Just some thoughts and experiences from a mountain bike endurance racer who likes to ride and race his single speed mountain bike a long long way on remote single track in the mountains and desert.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

2nd place SS solo, USAC National Championship 24 hours of Moab 2010

Finished 2nd in the Solo Singlespeed USAC national championship category at the 24 Hours of Moab.  Also, had the 5th fastest time out of all the solo categories which included all the geared bikes.  Both myself and the 1st place finisher completed 16 laps which was a record amount of laps for the singlespeed category.  Stats: Road 26 1/2 hours without resting, 16 laps, 238.56 miles and 21,760’ of elevation gain.  Glad to have moved up from the 4th place ranking to the 2nd place USA Cycling national ranking.

This is an especially tough race on a singlespeed.  The gearing choice if challenging due to the wide variety of terrain so there really isn’t a happy medium.  You just have to suffer through a large portion of the course in the wrong gear.  The course has huge ledge drops and climbs, miles of bumpy uphill and downhill slickrock, lots of sand and extremely technical sections.  The Schwalbe Racing Ralph's 2.4s were perfect for this race.  They handled great in the sandy sections, gripped the slickrock and withstood the extreme abuse without any issues.  On a singlespeed the traction is even more important since we are standing up a majority of the time when climbing

Lots of press on the race although they had some incorrect lap quantities for myself and the 2nd place geared finisher.