Going the Distance, Going for Speed
The second weekend in June saw the second running of the 24 Hours of Adrenaline at Laguna Seca. Four Velo Sapiens returned as, originally enough, Team Velo Sapiens. Three of us were members of last year's winning team, and one member was new to 24 hour relay racing. This is our story. No names were changed because no one is innocent.
Trilife Sports International put on the race, held at the Laguna Seca raceway, home to such famous events as the Sea Otter Classic and CART series IndyCar race. They put on what they claim is the largest 24 hour race somewhere in Canada, and have two events scheduled for California this year. Entry fees were $125 per person for the 4 man team, plus you are required to have a volunteer. For this you get to race, a T shirt, all the Gatorade you can drink, some pasta, and a bunch of Clif Bar products. They know how to put on a good race, and they claim that they have never ever started a race late.
We arrived late on Friday evening (we had Keith with us) and missed out on a chance to pre-ride the course before dark. We had to pre ride Saturday morning. They had us camped out in an empty field, which serves as the main expo area during the Sea Otter. This was also the start/finish area. The course immediately crossed over the big wooden bridge that crosses the car race course, necessitating a cyclocross style dismount and run up the stairs, followed by a bumpy descent down the other side. We must have signed some good waivers because they had no qualms about letting us ride down the stairs. The course then fed into the lower half of the Sea Otter dirt crit course, and crossed the race track again on the other wooden bridge. A right turn led to the most technical bit of singletrack on the course, with a few ruts and a ditch or two. We then got back onto the Sea Otter XC course, cruising on the braking bump filled singletrack, and back up on the equally bumpy new singletrack. Up hurl hill, then a right turn onto the big fire road. A couple more left turns, a bit of singletrack later, and we were back onto the Grind. Anyone who's raced the Sea Otter XC knows this hill well. Its a big, wide, ugly, mean gravel road. It has a nasty habit of making you feel like you are going too slow up it no matter what. The one good thing about the Grind is that once you got to the top, that was the top. A short little coast down to the Bosch bridge, up and over the stairs, and you were back at the tent, about 11 miles later. Lap times for me ranged from 46 to 60 minutes.
Every 24 hour race I have done has started with a Le Mans style start. That is, you lean your bike up against some piece of wood, the gun fires, and you run away from your bike as fast as possible. You eventually turn back towards your bike, get on it, and ride your lap. This only happens once, just for the start. While rider #1 is on his lap, #2 checks in at the start/finish tent. He then waits for #1 to come in. When #1 comes in, he hands the wooden baton to the timekeeper, who records his lap time, and then hands the baton to rider #2, who stuffs it in his shorts and rides away. This goes on for 24 hours. We have found that the fastest lap times are achieved by doing one lap each in the same order for the duration of the race.
Dan Sovereign, an Expert Vet, was our lead rider. I was second in line, followed by Keith Kuykendall. Our cleanup rider was Paul Janney, who is usually pretty fast, but this was his first 24 hour race, so we didn't know what to expect. We all race at the Expert level. We raced in the Elite category, which only means that we had a 4-man team. Most of the racers were on 5+ man teams. I think that any more than 4 is too many, because then you would barely get to ride.
The start was chaotic, and it took a couple of riders to cycle through before we got a picture of where we stood. At about 9p.m., we were in the lead, but just barely. There were only 4 teams in the Elite category, but the top 3 were within 10 minutes of each other. At midnight, 12 hours into the race, 2nd place was only 4 minutes back, and 3rd only two minutes behind them. We kept hoping one of the other teams would crack, especially at night, since all Velo Sapiens have extensive night riding experience. But everyone kept up the pace. Until early morning, the cycle would run like this. Dan S. would go out in 2nd place, and come back in in 2nd place. I would then bring us back into 1st. Keith would go out, if he happened to be at the start/finish tent, and come in 3rd. Paul would then go out and pass one or two of our adversaries. This cycle continued until about 9am, when the Boyer Sports team, with a former Tour de France veteran, pulled a pretty convincing lead on us. We still only had a few minutes on 3rd place. Keith pulled through at this point and put in his fastest lap of the race. Dan S. put in another strong, consistent lap. When I went out for my last lap, we had almost 10 minutes on 3rd, but any bad luck on my part could easily see that 10 minutes go away. Fueled by PowerGel and a Coke, I pushed the biggest gear I ever have up the Grind and put in my second-fastest lap of the race, giving Paul plenty of time to cruise it on in for the finish. Of course he hammered it out, which gave us all a reason to worry, because if he had been 5 minutes faster, one of us would have had to have gone back out. If your team finishes before 12 noon Sunday, it is considered a DNF.
Finishing a 24 hour race feels pretty good. This is the first time that I've actually done one as an actual race. The other times we just went out to survive and have fun. This time we were neck and neck with the other teams down the stretch. Our team total was 27 laps. We all did 7 laps except for Keith. We were very satisfied with our 2nd place finish, and got $300 for our efforts. Considering that we raced for free this year, it was a nice little prize.
Despite everything, all of our bikes ran flawlessly. I was aboard my Gary Fisher Supercaliber, and turned in the fastest lap times of our team. The only thing I had to do to it during the whole race was lube the chain. Dan S. rode his Gary Fisher Big Sur. Keith switched between his Big Sur and Heckler until he put in a plus one hour lap aboard the Heckler. His lap times improved when he stuck to the Fisher. Paul rode his K2/Proflex 4000, which ran squeaky yet trouble free.
I wouldn't consider a 4 man 24 hour relay race a true endurance event, since you get nearly 3 hours in between laps to eat, work on your bike, or whatever. I think that any average sport racer could complete one with no problem. The keys are being prepared and taking care of yourself in between laps. A good mental attitude is important, also. They are a lot of fun, and unlike a sub-2 hour NORBA race, you feel like you have actually accomplished something at the end. There are two more 24 hour races in California this year, one at Donner Ski Ranch, and one in Idyllwild. There is also one in Moab in October, so don't slack; get a team together now. You'll never forget it.
more epics? check out the epic archive.