24 Hours of Albion Hills

Raced as a tag team at this past weekends 24 Hours of Albion Hills. It was a fairly large race with about 1400 riders in all catagories. Our goal was to do 20 laps which seemed quite achievable at the start of the race. My partner started out first and turned in a pretty fast 1 hour lap. I went out and suffered a little bit on my first lap. I always do as my body gets used to the riding (read: no warmup) but turned in a respectable 1:03. My partner did one more lap and then I went out for a double lap so he could watch his son in the kids race. The 2nd lap of the double was a bit crummy but I was looking forward to my 2 hour break to eat and rest for awhile. When my partner got back from his double he didn't look too good. He said he wasn't feeling good and was going to stop. I went out and did my next lap (1st night lap) and when I returned he wasn't at our transition area. I rode back to our pit to find him in his street clothes. He was done. I lost motivation after that and took a long break. I was on my own for the rest of the race so decided to wait until morning to go out again. I put in a few more laps and felt pretty good, finishing with a fairly strong last lap. Needless to say we didn't do well but I still had fun and felt good for most of the race. The course was very tough with a lot of climbing involved. The other big problem was it was very sandy due to no rain for a long time. It created really bad ruts on the tight switchback downhills which became difficult to manage at night as it was hard to see them well.

Next race is Pauls 100km in September. I hope to break 8 hours (would be record for me) so I better start working on my climbing again because there is a lot of it on this course.

Steve

24 hours of Albion Hills coming up

The next 24 hour is coming at Albion Hills on Aug 19/20. Doing this race as a tag team just to mix things up a little bit. Pre-rode the course today doing 2 laps to see what things were like. Pretty good, much different than the June course. Tons of climbing. Should be fun.

Haven't done much riding the past week due to a family camping trip but did a fair bit the weeks prior. My climbing on the road has gotten much better but for some reason it doesn't translate that well onto the trails. Not sure why....probably the style of climbing on the road which is long steady and smooth or short steeps with recovery at the end. MTBing just doesn't afford a lot of recovery like road riding. I guess I should start working on my climbing using the MTB on the trails. Maybe that will help.

Race recap coming after next weekend.

24 Hours of Summer Solstice wrap up

Another 24 hour race is in the books and while the course was primed and fast, my body unfortunately was not. We got up to Albion Hills around 9am to finish getting set up the remainder of our pit. We were fairly low key and I was fairly relaxed. The whole family but myself had a cold and I had been desperately fighting it so I would be healthy for the race. I had a sore throat for a couple of days but that was it and I felt okay on Saturday. The race start was uneventful except for the fools who think they have the right to pass you when it is a steady line of people in the singletrack. That is the way the 1st lap goes so people need to just settle down a little. I finished the first lap in the middle of the pack but I definitely didn't have the top end speed I would have liked. As the race progressed one thing I noticed was how improved my singletrack riding was. I was consistently catching and passing people in that area, only to be re-passed on the double track and climbs. I attribute much of this to the 29er and the increased confidence it has given me this year. I am taking corners much faster than I ever used to. Here are a few pics of the event:


Getting ready for the start of the race with my excellent support crew.

Coming into the pits

Heading out for another lap.

By the evening I had a full blown cold and no motivation to head out riding. I decided to get a good night sleep and ride again in the morning which I did. I ended up in 23rd place which isn't great (out of 31). I need to get better and then work on improving my speed on the double track sections where I was losing a lot of time.

I've been thinking about doing a 24 hour race in Vermont in July. More for a family getaway (the kids love going to these races!) than anything. I'll probably wait until the week before to make a decision on that.

Steve

Back from Palm Beach.....bloody hot, but a good time. The highlight had to be the deep sea fishing we did last Monday. We caught some Bonita's and used some of them for bait to catch Marlin or Sharks but didn't have any luck. That's me on the right.

Didn't get any riding in while I was away....finally got a couple of good rides in over the weekend. The upcoming 24 hour should be really interesting. I am going to ride my own race with the goal of no sleeping or major stops. If I can do that then everything else should fall in place. Going to pre-ride the course this weekend and take it easy next week. Full race report after that.

Steve

I feel fully recovered the 8 hour race now but won't be doing a lot of riding as I am heading to West Palm Beach on the weekend for a mini vacation. Going to do some deep sea fishing and hopefully will catch one of these:

Just a little more than 3 weeks to go until the 24 hours of Summer Solstice comes. I have mixed feelings about the race. I rode well (for me) at the 8 hour but I'm just not sure how the race will go. I had a lot of confidence at this point last but I don't feel very fast or like I have the stamina. I hope I suprise myself.

Here is a cool photo to show just how big the Summer Solstice race is.

Race Report for Epic 8 Hour

This past weekend saw the Epic 8 Hour at Mansfield Outdoor Centre go off with 750 riders and double that in spectators. The normally sandy conditions were hardened up with a good rain on Friday, making course conditions absolute pefection. Damp hard pack trails made for railing at high speeds, especially on the 29er.
For this race I would be riding unsupported as my normal crew (family) was tied up with birthday parties that day. Once I got to the venue I moved my cooler to the solo area with enough E-Load and Hammer Gel to get me through the whole race. I took enough with me on the bike so I would only need to stop once to fill the Hydrapak in the 8 hours --- this worked out perfectly. I viewed this race as more for training than anything else in preparation for the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice (largest 24 Hour in North America with 2400 riders). I had done many 5+ hour rides leading up to this but needing some endurance “racing” in my legs as well. Plus most of the local cross country pro riders were riding solo so I knew a very high placing would be difficult. 8 hours is manageable for them at their high speed, but I suspect they would have issues going a full 24 hours.

The race began with a long up hill climb with strung the field out, but that didn’t last too long. About ¼ of the way into the lap the first of two technical downhills came up. The first was rather daunting with a low speed 90 degree turn with a 3 foot drop and then steep sandy downhill to the double track. Most walked however I managed to get down the 3 foot drop and kept my speed under control with my Formula K24’s. Right after this section came a quick up hill followed by a root-strewn, off camber down hill which was the 2nd technical area. After someone went over the bars in front of me I hopped off the bike and ran down. Fortunately I was able to ride this section with no issues the remainder of the race. The rest of the lap was fairly uneventful, finishing it somewhere in the middle of the pack.

After the end of my 4th lap I came in for a quick 10 minute break to reload with enough E-Load and Hammer Gel to get me to the end of the race. Things were going a little slower at this point and although my technical riding remained solid I went through a slow 2 hour spell which affected my lap times. Near the end I started building my speed again and felt incredible for the last 2 hours. In fact my last lap I hammered most of the way and had the most fun of the entire race. I felt incredibly fresh and definitely had plenty left in the gas tank which bodes well for the upcoming 24 hour. The Asylum 29er was more fun than I could have imagined and really excelled in the prime course conditions and rooty sections.

In the end I was middle of the pack but approximately 3rd among registered racers for the 24 hour so hopefully I can hold on or improve that position in 4 weeks.

Many thanks goes out to Recover-Ease, Formula Brakes USA, Rudy Project, Kenda, and Cyclepath Oakville for your support. You make it a lot easier to do these crazy races!

Had a pretty nice ride today. About 4 hours of combined road and singletrack riding at Kelso. On the way up saw a bunch of turkey vultures snacking on some roadkill. Figured it was a possum or bunny as that is what it usually is but sadly it was a tiny, baby deer. That made me sad. Trails were in pretty good shape, damp in most places but very good traction.

Also rode on Saturday on the road bike. The wind is crazy. Got home and found out it was about 50km/h. No wonder I was only going about 22km/h on the way out. But it sure was fun doing 45km/h all the way back. Ended up making for a good ride.

This coming Saturday is the Epic 8 hour at Mansfield. I doing solo with the goal of getting some solid training in to prepare for the 24 hour coming in 5 weeks. I'll be doing the 8 hour unsupported but it should be okay as really I'll just be using my hydrapak and gels for the whole race. Should be fun.

Steve