2nd duo at the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo
This year’s preparation for the 24 Hours of Old Pueblo was unlike the past two where I was training obnoxious hours on a trainer in my “bat room” with 3 televisions, a set of rollers and enough food and water to get me through the long workouts – this year, I was actually able to train outside as the temperature and weather were most of the time unseasonably warm for Ohio.
I would once again be teamed up with fellow Pivot Cycles sponsored Brian Bennett and we would be trying for a three-peat in the men’s duo class.
Weather going into the race was looking good. A bit of rain early in the week was keeping the dust down and the temperature cool. High of around 68’ish and lows of around 45’ish was the temperature range for race day.
Gun went off, Brian was on the run as the dust kills my asthma. He does a great run, has a good fast lap and rolls in about the top 15-20 riders.
I roll out on my first lap, finally. Pre-race nerves were eating me up and I was worried that my lack of sleep would hinder my race. With very little race traffic ahead of me, I make good time and roll in a 59:36 lap.
Next laps went about the same, then on the third lap I started hitting some pretty heavy traffic. Sprint to the cacti, brake for a slower rider, turn, sprint again. Then repeat. I did have a few moments of flashback to 24 hour races gone by when Cameron Chambers caught up to me and we road for a bit, but otherwise it was full on hard cross country efforts on every lap.
Out of curiosity, I check out where we were position wise – we were sitting in about 5th spot at the time. I didn’t get overly concerned, but I knew we had to keep our consistency up to make up time and keep the pressure on.
Fourth lap I headed out with lights but didn’t need to run them as I got in just before they were needed. I turn in a fast 1:06 to beat the nightfall.
Fifth lap, disaster strikes me in a really bad way. On the “Bitches” section of jeep trail, on one of the fast speed bumps I lose my orientation of where I am at on the trail as I am watching another racer and not where I am going. I hit a small riser in the trail going about 25mph and I totally launch, almost land my endo and then go flying off onto the trail on my side at full freaking force. It tears the light strap off my helmet (but doesn’t break the light), sucks the wind out of me and generally knocks me silly. It hurt like hell and I almost quit right there. Riders asked me my name and if I was OK. After a few minutes, I pick myself up and ride out the lap in pain and on my spare light.
While Brian is out on his lap, I mend my wounds, change into some warmer clothing and take some ibuprofen. My right side hurts really bad, but I decide to go out for one more lap – if the pain doesn’t subside, I would call it a day.
Lap 6, needless to say, the pain goes somewhat away and I roll on. The nausea of having crashed my brains out has gone away, my appetite is back and I able to ride without too much pain.
During the night, we are nearing the first place team and come within 7 minutes of them after they pull some double laps. Consistency has put us in 2nd place with a chance of catching first and has somewhat separated us from the others.
The night burns off, the day light comes and off come the lights. Lap times get faster once again, but so does the lap times of the leading team. We would wind up 2nd on the day out of 93 total duo teams.
Overall great event, can’t wait to train through the 2012 winter and be back for the 2013 race.