24 Hours of Big Bear 2006.

Hey Folks,

I'll start this off by saying that we really missed having Jason for this race. We were thinking of you, Grumpy. I think we all said many times that we missed having you there. You'll be healed and back riding soon.

The weekend was fun. Chris, Kate and I got a late start on Saturday. David had camp pretty much all set up by the time we got there. He picked the perfect spot. It was quiet and protected from the wind. It also had nice, soft mossy spots to put the tents on. My back had no issues what-so-ever with sleeping on the ground. A rare thing.

We pre-rode the course and were really worried. It had rained fairly hard during the day and much of the course was deep in mud. It was slick everywhere and 3-5" deep in mud in some places. Even so our pre-ride lap was 1:40... faster than some of our race laps last year.

Llaird had posted on the web site that they'd changed the course to make the final climb easier. Hahahahaha! As suspected, that was all words to throw us off our guard. It was exactly the same course we had last year.

The course was pretty brutal. The 13 mile lap was broken up into a few flowy, smooth sections, a few short fireroad climbs or descents, some majorly technical rocky sections (including a killer downhill that caused many pinch flats) and one bad-ass climb between miles 11 and 12. All in all it was a course that rewareded riders with equal parts fitness and technical skills. If you lacked either, you paid the price in slow laps. Night time complicated both the smooth parts and the rocky ones.

Amazingly enough the course was in PERFECT shape come race morning. The mud was gone. The trail was in great shape for the start. By the end of the race, it had degraded quite a bit. That happens to any trail when a few thousand people ride over it in a weekend. My hat is off to those who set the course and prepped it. Truly amazing.

Chris was the only one of the 4 of us that was capable of running. He drew first lap. He did a great job of turning in a blistering lap of 1:30... that includes a 1/2 mile run and an extra 1/2 mile ride and fighting with heavy traffic for much of the course.

Chris' later laps were consistant and really fast. He flatted twice (once just at the finish) and that slowed his laps down. Chris had the first lap which is always the hardest.

David was definitely the fastest of our group. He consistantly turned quick laps all day and night. He was hurting bigtime but still managed to turn in the times. David had the 3am lap which is the second hardest lap in the whole race.

My laps were pretty consistant, slower than Davids and right close to Chris' laps. My contribution to the team was that I rode two night laps when the other guys each turned one.

Pat did an amazing job of putting in consistant, strong laps with no training beyond his normal weekly riding. He did a fabulous job and it was fun riding with him. He rode with great determination on a course that he didn't get to pre-ride. Pat's contribution was strong laps without much warning or planning. He signed on to this race only 10 days before it happened.

Possibly the highlight of my race was that Laura came up for almost all of the race. She got there Saturday afternoon and hung out for the whole thing. She was a HUGE help to me in getting ready for laps and recovering after them.

In the end we did 15 laps (2 more than last year) in 24:51. That was good enough for 22nd place in a field of 49 in the Men's Sport category. We placed 66th out of 160 solo/team entrants

HERE are the results in our class.

HERE are the team's lap times.

HERE are the results in all of the classificatios.

Congrats to all who raced! It was fun to share a weekend of racing with so many great people. I ran into people I hadn't seen in a long time and met a few that I'd only run into on the net.

Aren't you glad I didn't write a novel like last year? :D

Take care,

Pete