Note
24 Hrs of Summer Solstice - Albion Hills
7th year for the Tree Huggers. Great team this year - about half of them new members. I like to mix it up for the Solstice weekend, pulling together different people who enjoy camping and biking, and focusing on having fun at an amazing, phenomenally well-organized event. Team members have their own individual racing goals, and there are some internal competitions between friends, but overall, we don't take this event overly seriously as a race. I always figure that if we did, as the captain, it would be my duty to cut myself from the team and look for a better rider - so I'm happy to keep it casual!
That said, we were in 5th place of 127 teams after our first 4 riders (VO2Max, Logan, 'Bent, Angus), and finished 18th after 24 hours with 24 laps. For a fun team, we've got to be happy with that! (Heck, we were 26th for the past two years, and we were happy with that too.)
The roster this year was Knobless (only other 7-time team member besides 'Bent and me), VO2Max and his friend Logan, Smash and LD, Sid, Crooksie, 'Bent and me. Great rides by everyone, with Logan taking the Fastest Lap Award at 45:23, and VO2Max putting in four impressive laps in the 48-50 minute range after a year of national and international cross-country ski competition. Smash came close to his former students with a smokin' 53 minute lap. 'Bent pulled in a 57 minute lap, even as 2000 people watched his recumbent bike go by and said, "No way - that thing can't do single track!"
It was great to see so many friends throughout the weekend, including Rocky, Tiny, several Caledon Navigators, and the folks from the Caledon Cycling Club camped next door. There were a number of appearances by Crash whizzing by on the race track that passed our camp, wearing a different attractive biking outfit every time. Our camp cuisine was taken to a new level with a generous supply of Crash brownies, LD cookies and Pate's Mom's cookies. Yum!!
Lots of fun as always!
Mountain Biking race (Trails) 1:00:36 [5] 17.4 km (17.2 kph)
For the first time, our 9-member team made it through a full rotation before total darkness fell. Since I always take the last spot in the line-up, I think my first lap has always been dark. So this year it was quite exciting to be able to see for most of my ride, then I just needed lights in the forest sections for the last few km. (Good thing, because my light wasn't aimed well.)
I had done a much better warm-up than usual, but badly misjudged the timing and ended up waiting at the transition area for 30 minutes for a teammate who had crashed. I started my lap with legs that felt like concrete. It didn't take too long to get into the groove though, and the cooler evening weather was sweet. All the riders I encountered this year were super-polite, whether they were passing me or vice versa. Some years I've encountered aggressive riders who have made the racing experience less fun. I think it helped that this year's course had more double track sections where people could pass each other safely and without interfering with one another.
My semi-slick tires worked well. I skidded a little more in some places, but they were nice and speedy on the long open stretches. I felt good about my riding, and made it past a few technical obstacles that I usually wimp out of on our training rides, since I didn't want to hold anyone up. I was hoping to break an hour on this year's faster course, but I missed by 36 seconds - oh well!