So this Sunday I did the 12 hours of Lodi. A particularly evil 12 hour event as it starts at midnight to make sure you are tired before you even get to start. A group of friends who live close to the event came early in the morning to set up camp so when I got there all I really had to do was get my bikes together and relax. At 7:00pm we all drove to a local mom and pop Italian place to load up on food. I had some chicken parm and a monster plate of spaghetti. After dinner headed back to the event. This is when it sets in how the midnight start hurts. Just as I was feeling like I wanted to go to bed it was time to get ready for the start.
The course was about 8.5 miles of tight rooty singletrack with some short steep hills thrown in. Some sections were so tight that you almost had to come to a complete stop to make the corner. This is a place where handling is almost as important as being able output power.
The start of the race was the regular Lemans start but they routed us through a little bit of singletrack. I was a little nervous about the single track run at night but a hundred or so HID helmet lights lit everything nicely. My plan was to take the first half of the race real easy and save my energy for daylight. But once things started off I had a problem taking it easy. I hate being stuck behind other people during night races. You are forced to follow their lines and make the same mistakes they make. I found myself passing more and more people to find that empty piece of trail. Fortunately I didn't push it too hard but was able to do my first two laps in less than two hours.
Things were uneventful for the first 5 hours, although I was feeling very tired from lack of sleep, not from the riding. As usual for me I was having problems eating but I found I could force down bananas and Fig Newtons. On my sixth lap the sun was staring to come up and it made me feel much better. I started pushing a little bit harder and that caused some problems. Twice in the same lap I managed to jam my chain between my wheel and cassette, it required removal of the wheel and chain to fix both times this added at least a half hour to the lap. With the sun up I stopped at camp to drop off the lights and eat. Eating was a problem, I managed to puke up a bagel I was trying to eat, it was going to be nothing but hammer gel and fluids for the rest of the race.
I started pushing myself a little harder now that the sun had come up, I managed to put in a handful of laps and was feeling great until my 10th lap. Not eating anything solid turned my stomach into knots not to mention my body was just plain beat up. Towards the end of #10 I managed to find a bit of energy and rode with Peter6061 for a while. That was a blast to get to ride with someone for a bit. The last two laps were pure hell, I was tired wanted to puke everywhere and everything hurt. I wanted to quit but I really wanted to finish one of these events with out really stopping so I just forced myself along. In the end I managed 12 laps in 12:44 (estimated) and third place. First and second did 13 laps, those guys are freaking animals the winning Expert 3 man team only did 13 laps and one duo team got in 14.
I didn't take any pictures but will link up some from the event photographer once posted, same thing with the official results.
The course was about 8.5 miles of tight rooty singletrack with some short steep hills thrown in. Some sections were so tight that you almost had to come to a complete stop to make the corner. This is a place where handling is almost as important as being able output power.
The start of the race was the regular Lemans start but they routed us through a little bit of singletrack. I was a little nervous about the single track run at night but a hundred or so HID helmet lights lit everything nicely. My plan was to take the first half of the race real easy and save my energy for daylight. But once things started off I had a problem taking it easy. I hate being stuck behind other people during night races. You are forced to follow their lines and make the same mistakes they make. I found myself passing more and more people to find that empty piece of trail. Fortunately I didn't push it too hard but was able to do my first two laps in less than two hours.
Things were uneventful for the first 5 hours, although I was feeling very tired from lack of sleep, not from the riding. As usual for me I was having problems eating but I found I could force down bananas and Fig Newtons. On my sixth lap the sun was staring to come up and it made me feel much better. I started pushing a little bit harder and that caused some problems. Twice in the same lap I managed to jam my chain between my wheel and cassette, it required removal of the wheel and chain to fix both times this added at least a half hour to the lap. With the sun up I stopped at camp to drop off the lights and eat. Eating was a problem, I managed to puke up a bagel I was trying to eat, it was going to be nothing but hammer gel and fluids for the rest of the race.
I started pushing myself a little harder now that the sun had come up, I managed to put in a handful of laps and was feeling great until my 10th lap. Not eating anything solid turned my stomach into knots not to mention my body was just plain beat up. Towards the end of #10 I managed to find a bit of energy and rode with Peter6061 for a while. That was a blast to get to ride with someone for a bit. The last two laps were pure hell, I was tired wanted to puke everywhere and everything hurt. I wanted to quit but I really wanted to finish one of these events with out really stopping so I just forced myself along. In the end I managed 12 laps in 12:44 (estimated) and third place. First and second did 13 laps, those guys are freaking animals the winning Expert 3 man team only did 13 laps and one duo team got in 14.
I didn't take any pictures but will link up some from the event photographer once posted, same thing with the official results.
