24 Hours of Moab Summary
First of all let me just say that this was the hardest race I've ever done. The driving alone was epic, with almost 3,000 miles covered in a few days time. Thanks to Jen for keeping me awake and to Zoe for being the best travel dog ever.

With the Subaru locked and loaded, we left the Twin Cities on Thursday morning for the slog to Denver. We left Denver Friday morning and arrived in Moab with enough time to set up camp and do a team pre-ride on the course. Having been sick and off the bike for 7 days, the pre-ride nearly did me in. The course is a sampler platter of everything Moab has to offer: slickrock, ledges, sand, jeep roads and brutal sun (even in October).

Saturday morning arrived and after the race meeting we made our way to the start. Richard had the "honor" of going first since he was team captain, which meant he did the Le Mans start. I was last in the rotation, so I had a few hours to wait before my lap. I really wanted to get that first one out of the way so I could get a gauge on how I was doing. After fueling up and chugging much Accelerade and water, it was my turn to ride. I got stuck behind a few riders on the sandy singletrack, but dropped most of them on the first technical climb. I was feeling much stronger than on the pre-ride and cleaned about 90% of the course, walking "Nose Dive" and the super steep sandy climb as I would do for the entire race. I never saw anyone ride Nose Dive, but saw one guy almost punch his ticket on the EMS helicopter trying to show off before he thought better of it at the very last second. I finished my first lap with a respectable 1:20 something time.

Lap 2 was my first night lap. As soon as I hit the singletrack I knew that my light was way too weak for this course. I was running a helmet mount only, and all I could see was dust between my eyes and the handlebars. I was pretty much riding blind, and the weight of my light kept shifting my helmet around, causing endless aggravation. My lack of vision cost me in the technical sections as I couldn't get into a rhythm and and to repeatedly dismount and carry my bike around sections I could easily ride in the day. When I finally hit the jeep road I opened it up. I still couldn't see anything and occasionally I'd nail some rocks at about 35 miles an hour, but the bike sucked it up fine. I was just about at the end of the last climb when my battery went dead. I struggled up the last 3/4 mile rock and sand section, unable to find a line in the dark. A woman I had just passed a couple of minutes earlier now passed me as we approached the descent. I grabbed her wheel and poached her light the last few miles in. She was awesome, absolutely drilling it the whole way. Mindi from Team Sleeping Beauties I owe you a beer, you're an absolute rock star. This bit of good fortune turned a potentially disastrous lap into a minor miracle time of 1:48.

Lap 3 was another night lap. Needless to say I had zero confidence in my lights at this point. I borrowed a handlebar light from Daren who had finished his night riding duties. It wasn't fully charged but I was hoping it would get me through the technical stuff before I'd have to switch to my headlamp. It almost made it. I was at the bottom of a rocky descent went it went very, very black. It was Zen riding at its best as I let gravity and momentum take over and when I rolled to a stop in the sand I quickly switched on my headlamp. I was starting to bonk so I sucked down some Gu and some Accelerade. Riding with my headlamp was pretty sketchy again, since all I could see was dust. My lighting cost me at least 40 minutes during the night. Very disappointing. Next year it's all about the H.I.D.

I tried to get some sleep before my next lap but with sunrise and the return of the race announcers on the PA, that wasn't happening. I waited at the exchange tent for Grayson to roll in. We were camping with another team from Utah, friends and relatives of Richard on our team. Going into the final lap we were about dead even. When Grayson came in and I went out for my final lap, I thought I was out in front of Max from the other team. I rode hard, but within myself, thinking that as long as I kept moving and he didn't pass me we were good. Well, I had a good lap considering I got zero sleep and the sun was now starting to cook. I was killing all the technical sections and feeling stronger as the miles went on. At the top of the last climb (scene of my Lap 2 blackout) I was about to pass a rider and give him my usual "Nice job dude, keep going" spiel, only to turn and hear, "Oh no, it's you!" It was Max. It turns out he had about a 5 minute head start on me but I had reeled him in. Then he says, "You realize that you have to beat me by ANOTHER 5 minutes since Richard lost the baton, right?". I forgot that on his last lap Richard somehow lost the little wooden baton that we exchange at the start/finish line, so we were penalized 5 minutes. At that point I didn't care. I threw it in the big ring and gunned it, Hollywood crit style all the way to the finish. I put 28 seconds on Max between there and the finish, and made up 5-1/2 minutes on him on that last lap. At least I finished on a good note. We didn't beat Synagogue of the Holy Mountain Bike in the standings, but we all know who won.

Overall, I was very disappointed with my night laps. I almost hurled my battery and light off Dead Horse Point, but thought better of it (mostly for environmental reasons). With a better setup I could have saved our team a good chunk of time and I'm sure we would have been Top 30 or better. Ended up 34th out of 105. Not bad for a bunch of flatlanders (and one mountain goat from Colorado). Sounds like it's on again for next year. Big Ups to Richard, Daren and Grayson for one hell of a good time. Next year, Top 25 for sure. And Di, there is no way that 24 Hours of Afton is harder than 24 Hours of Moab.

Photo courtesy of Richard Bennett