1st place, Singlespeed solo, 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo 2011

Just finished 1st place last weekend in the Singlespeed solo category at the Kona 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo.  245 miles, 20,000ft elevation gain, 24 hours strait.  I finished 4th overall out of all the solos including those with gears and was in 3rd most of the race finishing seconds behind the 3rd place geared male at the finish.  There were around 1900 racers there.  The racer who finished behind me is the rider who won in 2010.


Big thanks to Kiviok Hight at Cortez Chiropractic.  He always has the best advise and treatments to prepare and train for my ultra endurance races.  And of course my wife Dani and her team who set me up in the pits.

Stats:
http://64.119.44.58/liveresults/results/Solo%20-%20Single%20Speed%20Male.html
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/69642697?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4d641d3317e3e142%2C0
http://www.epicrides.com/twofour/24.htm

Brutal weather! Windy, up to 50mph gusts then just after sunset a three hour rain dump with the wind and temps in the 30s during the night.  Road then entire time without sitting anything out like some of the competition.  Pays to tough it out.  After having most of my cold weather gear soaked I had no choice but to try and cover up the best I could and deal with the cold.  I road one tooth harder gearing which because of the wind turned out to really tax the muscles.  After crossing the finish line I went straight over to the vendor area and got a steak sandwich and a Latte!

I used a variety of Hammer Nutrition products including HEED, Perpetuem Solids, Gels and bars.  The Schwalbe tires did great and the new Trek Superfly SS was awesome!  No problems the entire 24 hours.  They performed excellent in the saturated sand, mud, and hard pack.

Press:
http://www.crankzone.com/2011-old-pueblo-results/
http://outbiking.com/
http://www.mountainflyermagazine.com/view.php/24-hours-in-the-old-peublo.html
http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/24-hours-of-old-pueblo-ne-1/results
http://www.mtbracenews.com/view_article.jsp?id=246
http://mountainbike.about.com/b/2011/02/21/2011-24-hours-of-old-pueblo-results.htm

Also, unrelated to the race, here is an article that showed up in Mountain Bike Magazine / Bicycling where I got some plugs for building a local trail which is touted as one of the best in the southwest.  http://www.bicycling.com/mountain-biking/crazy-good?page=0,1

Before the race start

The rock drop!

Early Morning, guess I road the trail so many times by then I didn't even have to look where I was going.  Underneath that gear I was still soaked from the storm!

The calm before the storm.  Weather was great the night before the race start.

Nice rear plates provided by Epic Rides.  They didn't last through the storm.  If you saw someone with one after the storm you knew they sat it out.

Coming into the pit

Wife Dani helping me out at the pit, She was racing on a team

Leaving the pit

Myself , Mike to my right (Last years winner) and Jeff Hemperley from Rico to my left who hammered it to get 4th.  Great race!

 

Happy to get this one.  Tough Race!

1st Place Singlespeed open, Hedgehog Husstle

Just finished 1st place in the Hedgehog Hustle SS Open (Pro/Cat1 category). This is the second race in the state points series so I'm still in first overall in AZ.

I was surprised that I was able to win by over 5 minutes and also pass a significant number of CAT 1 geared racers which started 2-6 minutes in front of us.  Geared pros started 10 minutes on front of us this time, I'm not sure if I passed any of them.  The race was at the end of a brutal week of training in preparation for the Kona 24hrs on the old Pueblo which included two 6 hour 4AM start time rides, intervals, a couple 3-4 hour rides, a race effort ride and the race itself.  The trail was very technical and rocky.  The Schwalbe Nobby Nic really performed well again on the front and the new Trek Superfly SS was great.

1st place Singlespeed open, McDowell Meltdown 2011

Just finished 1^st last weekend in the McDowell Meltdown in the highest level Single Speed category.  http://www.mbaa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=20&Itemid=35  This is the first race in the Arizona State Championship series so I’m currently ranked the fastest XC single speeder in the Arizona series.  The Pro geared racers started first, followed by the faster Cat 1 racer categories 2 minutes later, then my category which is the fastest Single Speed class 2 minutes later, followed by the rest of the Cat 1, and Cat 2 geared and single speeders.  I ended up passing a majority of the Cat 1 geared racers and some geared Pros!   I included some images with the new bike and the decals you sent.  Good thing it wasn’t a height contest (see pic).

Last year I finished 3^rd in this same race and this year I won it by over 5 minutes on the new bike.  The Schwalbe Nobby Nic performed great on the front as did the Racing Ralph on the back!  First race on the new Trek Superfly SS, Sweeeeeet bike.  The race was on the well-known Competitive tracts at McDowell which is a high speed but technically challenging course with fast rocky sections and loose gravelly corners. 

  

Racing through the pits

Good thing it wasn't a height contest!

Ava's race training

This is my daughter Ave training for her first 24 hours race.

1st place Singlespeed at the Mcdowell 60

Just finished 1st place on a Singlespeed in the McDowell 60 which is part of the Arizona endurance series http://rockyroad5050.wordpress.com/aes-results/.  53 miles and 8000 ft of elevation gain.

I led most of the race then one block from the finish I took a wrong turn and road 3 miles in the wrong direction on a road.  I thought that a racer had passed me for first while I blew a huge lead.  I noticed that they still put me in first place so I let them know that I thought someone had passed me at the finish.

The jagged pancake sized rocks on the steep mountain climbs and descents are tough on the tires but they held up great!

Excellent race!  I was glad to win it even though I'm in my off season and just riding for fun.

1st Place Singlespeed Marathon, Dust Devil Race

Just ended up 1^st in the single speed USAC marathon category at the Dust Devil race in Phoenix AZ http://www.dcbadventures.com/ .  The 1^st place finish isn’t huge since I was the only one in my class so I raced against myself and somehow all the other single speeders ended up in the geared class.  However, overall I ended up beating all the geared Cat 1 marathon racers except one which got my by about 4 minutes so I was happy about that.  The race was 40 miles long and my finish time was right at 3 hours. 

Since it was cold and snowy in Colorado I had headed down to Phoenix to do some riding over Thanksgiving.  I was out doing a 30 mile ride and I noticed there was a race there the next day.  So in the morning I waited till it got light out and road 8 miles over to the race venue since my wife needed our only vehicle for the day.  After the race and awards I rode the 8 miles back with my swag.

Also,  I decided to apply for the USAC pro license upgrade for  Endurance/XC mountain biking after the Moab finish and just got notification that they approved it.  I don’t see how this actually changes anything I’ve been doing since I have already been racing in the highest level categories at the races but it seemed like a cool thing to have.

Mountain Bike / Bicycling Magazine article on Phil's World

Check out this article in Mountain Bike /  Bicycling Magazine.  Nice Phil's World coverage and I got a mention for helping layout and built it.  Great for the area!
http://www.bicycling.com/mountain-biking/crazy-good