12 hrs of Razorback solo results?? [Archive]

TeamTwentyFour

03-05-2004, 08:45 PM

Bang! Off and running. Crowds lining both sides of the course. Spectators cheering. Several hundred participants off the line like a cattle stampede, running the “mad dash” to get to their racing steeds. I got to mine about mid-pack. Hopped on and took off down the first straightaway. I started out in 3rd gear. Shift to 4th. Then 5th. Accelerating, building speed. Then a quick right hand turn. Down a very short hill. Immediate turn to the left, and back up again over a small rise. Back downhill even further. Roll out on a short, straight flat with a lot of speed. 6th gear, then 7th. Faster yet. Hard on the brakes now. Banked right hander rapidly approaching. Riders up ahead blocking the narrow course. Must slow down to make the turn and not run into them. Downshift- 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd. Speed is now reduced. Turn 4, a sweeping left hander, is approaching. Accelerating now again, out of turn 4. RPM’s increasing up to redline- a whopping 90 RPM. Shift up to 4th,accelerate. 5th, accelerate more. Feel the torque of that “2 cylinder” engine. Pass a couple of riders in the process. Approaching rough terrain rapidly- exposed tree roots. Feel the suspension working, smoothing out the bumps. Approaching turn 5 at speed, 6th gear……………………………………………….

Whew! That was awesome! And that’s only about the first thirty seconds or 1/8 mile of a race that’s twelve hours long with each lap being a little over 10 miles in length! This is how the annual 12 Hours of the Razorback held on February 28 in Reddick, Florida began. This the best mountain bike event in the Southeast experienced the biggest attendance from the most diverse areas. There were riders from Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Michigan, and even as far away as Canada and California. Needless to say, there were hundreds of not thousands of people from Florida present. There was something like 150 relay teams of four riders each and a record 120 solo riders, which is the most I’ve ever seen in the solo class at any one single endurance event. There were so many people in fact, that the start time was delayed by about 30 minutes just so all the entrants could be accommodated. As to be expected, race organizer GoneRiding put on a first class event. With riders like former US Olympian and reigning national champTinker Juarez; and reigning 4 time 24 Hour world champion Chris Eatough present, the level of competition at this event has reached the world class level.

I got off to a very good and clean start, passing quite a few riders within the first few miles, advancing my position. The course was like bumper- to- bumper traffic for most of the first lap of the race. I got about 2/3 through the first lap fine when at that point my bike started handling weird. My back tire was losing air and going flat. What a disappointment as I watched many a rider that I’d passed earlier on pass me back as I did a trailside tube change. I was down for about 3 minutes because of that one. Once back on course, I was going pretty good again. After completing lap 1, I stopped in the pit area for a little air in my back tire and began lap 2 right away. Some time in the course of lap 2, I flatted again, this time the front tire. More disappointment. But what could I do other than fix it and proceed? As long as I could keep air in my tires, I was doing just fine. I had no idea what position I was in. If I remember correctly, I managed to get through lap 3 without any hitches but then on lap 4 disaster struck again. I blew out a rear tire, stopped and fixed it, and then sometime later my front tire went flat again. OK by now I was getting pretty mad. Luckily, I had 2 spare tubes and inflators with me on that lap and was able to be up and running without much hassle other than a considerable amount of time lost. To top it all off, my rear tire went out again on lap 5 which frustrated and angered me even more. I’d been training for this race since before the new year and was in excellent physical shape. Having unexpected setbacks like this were surely a big disappointment. What the h@#% was going on? Finally I stopped and removed the back wheel off the bike. I completely removed the rear tire to carefully inspect it only to find out that the brand new tire I installed for the race now had 3/8’ slash in it, from a sharp edged rock or other sharp object. I wasn’t too far from my pit area at that point, and sent someone to get me a replacement tire and tube. Once I installed that, I was underway once again, and that was the end of my problems for the remaining 6.5 hours. Unfortunately by then, I had lost a considerable amount of time in what was the most competitive 12 Hour race I’ve ever been in.

The remainder of the race went without a hitch. I pushed hard right until the end. I made a pit stop at about 6:15pm to install the headlights for the nighttime protion and was back on track. By that point, lot s of riders were slowing partly due to the onset of fatigue and partly due to the lessened visibility of riding this type of terrain after dark. Not a problem here, as my Light & Motion HID light burnt a hold in the darkness like a welder’s torch. Throughout the latter half of the race I continued to pass riders, but I still had no idea what position I held. I completed what I think was lap number11 at 10.01 pm, just five minutes short of the cutoff time where riders are no longer to go out on the course for another lap. After a short pit stop which consisted of a battery change and a few gulps of water, I was off on lap 12 (I think) which was my final.

I was one of the last riders to cross the finish line at about 11:20pm. After talking to a few people at that point, I laid down in the back of the car and fell asleep…..right through the awards ceremony. It wasn’t until about 2 days ago that I knew how I actually fared…..when the results of the race were posted on the official web site. I’m not sure, but there seems to be a mistake (maybe it’s mine), in the number of laps I completed. I thought I did 12, but they have me down with 11 which put me in 19th place.I dunno….maybe it’s my error.

Overall the 2004 12 Hours of Razorback was still a blast, despite the mechanical issues I had in the first few hours. Reddick is always extreme fun combined with extreme challenge. This year was the best it’s ever been. Thanks to the GoneRiding crew for such a great event. Also thanks to Ellsworth Bikes, Light & Motion, Maxxis Tires, Rudy Project, & E-Caps/ Hammer Nutrition for their continued support. Thanks also to my brothers Ken & Walter for their assistance as my pit crew, and to the many friends that sent encouraging words my way during the course of the race.

Peace.

~ John Moorhouse