Tuesday, October 12, 2010

24 Hours of Moab 2010














The stats.....
  • 2nd place Singlespeed/Open
  • 14th overall (out of 318 teams/solo riders)
  • 20 laps completed
  • 1 broken pedal

















Our team at the 24 Hours of Moab this year was solid. Rico, Kenny, Corey, and me (or is it "I"?).

Nick Rico- gets the award for turning in the fastest overall lap times for our team with an average of 1:13:50 over 5 laps. Solid. He also kicked it off with a top 10 run during the Le Mans start. Turns out, he wasn't lying about being a football star back in 88. The dude can run (and can pedal a bike.)

Kenny- gets the award for turning in the fastest lap time of the group with a 1:08 (and did it twice). And I've never in my life seen someone change out a pedal in the dark as fast as he did. During one of his night laps, after climbing all of the 1st technical rocky section, Kenny shattered his pedal and had to turn around and ride back to camp with one leg, find his replacement pedal, swap it out, and start his lap over. After all that, he still managed to keep us in contention for the lead. If we had to pick one guy to have a mechanical, I'm glad it was kenny.

Corey- Was hand selected for his superior night riding skills and being an all around nice guy. I've never seen Corey on a bike during the day. He rides early morning or late at night. The perfect guy to have on your team for a 24 hours race. Even with 2 flats, he posted a 1:15 night lap. Crazy fast. Oh, and he did this all on a borrowed bike since he cracked his frame the week before the race. Imagine what he could have done on his ultra light race bike.

Me- I was just happy to not be kicked off the team coming off of hip surgery 3 months prior. I didn't have the race of my life but was happy be racing again and to post a 1:10 lap time and 3 sub 1:20 night laps.

For our efforts, we walked away with a box of Hammer Nutrition bars and a womens Hammer Nutrition cycling jacket....yeah, that's right. They gave us energy bars and a womens jacket for our prize. Cuz the first thing I crave after a 24 hour endurance race is another energy bar. But I can promise you that womens jacket will make an appearance or two before the season is over.

It's still my favorite race and I will go back again and again.

Thanks Rico, Kenny, and Corey for a great race. Good times all around.

P.S. Special thanks to the Mad Dog crew for letting us poach their camping area and for the support. Those guys have the 24 hour race system down. Impressive.

Cool pics of the race here.

7 comments:

Aaron said...

It's "me." I figured you guys would be stupid fast, and you proved me right. Nice work.

KanyonKris said...

Only 3 minutes off the lead with 1 major and several minor mechanicals is very impressive.

Rick, fast times man. Your recovery after breaking your hip was amazing.

Ski Bike Junkie said...

I was sitting in church* Sunday checking my phone constantly for updates. So, so close. Nice work, even if the win was elusive.

*I know, right? My brother's ward--he was blessing his baby.

dug said...

steve was blessing his baby?

lifein360 said...

What was your lap distance? 24 hour events rock. Thankfully I have one in Montreal every summer.

Rick Sunderlage said...

Aaron- One of the highlights of the race was hearing you pull up to camp in your car with the Slayer blasting.

KK- Tell Jolene she'll be back on the bike in no time.

SBJ- thanks for the early morning tweet of encouragement.

Lifein360- 15 miles per lap with some good technical stuff.

Nick Rico said...

Rick, you're running next year....You might want to start going on some runs with the Mrs in preparation.