This post didn’t come through after a day, so I’m reposting…
Well, it’s over. We had a great time riding our unicycles for 24 hours
straight at the “24 Hours of Adrenalin” race last weekend at Laguna Seca
near Monterey, California. Our team of 9, Team Cyclops, was sponsored by my
company, Movaris, and Unicycle.com and we thank them for helping to defray
the huge costs of entering an event like this. Please buy your business
process automation software from www.movaris.com and your unicycles and
parts from www.unicycle.com
We entered the race in “stealth mode”, never indicating we were anything
other than a normal 9 person Corporate Team of mountain bikers. So when we
arrived Friday before the race, we had no idea if we would be allowed to
compete or might have problems with other riders. Luckily, it turned out
that the organizers and every single rider we encountered were completely
stoked to have us there! We had more “You are gods”, “You are amazing”, “I
am not worthy”, etc comments than ever before. These comments came from
recreational and elite pro cyclists alike. They seemed especially amazed
that Cokers were rideable on the course.
The normal course most teams rode is 10.5 miles/21km long and climbs
2130’/650m. It’s half singletrack; half fireroad. The singletrack is very
narrow and bumpy, with some sections that are sandy, steep sharp turns,
sloping to the side etc. Passing on the singletrack always involved riding
on the side of the trail and was sometimes pretty exciting. The singletrack
was 100% rideable on a Muni, but not quite on a Coker. The fireroad was
where the Cokers really came into their own. It was possible to go quite
fast in some sections and I think every one of us passed cyclists on every
lap during the final 3 mile climb. The NORBA course which a few elite teams
rode, had an additional 2.1 mile section which makes the solo male record
set by Tinker Juarez even more impressive. His 21 laps came out to 268 miles
of offroad riding in 24 hours. There were almost 1000 riders total, 70 solo,
of which 31 were NORBA, and there were 19 Corporate (6-10 people) teams.
Based on last years slowest Corporate Team score of 12 laps in 24:32, we
set our goal at 12 laps in 24:00. Some of us test rode the course Friday
with me on a Coker. Based on the fact that the Coker made it intact and
faster than anyone else, we tried them in the race and ended up completing
11 laps on Cokers plus 5 more on 24" or 26" Munis for a total of 16. We had
no laps over 2 hours and Kris cranked our fastest lap in 1:09:12. Corporate
scores were all better this year though, so we still finished at the bottom
of our category and had to be happy with only beating bike teams in more
difficult categories: solo, 2-person and 4-person. But we were very happy
with our results as we were only minutes behind serious bikes teams.
Night laps. Absolutely amazing. Each rider starting from dusk until daylight
was required to use a lighting system, a flashing red rear light and to
carry a spare light. The trail was very dusty which looked surreal - thick
dust suspended in the headlights with no depth perception at all. Completing
the course on any unicycle in the dark was a MAJOR accomplishment. I still
can’t believe no one suffered a real injury. The first couple of miles of
single-track I rode in the pitch dark on my Coker was probably the hardest
riding I’ve ever done. None of us ever figured out how Kris managed to
complete a lap in 1:17 at night. Many bikers took over 2 hours.
Some memorable quotes:
Photographer beside the course as I started our third lap: “Wow, that’s
incredible. Is that your second lap?”
Rider passing me on my second lap: “You are amazing! How many laps have you
done?”
Me: This is our 12th.
Her: !^+*@(&!# I’m only on our 11th!
Me to Scot as he’s opening beer #4 the night before the race: “Scot, are you
sure about that?”
Scot: I like to Stick With What Works! (our new motto)
Plus the hundreds of great comments from riders, spectators, the organizers
and the media. Photographers and magazine guys were lining up to interview
us and get pictures after the race.
My photos only really show the start and end of laps and I don’t have every
one of them, but check 'em out at www.movaris.com/nathan/photos.html or
directly at http://tinyurl.com/6qs
Official website: www.24hoursofadrenalin.com
Read the wrap up at http://www.trilife.com/fr_news.cfm which mentions us.
The race results shows our lap times, and next week there will be photos of
the event up in their photo gallery.
Stick With What Works,
Nathan
