|   24 Hours of Fun - By Laffeaux | francis
May 28, 2003 11:35 AM | | This weekend I rode the 24 Hours of Adrenaline at Laguna Seca (there are great pictures below). Our team had 5 guys. Four of us had never been to a 24 hour event before, and one guy had never been to a MTB race before. I'd hoped that we'd finish 20 laps, and avoid last place, beyond that all I expected was a fun time. We did better than I'd expected, completing 23 laps and finishing 22nd out of 42 teams in our class.
The night before the race was a great atmosphere. Cheers go out to Team Hummanah for having a great kick off party! These guys through a party, drank until the wee hours, and then kicked our butts on the trail the next day.
For my first lap I took my hardtail. The trails at Laguna Seca are fairly smooth, so I expected it to be faster than my FS bike. The lap went well, and I turned in a 58 minute lap.
Part of my second lap was potentially going to be in the dark, so I switched to my FS, knowing that if I was a bit sloppy in the dark I'd be able to more easily recover. It turns out that the sun stayed up until the long climb out. I almost matched my first lap with a 59 minute lap. The highlight of the second lap came on the long fire road climb out, when I was switching from the left to right side of the road to get a better line, and nearly ran Tinker off the road as he was blowing past me at twice my speed. Luckily I looked over my shoulder at the last minute and pulled back to the left to avoid the collision, and apologized. The rider said no problem, and cruised past, it was only after he passed that I saw that it was Tinker.
Lap three was in complete darkness. I took off right at 1:00 am. Descending with lights was no problem after two pre-riding the course twice the previous weekend, and two earlier laps in the light. However, the climbs started getting harder - I was forced to use my granny on Hurl Hill for the first time, and for the first time I did not clean the "wall" at the end of the course (after the wooden bridge crossing). Even with the lack of light and tired legs I finished in about 63 minutes.
After lap 3 I decided to try and sleep. I managed to get about 2 1/2 hours in before I was told it was time to ride again. Getting out of tent for the 4th lap was the hardest part of the weekend. I'd easily have let someone else take the lap for me, but unfortunately the whole team felt the same way at that point.
Lap 4 was right after sunrise. The wind that had been horrible the day before finally had stopped blowing. There had been a strong headwind the entire length of the long grind up the last hill. The first lap I'd been lucky enough to get into a pace line, but in subsequent laps I'd found no one riding at my pace.
Once I was actually on the bike I felt good. While getting dressed in the cold tent, I decided to dress warmly for what I though was my final lap. As it turns out, I over dressed and regretted it as sweat poured off of me on the final climb. The climbs were much more difficult than on previous laps, but I made it back in about 67 minutes.
At this point I thought I was done and it was time to celebrate. However, after a little more planning and review of the results sheet (we were in 16th place at the time), we determined I was going out again. I felt good, so it sounded fine to me.
Lap 5 started at 10:59 a.m., and was to be the final lap (number 23) for our team. I'd managed to eat breakfast since my last lap and felt strong; that all went away on the first climb. What had been an easy climb on the first lap was suddenly a struggle. I wore my heart rate monitor for each lap, and with each lap my heart rate was progressively getting lower. During the first lap I'd come back with 51 of 59 minutes above my 85% max level (probably too high), and by the final lap grinding as hard as I could, my heart rate would not go above the low 70% range. There was absolutely no way my muscles could put out enough energy to require anything more.
Lap 5 was tough - really tough. On the fire road out, I'd done the whole climb in my middle ring on the first two laps. On the final lap I was in my granny gear (24/34 combo), and barely keeping the cranks moving. During the steepest part of the fire road climb I looked at my bike computer and I was holding a steady 3.3 mph - any slower and the bike would have fallen over. I made it to the top without stopping (although I really wanted to), and headed across the bridge towards the "wall." I drifted down the hill that lead up to it, coast up it about 30 feet, unclipped, and started pushing. I didn't have enough energy left to even try a pedal stroke on that hill anymore.
I finished the lap in 72 minutes. It was by far the hardest lap of the race, and it made me respect all of the soloists even more than I had previously. Five 10.5 mile laps in 24 hours had turned my legs to rubber. How the soloists can ride for up to 21 laps on their own is something I can not comprehend.
In the final laps our team had dropped from our high placement of 16th place down to 22nd. At one point, we'd had visions of a top 1/3 finish, but that's before our legs gave out. We were still happy with 22nd, which far exceeded our initial expectations.
If you've not ridden a 24 hour race before, give it a go. It's a great atmosphere, and a lot of fun. Riding 50+ miles in 24 hours as hard as you can turns out to be harder than I though. At one point I thought a four man team might be a good idea, but I was really glad we had five. All those miles, coupled with sleep depravation, five successful climbs up Hurl Hill and the Long Grind, two successful climbs up the wall (and three pushes), plus a slight hang-over (courtesy of Team Hummanah) made for an excellent weekend. |
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