|
Home > Trip Reports > 24 Hours of Moab, Rubber Chicken Rides Again
Trip Images |
|
 |
|
|
fast
|
|
JIffy Pop
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Trip Report
|
 Email to a friend
|
 Print this page
|
| |
24 Hours of Moab, Rubber Chicken Rides Again
October 2007
Behind the Rocks , UT
posted by letskungfu
Local paper added a story feauturng the Rubber Chicken Repair Team! Cut N Paste link at bottom!
Also see Flickr Account at bottom for new photos!
First if you have never been to the 24 Hour of Moab, go! It is an awesome event and is still the Grand-Daddy of them all. The support, level of racing, crowd, course… all are top notch, make it a point to go.
After last year “The Rain Year” a lot of us, (especially those of us on course when it was cancelled) didn’t feel the need to jump back into racing. But with a group of former teammates and friends heading down to race, I thought this year would be a great year to support.
As support staff for a 24 hour race you wear many hats: Mechanic, Strategist, Massage Therapist, Mental Therapist, Fire Tender, Beer Drinker, Sleepy Racer Waker Upper, and Cheerleader to name a few.
Benefits of Being support: You don’t HAVE to ride another lap at 4 a.m. in shitty weather, The Beer, riding a midnight lap before race day alone on the course, riding a midnight lap on race day to cheer and watch wrecks, Getting to ride one of Moab’s epic rides while everyone else is on course. This year we did Slickrock again, because it is super fun on a SS. (why would you go do the ride full of gaper-tourists you ask? Well we are tourists, and I like riding amongst others. Especially the lady we saw riding in denim… at least they were capri) Slickrock is beautiful and fun, and one of the all-time-greatest. Every MTB rider should pay homage to their roots on this Mecca of MTB riding, at least once.
The night before the race we were talking about expectations. Top Ten was the uniform goal,, along with just wanting to “have fun”. I saw this as the opportunity to give my version of the Brian "Gipper" Baker speech, “You know when you see guys win the World Series, or when a skier/biker is up on the podium spraying everyone with champagne? Or how Super Bowl winners jump around patting each other, tearing up, go to Disney Land? The celebration of winning, the double high-fiving? That seems like FUN! Go win and have some real fun!”
They went to bed pumped, I assumed, and I went for a night lap.
The next morning they woke up and began KILLING it. They were in contention for the podium right from the get go. (5 open co-ed) As night began to fall 2 teams separated themselves from the others and fought for the lead. We were locked in a 3 way battle for 3rd. At one point the margin was 3 minutes. With a strategic shuffle of running order in the late hours, (giving our female rider another day lap instead of 2 in the dark) they began to break away.
A late-night serious mechanical kept our fastest rider off his bike for 10 minutes, trying to unknot a chain. This brought the race for 3rd back to a close one. The race stayed exciting up until the last seconds when in a race to get one last lap our 2nd to last rider hammered, standing, sprinting, skidded in at 11:59:58 allowing us to send one more rider and locking up 3rd … BUT WAIT!! This just in! Top two teams Disqualified! Seems they misunderstood the whole 1 expert per team thing, as if 1:04 laps wouldn’t raise suspicion. And you thought scandal and cheating were reserved for the tour. The race director wanted to see us too, seems our lap times were raising some suspicion. As coach, I got to handle this…
RD: “Are you sure your team fits within the guidelines? Do you feel honest about this?”
Me: “Our one Expert hasn’t raced competitively in 2 years, 2 of our riders have never raced before this year, she is the only one with shaved legs, and our captain is riding a 35 pound 6 year old bike with a Rubber Chicken attached to his helmet.”
RD: “Sounds like you won.”
As we jumped around high-fiving, cheering, spraying Budweiser one teammate pulled me aside and said, “you're right, winning is FUN!”
Look for us to be representing Outdoorzy next year. I’m sure this victory will bring all us rain-retired riders back in full force.
http://flickr.com/photos/mitchsanders/sets/72157602437471556/
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20071019/SPORTS/71019019
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
