12 Hours of Sundance

Now I know the answer. Duo is harder than solo. I teamed up with Mad Dog XC hotshot Tim Hodnet on Saturday for 14 exciting laps at beautiful Sundance Ski Resort in perfect weather. We finished 7th in the male duo category and called it quits early cuz we were just plain pooped. We left the race with enough time on the clock to put in 2 more laps, but neither one of us were that committed or excited to keep it going. And, by this time Chris and KC Holley were 3+ laps ahead of us! The powerful Holley's put in an unbelievable 19 laps on rigid single speeds and took top honors all around.

I raced my single spped for the 2nd weekend in a row, and it was tough. Each lap was 7 miles with 950 +\- feet of climbing on buff single track. The course was in excellent shape and well marked which made it fast, if you had the legs. John cut a new trail in the grass and rocks that proved to be quite a challenge early in the day. Seems like everybody was talking about the "grass" - that's so hard and slow! By the end of the race the trail was well defined and much more compacted and ready for the public.

My race went well with lap times between 43 and 48 minutes. It took a while getting into a rhythm since my rest time between laps was only about 40 minutes. I was being nice to Tim and rode slower so he could fully recover ;-) It's all about the team to me. About 10 minutes into lap 1 I got stung on the back of my thigh by a bee and that aggravation lasted all day. The bees bit a lot of people and made for fun chatter between laps. I rode real well on the 1st 3 laps with less than 1 minute difference in riding time between them. Lap 4 was a different story. The cramps I got last week came back, and stronger! I had all I could do to hold them off while I finished the last 5 minutes of climbing. Same thing on lap 5. I popped a bunch of e-lytes and ate some chips, a PB&J sandwich and all was well after that. Only now the engine was running out of gas. As is normal in long events like this, my perceived effort rose and my heart rate sank. I'd call the control room for more power, but there was no more to give. Damnit Scotty! Tim finished his 7th lap and convinced me we were done. It didn't take much effort on his part - I was an easy sale at this point. I went out on my 7th lap and rode with Karl Vizmig who was riding solo. I rode the entire lap with him and it was the most enjoyable lap of the day. Karl was riding strong and his spirits were high. I finished my lap and he went out for 2 more! I think he finshed in the top 5 for the solo category - way to go Karl.

This was a way fun event with many of my favorite biking buddies and buddettes in attendance. I like the team idea because it's fun visiting between laps. I don't like it because starting and stopping is hard. I'm not sure I'd do a dou again, although if I were on a gear bike it may be more enjoyable. Solo? I love solo because it is slower and easy to keep in the grove all day, but I would miss the visiting and exciting atmosphere in the pits. So which is it, team or solo? Well, both.

Next up is the 24 Hours of Moab, my favorite race. This will be my 6th time on the fabeled course and our Grand Masters team is up to the challenge. Hopefully well have some competition this year. Old dudes - where are you?