24 Hours in the Old Pueblo - Arizona

So after after getting back from Arizona and having a crazy week at work I finally have a chance to document my adventure to my latest 24 hour race.



As you have read I travelled down to Arizona to race duo with my brother in the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo last weekend. I decided to leave from Buffalo since my plane ticket was $270 instead of $600. My flight was leaving at 8:30am on Wednesday morning so I figured I leave nice and early that morning to make the drive to Buffalo which is only about 75 mins from my house. Unfortunately on Tuesday we had a huge snow storm. The question was should I even try to get to Buffalo with the terrible road conditions. I ended up leaving at 3am and started down the QEW which had not been plowed at all. Conditions were horrendous....although you wouldn't know it by the 18 wheelers thundering down the highway at 100km/h. Fortunately the closer I got to Niagara the better the road conditions became. By the time I hit the border, which was completely empty, the roads were completely clear. My next problem was I became lost in Buffalo. I had directions but for some reason couldn't find my exit. After stopping for instructions I finally figured it out and arrived at the airport 3.5 hours after I left.


Things were uneventful after that getting down to Arizona. Flights were on time, my bike arrived and all was good. I did have a flat tire when I unpacked my bike but felt that was nothing too serious. Once thing concerning me a little was my brother was very sick, on the verge of pneumonia, and if he should even ride. We still had a few days before the race and he was on heavy duty meds. We spent the next couple of days getting stuff ready, shopping, picking up the rental etc. We ended up leaving on Friday morning for the race venue which was near Tuscon. Problem was the weather wasn't all that great.


The drive down was nice and as we got closer the mountains surrounding us were quite beautiful.

Unfortunately the most of the white stuff is snow. These weren't the mountains were were riding on but there were very close. The race venue is on a cattle ranch and thus the road is just dirt. Because it had been snowing/raining all night and day the road wasn't really dirt anymore....it was mud.

Cars were fish tailing and going into the ditch. It was a bit crazy. It you didn't have a 4x4 vehicle you were in big trouble as some of the mud was really deep. We got into the venue and managed to get our usual campsite.

We get the same one and it is about 100 yards from the start/finish so a good spot. Here's a pic, as well as what our car looked like after the drive in.

We ended up heading back into town for a decent dinner to get out of the cold and rain. We had some ribs, hung out a bit and then came back to camp and went to bed. By this time it had become quite cold and I had on most of my clothes. The sleeping bag I was using wasn't designed for sub freezing temperatures and that is what we were dealing with. I finally got to sleep only to wake up in the middle of the night needing a bio break. Plus it seemed like something was hitting the tent all the time. I unzipped the tent and went outside. This is what I saw.








Snow. I couldn't believe it. The ground was covered. And so was our tent. To the point it was almost going to collapse. I brushed off the tent, made a few snowballs and then went back to bed. I was freezing at this point....I've never camped in the snow before! When we woke up the in the morning the snow had begun to melt and a few hours later it was gone.





The race began at Noon with the Le Mans start and since Jim was sick I did the run. It didn't go to bad and I started out. Each lap of this course is about 27km long but it is very fast. There is a fair bit of climbing but nothing too steep....mostly gradual. Things were clogged up a bit but overall it was a fun lap. I did virtually the entire lap in the big ring, even the climbing, which was fun, and passed a lot people. I probably finished in the middle of the pack in 1:37. My brother decided he wanted to do a double lap. I wasn't sure this was a good idea but wasn't going to argue with him and off he went. He did manage to do 2 laps but they were long and he was done after that. By the time my next lap came around it was already time for lights! This coures is one course that doesn't slow you down much at night and my lap time showed that with a 1:38 lap. I was planning to pull a double lap but I was freezing at this point and went into the campsite to stand by the fire. I decided since we were only there for fun I was better off to just hang out at the fire and keep warm for the night. We still froze our butts off sleeping, but at least it didn't snow.





I woke up the next morning to a much nicer day that warmed up very quickly. I had a quick bite to eat and went for another lap. Managed to turn a 1:38 this time so my laps were staying consistent which I was happy with. I went back to the site to change into cooler clothes and eat again before doing my final lap. And what a great final lap it was. I felt good, still riding a lot in the big ring, and really having a ton of fun. Final lap time was 1:34....my fastest of the race. I was pleased with myself to say the least....I know I only did 4 laps, but thats over 100km of racing and I got better with time. Given the training I have been doing I hope this means things are looking up for this season. I think we ended up 39th out of 58 teams....not that it mattered since we were down to have fun and hang out.


We packed up and went home to Jim's place that afternoon. I was catching an 11pm flight home so needed to wash bike & clothes, pack bike etc to get ready to leave. Unfortunately I had a really sore throat and by the time my flight left I had a full blown cold. It made for a miserable flight and I had trouble sleeping and blowing my nose at the same time. I finally made it home around 11am on Monday morning. I tried to sleep that afternoon but not much luck at that either. I guess I must have really run myself into the ground between the travelling, the cold weather, and the racing. But it was fun anyways. I would highly recommend this event to anyone looking for an early season 24 hour....it is well run, well attended (1700 riders) and they have a great expo (Mavic, Ergon, Siren, Kenda, Niterider, Light & Motion, WTB, lots of food etc).



I took down my rigid Niner and it performed flawlessly. It was the first time I had it on trails so it took a little bit of time getting used to it, especially on the really rocky areas. There were times I tried to blast through like I was on full suspension and it didn't really work out. Once I adjusted people would drop me on some of the rocky decents but I would be right back on them in the singletrack. The bike just rips on single track and climbing. I was loving it. I'm going to have to figure out the right places to use this bike vs the Asylum for the season this year. One thing I am going to do is lighten the Niner up a little more and put a more comfortable seat on. One other observation is my back didn't bother me at all. I had a lot of trouble with it last season but nothing this race. I suspect it has a lot to do with all of the snow shovelling I've been doing and that has strengthened my core up enough to cover that problem. Hopefully I can keep it up.



That's it. Not sure exactly when the next race is going to be. I'd like to do the 8 hour in May and might do a few shorter ones before. I plan to get a little more regimented with training in the next week or so to really build up to Summer Solstice which is my major focus this year. I'm a little nervous about how I'm going to get the training in as I just received a big promotion at work which is going to take up a lot time. But I was planning a lot of early morning rides so hopefully I'll still be able to fit those in.

Until next time.....

Steve