2009 - 18 Hours of Fruita - Race Results

Finally!!!! The first race of the year is here!! As you know the 12 Hours (Dawn Til’ Dusk) race in Gallup, NM was cancelled a few weeks ago. Chad and I were terribly disappointed. So we are now headed to the 18 Hours of Fruita race in western Colorado. We meet at the Mammoth Lot on the west side of Denver, transfer Chad’s gear from his truck to mine and drive west. We are both excited and a bit hesitant about the first race of the year. Both of us have put in countless hours of training & preparation and a bunch of cash to get ready for these races.

The thing that I think makes this race particularly challenging is that we are racing as a team. We are both driven people so we expect a lot of ourselves and we expect that as team mates that we will live up to and exceed our expectations of each other. This is a bit stressful for both of us, thinking about making the right decisions and executing flawlessly.

Last year we had some handoff issues. The timing of when the rider came to the start/finish line and the relief rider hit the course. We also had equipment issues. This race is so fast that wasted seconds even over 18 hours can translate to a lost position at the end of the race.

Chad and I have spent untold hours riding motorcycles, hunting, hiking, climbing and enjoying life. Sometimes I think that we know what the other person will do better than they themselves do. We have spent hours critiquing our personal performances over the last year and how we performed as a team. We have analyzed and broken down our results from last year, looked at them in so many different ways but now it is time to put this self critical evaluation and retooling to the test.

On arriving at High Line Lake State Park we are assigned a camp site which we quickly convert to our Pit area. There is the large 6 person dome tent, our thick inflatable air mattress, sleeping bags etc and the all important 10’ x 10’ canopy tent. As we make our final pre race preparations it is becoming apparent that a year of reflection and hard work are paying off, we are relaxed and over prepared so we are not stressed and we are ahead of schedule.

The race is to start at 00:00 Friday night. We decide who will start the race with a coin toss, Chad wins the toss so he will start the race for us. Our plan is to ride 2 laps each then hand off to the next rider. The intent is that we will get into a groove during each session and minimize handoff issues while maximizing our lap performances by not becoming too fatigued. We know that in good weather that we will turn roughly 30 minute laps so each person has an hour on and off the bike to do what ever needs done to be ready for the next session.

We are able to get a couple of hours sleep before 23:15 on Friday so we wake up and get Chad ready to go with time to spare. He is on the start line early with the rest of the racers. I can’t see him or anyone on the start line in the inky darkness but the announcer is easy to hear in the calm night air and the cheers of everyone is exciting.

The gun goes off and the racers have to run a short course, get to their bikes and start the ride. This Lemans style start is intended to spread out the field and minimize traffic issues during the ensuing mêlée’ . I can’t really explain the excitement that we feel, if you have been there then you understand, if you haven’t then I’d liken it to what you felt as a kid when you waited so long for a birthday, Christmas or some other highly anticipated fun event.

The night is warm, we are wearing leg warmers, jerseys, a light weight wind vest & arm warmers. Its cold each time we start but we quickly warm up. The course is not technical, it is relatively smooth single track & a few very short climbs. The aggravating thing over night is the dust that hangs in the air from all the bikes, it keeps us hacking and spitting to keep things clear.

We don’t have a reliable means to track our progress as it is a monumental effort just to stay on track with our pre lap preparations and focused on riding but we can both tell that we are riding very well and consistently. The key to doing well at this type of event is consistency and simplicity… do what works and repeat it exactly every time so that you don’t forget something.
Early in the morning we have our first mechanical issue. Chad’s front tire has developed a leak, fortunately I was ready to go and we only lost about 6 or 7 minutes on that lap. I’m mad at myself because I wasn’t right there when Chad came in to get out onto the course… another lesson learned.

I do my two laps and Chad meets me to get his two laps with a fresh tire and plenty of Stans Tire Sealant in it. We keep hammering, I try to meet Chad after each lap, ride with him for a few hundred yards, make sure that we are on track, address any issues and then wait for about 30 minutes until he comes around again.

Some where around noon it starts to rain, very light misting rain which really helps to knock the dust down and makes the course even more fun to ride. Just after noon I take the handoff from Chad who informs me that the 6.25 mile course has become very fast from the mist and to have fun on my laps.

He is absolutely right, the track is packed down, hard and tacky. The tires hook up well on every corner and I’m having a blast. My very next lap goes from tacky to greasy in about 10 minutes time. This mud is legendary. The soil is bentonite clay and it has the craziest properties of any mud that I’ve ever seen. My speed decreases because it is nearly impossible to keep the wheels under us, I nearly crash 3 times… it’s kind of like trying to ride a bike with slick tires on wet ice.

During this lap, I have formulated a quick warning for Chad to try to keep him from a big surprise and potential crash… I simply say ‘it’s slick, expect to crash’. Chads lap starts at about 13:34, the rain is coming down steadily now. Somewhere within the first 1.5 miles the mud got so bad that it jammed up the drive train on his bike so badly that the derailer was snapped off at the hanger rendering the bike unrideable. The mud is so tenacious that it sticks to very thing like gorilla glue, it’s unreal and has stories told about it that make it legendary and mystical to all who haven’t experienced it.

I’m in the Pit area when Chad shows back up dejectedly pushing his broken bike. I was ready to go, so I immediately jump onto my rig and head out to experience the muck and mayhem that he has just endured. The crazy thing about this bentonite clay is that if it quits raining it dries out very quickly and within a matter of 10 minutes it will become rideable again. This is exactly what I experienced, I had a good lap of 31 minutes so I rush to the pit and tell Chad to get his bike fixed because the course is fast. I tell him to meet me in about 50 minutes and to be ready at the start finish.

Laps 29 and 30 for me were really, really fun because the track is so tacky and the tires are hooking up so well. I have good lap times. Chad is there to meet me at about 15:46 but he has no bike, he can’t fix it, the derailer is jammed and he can’t get the broken derailer hanger off of it.

We quickly agree that he will take my bike out for his next 2 laps… the problem now is that it has started a steady rain just as he leaves the line. Somewhere in the first couple of miles he experiences the mud that mountain biking nightmares are made of. My super light 22.5# bike more than doubles it’s weight with mud and then the drive train jams and the derailer is destroyed in a split second. Not to be deterred, Chad spends 1 hour and 20 minutes, pushing, pulling, dragging and carrying the broken bike around the course. He finally arrives back at the start to the cheers of everyone in sight. It’s now 17:06 and with two broken bikes, and the race ending at 18:00 we are done for the day.

Chad just after the final lap with my bike and what's left of the derailer & drive train. He actually has 'washed' the bike in the lake to remove most of the mud!

Despite the mud challenges we manage to finish 6th out of 12 – 2 man teams. We have completed 31 laps. The winning team is truly impressive, they turn an amazing 37 laps, somehow their bike setup is superior to ours and the mud doesn’t affect them as much as it did us. I suspect that they were riding single speed bikes (no fragile derailer to contend with) and / or that they were using narrow mud tires which don’t collect and distribute as much mud as our tires did.

In the final analysis, we are extremely pleased with our individual performances and with how we worked together as a team. We still have room to improve and we must make some bike setup changes to better contend with the potential of mud but overall we are very happy to have done so well. Quietly and separately we are already plotting our strategies for next year and breaking down the individual elements of the race to see where we can make improvements.

Thanks to our sponsors PowerQuip and Well Within Chiropractic with out your support and encouragement we couldn’t have done it without you. Thanks to Chad's family and our friends who sacrificed their time with us to allow us to train and race!!