06.12.02 - 24 hours of big bear recap

here is a little bit of a different recap format - this time with pictures.



10am'ish - arrive at my pit tent to get ready. my entire posse is there waiting for me which included my entire family and dan the man. in the picture, i am talking with brett davis and steve schwarz about the upcoming race year, the course, etc.



11'ish - shot of pit row. we would be running down this later. race participation was up 15% this year compared to last. i think it has a lot to do with the course, venue, etc.



11:30'ish - shot of me trying to warm up. highs would hit the mid 60's and lows at night hit the high 30's. tempertures seem to hit us all pretty hard - with the exception of steve.



12:00:01 - the start of the race. i think i was hit by at least 5 flying elbows and pushed hard about a half dozen times.



12:01 - shot of the "new" race format. the start included a run, then followed by a mini-lap (on the bike) of the same area we ran.

12:01:10 - exiting the pit after the pre-lap, i hit my pedal right pedal off a rock at full speed. it didn't crash me, but it snapped the pedal off, leaving only the pedal spindle. i rode a few hundred yards to my pit and had to replace my pedal, which was not an easy feat to accomplish when my heart rate was screaming and the solo field was passing me by.

i got back on the bike, and proceeded to chase down all of the solo guys in front of me with the exception of rob. i was going hard, taking risks and ended up flatting about a mile out from the start/finish. i rode the flat in, logged my lap and rode to the pit tent to get a new bike.

my only two technicals happened on the first lap.



a few laps later, i catch rob and we ride together taking turns at the front, but i don't feel 100%. i can turn the pedals over, but i am not feeling like i have my power.

as the hours pass and with tempertures dropping, i hope my legs hold out. steve catches up to me just as rob dropped me.

i am feeling sick. my stomach is not feeling great and my legs are feeling heavy.

midnight - i pedal on, steve and rob are now riding together and i feel majorly sick. i water down my intake on my fuel and keep pedaling.

3am'ish - at this point, i am literally so tired i am falling asleep on the bike and start to fear that i am going to hurt myself if i continue riding. i don't want to stop, but i am bouncing off trees and loosing time. i've never really had fatigue hit me this bad - and i think i was paying my dues for my effort down in georgia a few weeks ago.

3:30'ish - my main light burns out, but thanks to my backup light, i have no issues getting in to my pit tent.

i wrap up in a sleeping bag and doze off for 1/2 hour. i later found out that most of the solo field had stopped too, but for a much longer time. this allowed me to get a few laps up on everybody.



noon - riding over the ramp for the last time with steve. steve finished 2nd to me last year at this event.

he has picked up some new sponsors for this year which includes titus and hammer gel.

also, the battle was tight for third and brett davis squeaked out rob lichtenwalner for third.



signing out with steve at a little past noon.



podium shot of the 2006 24 hour of big bear.



analyze time - lap times by our friends at granny gear. lap times were awesome until about the 9th lap, where you can see my lap times go increasingly up. that is when i started feeling sick.

the lap time you see around 2 1/2 hours was when i took a nap, and then i was in cruise control until the end of the race.

thanks -
to my family for helping out and dan the man for wrenching.

and thanks to all the sponsors -
asylum cycles, speedgoat.com, hammer gel/e-caps, schwalbe tires, tifosi optics, light & motion, wobblenaught, & crank brothers.

and thanks for all the shout outs -
got a ton of comments about the blog, asylum, wobblenaught. thanks for the support!