May 29, 2004 - PAGE 2
Chris’s lap times were typical of his style in these events, the first lap blisteringly fast, then the second lap the same, then the third super fast again, and so on as the hours wear on. The reason he stays at the front of these things is that he just doesn’t slow down. His first four laps were around 53-54 minutes, the following four were about 55-57 minutes. As the light ebbed and we approached the cutoff time for entering the course without lights, we planned our first real pit stop. Up to now the pit stops had been more like drive-bys, because, with an average duration of ten seconds spent in the pits each lap, there wasn’t much stopping going on. Now in addition to the normal big three (food, drink, and bike change) we had to get Chris’s Lupine light equipped helmet on, let him change shorts, take on food and drink, get a battery into his Jansport hydration pack, and have his bike ready with his second Lupine system, and we still wanted to be under a minute.
The plan was executed flawlessly and Chris was back on the bike in a matter of seconds with fresh clothing, fresh bike, and lights blazing. He continued his rhythmic pedaling around the course all the way through the night, pausing only to trade bikes and batteries, and take freshly filled Jansport hydration packs and assorted endurance racer pseudo-food; things like handfuls of fig bars, bananas, hot ham and cheese sandwiches, and baked potato halves with butter, salt&pepper.
The night is the fun part of the 24 hour race – when the skills and planning get put to the test. It is a forgone conclusion that if something is going to go wrong, it will go wrong in the dark if possible. Luckily we escaped any misfortune during the race, but our neighbors did not fare so easily. However, the obstacles that they overcame were so great that I have to tell you about it:
There was a real battle brewing for second between Nat Ross and Mark Hendershot (Santa Cruz/Vertical Earth) as Mark had ridden very strongly all night and fought his way right up to Nat in the early morning. Marks pit crew this race were his partner Roberta, a friend named Jeff, and a tall downhill/trials rider named Zeb as his mechanic. Mark rode in one lap complaining of a creak, and it was discovered that he had broken his frame (that beast) Zeb, his buddy Shane, and a few other helpful souls worked like maniacs for a solid hour and a half straight from about 3 am to 4:30 or so to get a second bike together for Mark to race on, and performed such technological marvels as bleeding the pure damping system on a rock shox sid, pressing out and then back in new bushings on a Santa Cruz frame and 5th Element shock, and removing and installing headsets to get everything complete. If you aren’t familiar with bicycle mechanics, these are advanced projects that could take hours to do in a shop environment, much less by the light of a gas lantern using a rock as a bearing press. And remember we were in a field, not a shop equipped with fork oil and proper tools. Big kudos to those guys for their work- they allowed Mark to continue to his second place finish.
Chris had as eventful a night as he had the evening before, no bike problems,
no body problems. The rotation went totally smoothly each lap, we had
our roles so dialed. Through the night we wrote Chris notes to inform
him of splits and who was where in the race. We also wrote other notes
just to keep his mind occupied, you can get pretty tired in the 14th hour
of racing. Here is what his bike looked like ready for pickup at around
3 am. Notes from Alison and me, a few gummy bears to snack on, a few ibuprofen
for minor aches, and a pair of face wipes to freshen up a bit. Of course
the Lupine Edison light is ready to go too.
Morning broke between 4 and 4:30 a.m. and it was great to see the sun again. As the 3/4 mark drew nearer, we began to plan out some end of the race scenarios to try and forecast how it would all go down. As it turned out, Chris knew this before any of us, and on his 17th lap at around 8 something in the morning, at our meeting spot, he said, "I'm doing four more laps and finishing right at noon, that should get the win." We had come to the same conclusion by the time he came through the pits that next time, so we said as much and felt very relieved that the end was almost in sight. At quarter after twelve noon Chris finished his 22nd lap and cruised across the finish line for his second consecutive national 24 hour solo title. CONTINUED>>>>>>>>