24 hours of Old Pueblo

Finally back from Tucson Arizona after the 24 hours of Old Pueblo.  It was a long, fun, exciting, tiring, warm, cold, fast, exhausting, hilarious and exhilarating weekend.  It was great to finally be at a race with my Epic Pro and Epic Endurance teammates to kick off the new season.

We fielded 2 teams, a 4 person open and a 5 person mixed.  With some awesome support by The Gear Movement, Cannondale, NoTubes, Schwalbe, Lazer, Mix 1, Honey Stinger & CarboRocket we were by far the best set up team around.  Huge Thanks to our Support crew: Jim Fu, Nancy Feagans, James Keller for keeping us running and dialed all night long.

Camp Setup

We flew into town Thursday evening and arrived at the course Friday morning.  A few had come down earlier to set up and all we had to do was pre-ride the course and rip some laps and get things dialed in.  Was my first experience riding in the desert.  Things are not friendly in the desert by any means.  Everything has thorns, spikes, prickers.  It will eat you alive if you go off trail.

Don’t let them fool you, they aren’t friendly when a number plate is on the front of those bars

The affectionately titled “Bitches” Section

Sunshine and cactus, both are dangerous in February

Dangerous Deidre? Nah, she was just happy to rip trail and pull cholla out of my armpit

Race day came along and our 5 person team was dialed.  Brian Sells went out and burned a super fast first lap and I went out in second.  I was fortunate enough to borrow his 18lb 26″ Scalpel for the race.  So speed was on my side.  Though getting used to such small tires at high speeds took some adjusting to for sure.  I burned a first lap just over an hour 1:00:47 (few seconds faster than Brian) and our team was off.  Deidre pulled a super fast lap, then Bill & Kelly.  By the time things wheeled around for my turn it was time for a night lap.

Traffic on the course was horrendous, but managed to rip out a solid dusk lap and we were fighting for 2nd the entirety of the race.  Midnight lap came around and fatigue was setting in for everyone.  Though the course got slightly damp and was more fun to ride.  I had some lighting issues due to improper assembly and had to stop a few times to fix, but otherwise we were still ripping things open.

Felt pretty good, but definitely fatigued for my dawn lap and lap times were creeping upwards for us.  We were in a tough fight to hold second place.  Bill decided to forego his turn and send Brian out to not lose anymore time.  It was decided that I would ride again another lap and possibly ride 2 in a row if it came down to the wire.

Sam Ripping up his 1st lap

Cholla, it hurts

I was dialed to ride a super fast 5th lap on the course & I did.  I ripped it nearly as fast as my first lap, but lost a bit of time when I made contact with a cholla cactus.  I had to stop and find something to help me pull ti out of me.  It was embedded in my shoulder, arms, leg, etc.  I had not choice but to stop for a bit and work on puling it out.

I did manage to get back up to pace and rolling and when I realized I was turning a pretty good lap time, I pulled it back on the final climb to conserve some energy for the next lap.  After being awake all night, I knew it was useless to charge the climb and better to rythmn it and pull a good 2nd lap.  I finished at 1:05:00 and headed out for my 2nd lap.  It was tough to race an xc race at the end of 24 hours, but I was fueled up, pumped and motivated.  I did not want to get passed.  Once I realized I wasn’t going to get passed I settled in and held onto our 2nd place for the event.

Podium Party in February

The 4 person went on to spank Kona Factory on their home turf.  They lapped them, which was huge.  Congrats to them for an excellent race.

It was an awesome event.  Super pumped to get out on the dirt and ride my bike hard in February.  I still have loads of work to do for this upcoming season for sure.  But this was an awesome way to kick it off with some fun and good friends.  I’m super excited for the future and can’t wait for more.  Now, need to keep catching up on that sleep.