This last weekend in California, two intrepid unicycle teams showed up at
Laguna Seca raceway for 24 Hours of Adrenalin. Last year’s Team Cyclops, a
9-man “Corporate” team, expanded into two teams: Team Cyclops I, a 5-man
team, and Team Cyclops II, a 7-man team. Both were sponsored by my company,
Movaris. All of the original crew re-enlisted except Kris who was off in the
wilds of Saskatewan.
Arriving Friday afternoon we had a very pleasant surprise: instead of last
year’s terrible campsite on a slopey dusty hard dirt field, we had 3
campsites in a row along a lake, with a table and grass. Jeff Groves from
Toronto, who didn’t race with us last year, was the only one who took a full
practice lap Friday. He finished around dusk and we went to town for a great
dinner. It was cold at 10:30pm when we returned and instead of staying up
partying like many others, we all went to sleep.
Saturday morning dawned cold, cloudy and windy, but by 11am it was clear and
warm. The race started right at noon, with the famous “LeMans Start”. Jeff
Binning and I ran with hundreds of bicyclists in our Roach armor, staying
near the rear to avoid traffic problems. We started riding almost last and
after a “prolog” lap around the campground, we hit the trail. One great
thing about the first lap is that there are no bikers passing. Since I was
on Coker and Jeff on Muni, I gradually pulled away and each of us rode alone
for pretty much the whole lap. I passed one slow biker and two bikers with
mechanical problems.
The course starts with 3 miles of singletrack, narrow and bumpy with lots of
climbing. “Hurl Hill” is at the end of this section, and on top is the first
check point with food and water available. I was on 175mm cranks this time
and amazed myself riding up the famous hill without hurling! The volunteers
cheered even when I accidentally came off right at the top. Puffing hard, I
blasted down the next section of fireroad for a couple of miles, then hit
the second singletrack. The course was slightly easier and smoother than
last year, or maybe it was just the longer cranks? Anyway, without any more
dismounts, I made it through and up the final 3 mile climb on fireroad. Our
system of calling ahead on the radio to alert the next rider worked, and
soon I was shooting around the campground, over the line, and handing the
baton off to Carl Hoyer.
Our 5-man team did great the first time through, although Carl managed to
crash hard on his knee on his lap. We finished the 5 laps faster than
expected (1:23, 1:27, 1:23, 1:29 and 1:22), then started over. My second lap
finished at 8:39pm which meant that I used my light only for the last few
minutes. With a time of 1:24, things were looking great - in fact too great:
it looked like we might make 16 laps which meant that I’d be doing four. I
decided to get some sleep rather than just stay up like last year because my
legs were already so tired after the two laps. The course maps says it’s
2130’ of climbing per 10.5 mile lap. I think the distance is right but the
climbing is more like 1600’.
Both teams continued through the night. Those laps are really tough. Based
on how much better we could see when a bike was right behind us, I think the
problem is the angle of the light. Looking down from a helmet-top light on a
Coker, you lose depth perception. Maybe another light mounted low on the
seatpost would help? Regardless, we rode on. Like last year, I had the dawn
lap starting at 4:28am where I rode the difficult singletrack in pitch
darkness (although the nearly full moon was nice), and it started getting
light only at the first checkpoint. This lap was really fun as I got to ride
and talk with Tinker Juarez, the US National champion, and a legend in
mountain bike racing. He passed me very slowly, not looking like the
super-human that he is. His twenty-one 12.5 mile laps are mind-blowing. At
another point I had several bikers following me at high speed on a downhill
singletrack. They didn’t want to pass because, “I always wanted to see how
you guys could ride something like this.”
The last laps were great: Jeff Groves cranked out a final lap for Cyclops I
and Geoff Faraghan crossed the line last for Cyclops II. Geoff finished
right after Tinker Juarez and they gave him a 24 Hours ribbon to ride
through. The crowd was going wild - very exciting. A funny thing we didn’t
really anticipate was that one of our teams beat a bike team. Look at the
results for 5-man 150-199 teams and you’ll see Team Cyclops I in 41st place.
But the team we beat was “Team Not Ready for 24 Hours Players” who quit
after 20 1/2 hours, so it’s not much of a victory.
Then it was over, and we packed up and left. We opted out of the pasta lunch
this time and got home early where mass quantities of food were eaten and we
went to bed relatively early. The best part of the whole experience was the
reception we received from the other racers (and the officials). Again,
nothing but positive feedback. The other best part was hanging out in camp
with great friends enjoying life.
My photos at http://community.webshots.com/album/73781514FrSPiC
Carl Hoyer photos at http://community.webshots.com/album/73889475hbysiP
Steve Myers photos at http://photos.yahoo.com/mountainunicycle@sbcglobal.net
Race results and info at http://www.24hoursofadrenalin.com (should have
photos by next Monday)
—Nathan
