A "Before" picture with me, Mike, and Tommy. Mike heard his name over the loudspeaker because he'd forgotten to sign in. Tommy's set to do the 24 hours of mechanical needs, with me set for the food, moral support, and aches and pains...
Everyone lines up to wait for the official starting gun. The start was a 600 meter LeMan's-style run...
Mike grabs his bike from Tommy on his way back from the run...
Midnight cravings for beef stew (don't ask me, that's what he wanted)...
Mike's completed his third 24-hr MTB race, with today's Round and Round the Clock in Spokane, Washington. For quite some time he was in first, about 8 minutes in the lead. Around 2 AM, though, he decided to sleep, noting that the second place guy at the time was a fellow training for Trans-Alp and a seasoned competitor in the elite field at the 24-hr World's. This guy wasn't going to be stopping at all, and Mike realized that there was no way he could keep up the pace without digging really deep. Since this race was just a practice run of sorts to prepare for the World Championships in July, Mike decided to not dig himself into a hole and just finish. Plagued with knee and back pain, the time off the bike to rest allowed him to race a few more laps in the morning. I still need to confirm, but we think he ended up 10th. Not bad for sleeping around 6 hours!
Now it's rest, recover, rebuild, and kick ass in July!
No comments:
Post a Comment