24 Hours of Albion, Hot Summer Nights

We'll that was a race for the books! I went up to Albion Hills on Friday to set up camp but didn't get very far when the worst storm of the summer rolled through. Wind, rain and lightening made for a spectacular storm, but left worries about the condition of the course for the weekend. Well, Chico Racing (www.chicoracing.com) did a specatular job and the course was phenomenal.

The 24 Hours at Albion is the 2nd largest event (1800 riders) of its kind in North America (its sister event, 24 Hours of Summer Solstice in June is the largest with 2400 riders) and is a top notch event with tons of stuff to do when you are not racing. Bands, movies, kids race, BBQ etc along with the laid back style make the event lots of fun. As usual the race began at Noon, but no Le Mans start (hooray!). We did a short start loop and I could tell I didn't have the power in my legs I did in the June race. My friend Dave (who was the best solo rider there) left me in the dust shortly after the start and I just settled in to my own race. The course was in good shape....a little slick in the rooty sections but very tacky everywhere else which made things fun. There were a lot of short power climbs which took their toll, but also some fun swoopy single track which you can really rail. The course was about 17km long and the fast guys were doing it in about 1 hour with averages being in the 1:10 to 1:20 range.

I settled into a steady rythm for the afternoon, keeping my laps times remarkably consistent. It was around 7:30pm when I had to take a break to try and rectify my neck and back situation. My legs felt very fresh, but my lower back plus my shoulders were quite sore. I went over to the massage area and they went to work. After a few minutes I felt my back crack and new that at least my lower back would be better now! My masseur went to work on my shoulders and did a fantastic job, but there was one area that wasn't going to be solved by the massage. It was the should I injured in my crash in June and I was just going to have live with it.

After slowly changing into some fresh riding clothes I headed out for my first night lap. My Cateye Stadium 3 lights did a great job lighting up the trail but the bike was still flying around on the roots which were very slick from the dew (there was a lot of humidity that day/night). After whacking my bad shoulder on a tree during this lap I decided that I was better off packing up for the night, rather than risking more injury to my shoulder.

At dawn I was up again riding, planning another 3 laps or so before the finish. I managed to get those 3 laps in and even engaged in a battle with another solo rider on the last lap for position (although we didn't know it at the time). Unfortunately that was for a whoping 19th place. Oh well, it was still a good race and I kept consistent lap times throughout the race which was a positive sign. Perhaps if I rode through the night I would have had a high position (based on my consistent lap times) but I didn't and it is easy to say "if, if, if...." I will use this for motivation to train for next year and build on the huge base I created during this season.

I need to get some rehab for my shoulder as it is just not healing as well as I would like. I'm not sure if I will race any more this year....maybe one or two low key events just for fun such as the Enduro Cup or a 100km event. Then it is back to the road and gym to build up over the winter for next season. I need to focus on learning how to peak for events....I did a great job for the June event and a terrible one for the August event. I thought about a coach but I like to do my own thing and probably just need to stay focused on the intensity throughout the summer and not just until June.

Hopefully I will get back to updating this blog more frequently. I need to figure out my sponsor situation for next year and whether to focus on MTB again or a combination of MTB and Road. I've begun to really enjoy road riding, but this past 24 hour race reminded me of my passion for mountain biking (esp. since I have done very little of it this year).



Thanks for reading!

Steve