I was pretty excited to ride the same course as was used for the 1st ever Mtn bike race in the Olympics!
It's a figure 8, with the intersection being at the end of a big open field. The start is a easy but consistent grass uphill into the ST. Now we are on hard packed GA clay, nice and fast, this section was twisty, flowy, rolling and a lot of fun. There must have been at least 10 spots to easily get some air. No real big climbs but a few tough enough that your heart rate will get beating damn fast. I think this section was just under 4 miles, and then back out and across the big field.
The trail actually crosses a road, and holy crap now you are on a totally different type of trail. Rock, big slabs of rock, rough and hilly. Even with full suspension the rock was really jarring. A pretty steep down hill section with a sketchy transformation put a stop in our progression. We figured out the line and moved on to a tough climb up the rock slab, no one made the 1st attempt, but we got it on #2. Finally off the rock slab and back on clay, twisty with some tough corners and even tougher climbs (steep & rooty), a nice DH payoff, back on the slab for a bit then over the road & back to the field. about 8.5 miles total.
A real fun trail to ride but super demanding to ride for 24 hours straight
ok, the reason I was there was to crew for my friend that was racing at the 24 hours of Conyers solo!
A very small turnout due to a 12 the w/e before and Burn's 24 the following w/e. But out of the 4 solo females, 3 have previously won solos at major races.
Lemans start, and on the bikes! We set up where the 8 came together so we could get a close look twice per lap. Heather had the lead for the 1st lap which turned out to be the fastest solo female lap for the whole race.
It was damn warm out, and she didn't drink enough water in the morning, so problem #1 was she became dehydrated, and after a couple laps dropped to 3rd. She looked pretty overheated but was drinking a ton of water & Heed. Now she comes into the pit and lets us know she puked 4 times that lap (#4). So now it was about getting her some food. She keeps riding, and stops at lap #6 with leg cramps, ugh too much water! So it was enduralytes & heed to the rescue, but now she's in 4th. Not much after that onto problem #4, which was saddle sores.
Lots of more riding, and when 3rd place took a nap Heather got regained that position. And even more riding! After 17.5 hours (It's 5:30am) heather stops for the 1st time for longer than 5 minutes. She was so toasted, tried to recover as much as possible until the sun came out. She didn't have it in her to catch 2nd, so I told her I will keep good track of the #4 so Heather could do the minimum # of laps to get 3rd. Ofcourse 4th place thought it was funny that if she kept doing laps, Heather would, which made Sandra in 2nd do another lap, which would make Erin in 1st do another lap! And that's how the rest of the race went, all 4 women riding a lap ahead of each other. For heather's last lap I grabbed my bike and followed her around the course.
Heather is so frigging tough, no way would I have kept racing with all the problems she had!
Heather (3rd & fastest female solo lap)
Heather (coming into the pit)
Erin (1st)
Sandra(2nd)
Rebecca(4th)
Heather (waiting before the timing tent to see if Rebecca is going out for another lap)
It's a figure 8, with the intersection being at the end of a big open field. The start is a easy but consistent grass uphill into the ST. Now we are on hard packed GA clay, nice and fast, this section was twisty, flowy, rolling and a lot of fun. There must have been at least 10 spots to easily get some air. No real big climbs but a few tough enough that your heart rate will get beating damn fast. I think this section was just under 4 miles, and then back out and across the big field.
The trail actually crosses a road, and holy crap now you are on a totally different type of trail. Rock, big slabs of rock, rough and hilly. Even with full suspension the rock was really jarring. A pretty steep down hill section with a sketchy transformation put a stop in our progression. We figured out the line and moved on to a tough climb up the rock slab, no one made the 1st attempt, but we got it on #2. Finally off the rock slab and back on clay, twisty with some tough corners and even tougher climbs (steep & rooty), a nice DH payoff, back on the slab for a bit then over the road & back to the field. about 8.5 miles total.
A real fun trail to ride but super demanding to ride for 24 hours straight
ok, the reason I was there was to crew for my friend that was racing at the 24 hours of Conyers solo!
A very small turnout due to a 12 the w/e before and Burn's 24 the following w/e. But out of the 4 solo females, 3 have previously won solos at major races.
Lemans start, and on the bikes! We set up where the 8 came together so we could get a close look twice per lap. Heather had the lead for the 1st lap which turned out to be the fastest solo female lap for the whole race.
It was damn warm out, and she didn't drink enough water in the morning, so problem #1 was she became dehydrated, and after a couple laps dropped to 3rd. She looked pretty overheated but was drinking a ton of water & Heed. Now she comes into the pit and lets us know she puked 4 times that lap (#4). So now it was about getting her some food. She keeps riding, and stops at lap #6 with leg cramps, ugh too much water! So it was enduralytes & heed to the rescue, but now she's in 4th. Not much after that onto problem #4, which was saddle sores.
Lots of more riding, and when 3rd place took a nap Heather got regained that position. And even more riding! After 17.5 hours (It's 5:30am) heather stops for the 1st time for longer than 5 minutes. She was so toasted, tried to recover as much as possible until the sun came out. She didn't have it in her to catch 2nd, so I told her I will keep good track of the #4 so Heather could do the minimum # of laps to get 3rd. Ofcourse 4th place thought it was funny that if she kept doing laps, Heather would, which made Sandra in 2nd do another lap, which would make Erin in 1st do another lap! And that's how the rest of the race went, all 4 women riding a lap ahead of each other. For heather's last lap I grabbed my bike and followed her around the course.
Heather is so frigging tough, no way would I have kept racing with all the problems she had!
Heather (3rd & fastest female solo lap)
Heather (coming into the pit)
Erin (1st)
Sandra(2nd)
Rebecca(4th)
Heather (waiting before the timing tent to see if Rebecca is going out for another lap)
Did Wiley go?
