The Moab

The Moab 24-Hour.

October has been a good training month for me, despite my schedule recently. I had two solid weeks in the saddle pre-Moab including some decent adaptation work in the gym. I took the day off work on Friday the 12th to drive to Utah. Snowman Dan Le met me at the ranch house in the morning, and we transferred his gear to my truck and we headed west. We were a bit behind schedule so we got there to late to do a pre-ride lap, but in the end that was fine. We camped with a large extended family of racers on three different relay teams...many I already knew, and others I only just met there. Plesko was camped with his support crew (dad Plesko and wife Plesko) down in the Solo campground, but we were up the hill a third of a mile to segregate ourselves a bit from the general mayhem of the race scene. The Moab is a beautiful place really. One of those places where I think, why bother with travel overseas when God has blessed us with such beauty here at home. Growing up in SoCal, I am familar with the desert and love it there. The Moab is a different kind of desert than the Cali-style, but as a geologist and a lover of any place sans roof, I dig the crap out of the Moab. More visits are in order.

We camped out, talked race, drank some beers, and hit the rack about 10 PM. Saturday AM I woke early as usual, took some food, checked my bike and got ready for the race. There were about 400 teams and Solos, so maybe 1300 racers total, and at least 2000 with all the rest of the folks. Maybe 3000. It was quite a situation really. The race started with the same general insanity as so many other big races I have been in over the years - loud noise, rock n roll, dirt, my kind of place. Sort of like a dirty smoky biker bar without the smoke -in my fantasy world, the perfect place!

I am almost never nervous before a race. Ive been at so many start lines that Ive long ago learned the routine, so to me, it is always just another roll. I dig races. I dig racing. I dig the whole scene surrounding bike racing. Dan took the first lap for our team. He had some trouble and I was way jacked to go for the second team lap when he came in to the relay station. Not having pre-rode the route, I was totally surprised at the insane tech sections. I cant even describe it - just sick. Much harder than any of the front range routes I had done with the Wednesday gang, and mile-per-mile much harder then KOTR. Winter Park is a basic technique girl scout camp compared to the Moab. Soft sand, lots of portages, stupid rock sections, serious drop sections, etc. I took two diggers on that first lap, one nearly killed me (God bless you Mr. Bike Helmet Inventor, whoever you are), but what can you do but mount up and hit it again. The second endo I all but ripped my arm off at the elbow somehow, but as it was still attached and functional, I was able to continue operating the rear brake and shifter. I felt good the first lap, but was slower than I had planned, due to the crashes and uncertainty of the route. No biggie since it was just a fun race. Cory smoked his first lap about 7 minutes fastr than mine, and then Nic absolutely nailed it on her first lap. She is pretty fast and has a huge racing future if she pursues one. All of us had slower second laps at night. I had a flat and some light failures that slowed me way way down, but it was a fun lap and I felt generally good. As one point about 2 AM I rolled up on Plesko who was sitting on a rock pouring sand out of his shoe and he said to me "I am pouring sand out of my shoe" in a sort of half-baked stupor. I guess riding 14 hours by that point in time had toasted him a little bit..but that dude is hard to the bone. Absolutely hard. I went back to camp and passed out until 6 AM, then went down for my third lap. I was stoked to go, but could not make the bike move at all. Oh wait..... I know why, no food! Idiot!! I had bonked before I even woke up like a moron! I flatted again on a rocky section. After some food, I got it going about 2/3 into the lap and nailed the last 5 miles, but my lap time was pathetic. No more crashes though, so thats was good.

We finished with 12 laps, pretty much in the last half of the 50 teams in the coed fun category, which was fine with us really. Nobody went to hard, and everybody was safe. I learned some valuable lessons about 24-hour relays, and I think next year we can get 14 to 15 laps easy if we all buck up a bit more.

Plesko inked a top-10 in Mens Solo with a full 16 laps, which was a huge thing for him. He could have left before noon for one more lap, but decided against it as it would not have gotten him to the podium.

Dan and I hit a Mexican joint in Moab, gassed up and then headed home and we got the Denver about 8 PM Sunday night, after a sort of Banzai run through the first Colorado snow storm of the year. Vail pass was choked and it snowed and rained all the way down the hill.

It was a good weekend, and I learned much. I intend to race again next year for sure, and am confident I can get my lap times down a signifcant amount.

I think thats it for MTB racing until next year, and so now I will simply focus on the long grind back to real bike racing shape for '08.

Thanks for reading.