24 hr Nationals!

Well we did it. The team went to Wausau, Wisconsin for the 24 hr. Nationals on August 2nd.

We raced in the national class and had a respectable finish in 5th place.

The event was very well run. Everything was layed out very well from the camp/Pit sites, the facilities (the showers were a blessing!), to the overall sign in process. Only a slight hiccup in the sign in's because we all had to renew our Norba licences, but not a huge deal.

The course was top notch. Roughly 14.2-14.5 miles per lap with about 1200 ft of climbing per lap. It had everything from fire roads, single track, to downhill sections. The only thing it didn't have was a stream crossing, lol.

This is an awesome race to say the least. It is seriously like a race and a festival all in one. There were spectators cheering people on from 10 am until 6:30 the next morning. I remember one of my last laps...it was 6:15 am in the morning. I had gone out at roughly 5am for one of my night laps and as I was climbing this one section of the course and there was a group of spectators sitting on the hill cheering me on while they were drinking a case of beer....yes 6:am in the morning! Drunk and still drinking and cheering people on. Ohh how I wished I was them at that moment. I was in some pain because at that point we had been racing for about 20 hrs now.

Some things I saw at the aid stations -- cases of beer, a tiki bar, a mobile DJ, a dancing man dressed as a beer bottle, a real live keg of beer, lots of Christmas lights, a jump (which I launched on every lap except my last lap, just wayy to tired at that point), a man with a battle axe, and lots and lots of screaming spectators (who cheered for anyone). There also was a self-serve Twinkie station perched on a card table complete with hard boiled eggs and Schlitz beer way out in the middle of the woods.

The weather was great...if you consider 90+ degrees during the day and damn near freezing temps at night, lol. You could seriously see your breath at night it got that cold.

Kuddos to Kevin who promotes an awesome race. Not to mention Laird Knight who managed the timing system. That was cool.

Despite the pain and suffering I endured as I rode lap after lap, I would go back and do this race again. I say that now but.... :-)

The start of the race was a Le mans style start. It consisted of a 1/4 foot race to you bikes. The start of the pain...

Finishing off a lap...

This was our pit/camping site....

This tent was what we referred to as "The Soul Cycles hotel"...LOL. It was huge. Enough to fit all our gear and 4 sleeping cots.

Getting the lights ready...

It wasn't an Olympic Gold medal but we worked our tails off for it!

12 hrs of single track!

The team was back in action again this weekend with the latest stop in the Michigan Endurance Series at the 12 hours of Ithaca.

Continuing with the winning ways, MTB-Life won the 12 hr open class setting a new COURSE RECORD with 33 laps, which added to about 170 miles of single track fun (well at least for some people). It was a great race with all of us finding our form and riding consistent laps (within a minute of each other) for the entire 12 hrs.

There was a news reporter there doing a story about the event and they said just 2 miles down the road it had been raining extremely hard. Fortunately the rain held off missed us completely and we were able to make great lap times throughout the day.

During the night laps we all encountered some type of wildlife...raccoons, possums, skunks. But not as bad as one guy who during his night lap actually ran into a deer! Both rider and deer were fine.

Our next race takes us to the 24 Hour Nationals in Wisconsin on August 2nd. This will definitely be a true test of our speed, endurance and our willingness to not go crazy! I'm tired just writing about it. Need to sleep now.

This is Justins dog, Endura....what a loveable dog!

Another race, another win....

Another stop on the Michigan Cup Endurance race Series...Cannonsburgh on June 21st.

Back to our old winning ways again! When we competed in this race last year it was hot, muggy and dry and I didn't care too much for the climbing we had to do up the ski hills. Aren't you suppose to go down ski hills anyways?

Oh well, in any rate this year it was hot, not so muggy and kinda wet with all the rain we got earlier in the day. It wasn't much rain, which I was thankful for, but just enough to keep the dust down and the trail tacky. The sun eventually came out and it got real hot especially on the ski hill climbs were it's all out in the open with no shade to cool you down.

All in all it was a decent race. I had some trouble with leg cramps that affected my last two laps. These were probably the worse leg cramps I've ever felt before in my life, honestly. It truly affected me even a week after the race. Not too sure what the specific cause was but I know my diet and riding position didn't change at all. It sucked big time. But I managed to pull in the last lap of the day.

In the end we won by over 2 laps. It was pretty decisive from the very start. We all put in hard fast laps. We're still currently in first place overall for the series title again. We just need to keep driving hard. Still a long season ahead of us.

Nate and Meagen brought there new son out to join in on the fun. What a cutey!

Shaking out the cob-webs...

Saturday, May 17th kicked off the endurance racing season at the 12 hours of Addison Oaks. This was the first stop in the Fun Promotions - Michigan Endurance Cup Series. Nathan, Andy, Justin and Rob started things off right by wining the 4 person open class with 23 laps of the 7 mile course. The new bikes and gear paid off putting down fast and consistent laps for 12 straight hours. It was an exciting finish as the team battled back from a 5 minute deficit with 2 hours of racing left finally finishing on top 3 minutes in front of the 2nd place team.

Photos of the race can be found on MTB-LIFE.com. Thanks for everyone who came out to support the effort and as always, we are grateful to our awesome 2008 sponsors.

Soul Cycles
The Rehn Company
Synergy Broadband
WTB
Trails-Edge Cyclery
E-Load
FSA

Next race . . . 8 hours of Cannonsburg in June, bring it on!