24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

-

Does riding your bike in circles for 24 hours sound like a good idea? Yeah I don't know who came up with this idea but he/she is crazy sucker! Even though this race was a little out of my league I had to take the opportunity to ride with Racer's Sabrosa Cycle team. Maybe someday their speed will rub off on me.

-

Last Thursday we started the voyage down to Tucson. I say voyage because it took us about a day and a half to get there. We had a stop in Phoenix where we stayed Thursday night, and then visited every Home Depot on the way out of Phoenix Friday morning. The Home Depot trip was with the intent of purchasing a propane heater due to the freak weather we were about to encounter. When we finally got to the race site it was snowing/raining; it's super fun setting up camp in weather like this:

Needless to say to say I wasn't super pumped about the weather. The race was going to be epic enough without snow and freezing weather. Lucky for us the bike gods were nice enough to show show some kindness and let the sun out right before the start of the race. I felt bad for the guys that had the first lap; everyone was outfitted with gear to ride in subarctic conditions. The rest of the race was clear skys and almost warm weather.

The course was perfectly fitted for a 24 hour race. and with the recent rain it was hard packed and fast. The course was 16 miles of mostly single track through super thick cactus; it sounds ridiculous but I've never seen that much cactus. I witnessed a couple of unfortunate suckers that took corners too fast on the night laps and ended up in a cactus bed; not fun!

I'll tell you what really made the race, our support crew was amazing! Shea and "The Tammer" were top notch. These guys did just about everything for us; big thanks again to the support crew.

We ended up doing pretty well, 13th place out of about 140 teams in the 4 man open class. I've promised to bring faster lap times next year if they'll have me back so I've got to get myself in shape. Below is how the hardcore racer takes his shower, I on the other hand treated myself to the shower trailer.

Right after the finish we packed up and head back. I knew it was going to be a long drive back so I celebrated with a 2 lb bag of peanut M & Ms, raspberry filled powder doughnuts, and a 4 pack of Full Throttle. I don't think the human body is meant to have that much caffeine and sugar in one sitting. I have to apologize if I was a bit out of control on the ride back; it was the Full Throttle talking. Below is the best way to describe the way you feel after riding a 24 hour race and then getting the car for 8 hours:

Thanks again to everyone that helped make the weekend happen; I'm already looking forward to next year!