appetites and amazing fitness. We will be competing at the 24 hour of the Old Pueblo in a month or so. What am I getting myself into???? Great job everyone!!!
I'm not sure if I made myself clear. Our team did 9 laps. I only did 3. My hat's off to you for doing 5!
