24hrs of Moab

Another Moab in the books. That makes three Moab and I think 9 Canaan/Snowshoe races. Man, I must be getting old. This year was great, as it marked the return to racing for my brother Brian. After 2 years of being the mechanic, he has been riding like a fiend, lost 20lbs and gave it a go. Pre-riding the course with him, I was reminded how great a descender he is, as he was stuck to my rear wheel through some truely technical riding, never having seen the course and on a borrowed bike with 2-inches less travel than he is used to. Crazy! Our result? A top 5 finish in the men's sport class!! I think that was the best we have done at any of the races in the past. It turned out almost perfect weather this year, with sun, cool temps and NO WIND!! The sand had been tamed, compared to prior years and the course was 99% rideable. Though I did have a bike with more than 1 gear this year, which may have helped?! Anyway, we started with the youngster of the group, Steve, first. He got off to a very fast start with a 1:07 lap or something utterly ridiculous. Brian followed with an excellent lap, just below 1:30, then Zach on his single speed again, around 1:17 and I was the old man caboose. I was pleasantly suprised to ride a 1:12, taking 3 minutes off my fastest lap from 5 years ago on a full suspension. This year, I again rode the irrepressably fast, comfy and stable Surly Karate Monkey hardtail!! I love that bike. As they say Steel is Real!!
The race continued without serious disasters until Zach came running in, after breaking his chain about a mile from the end. This must have been a bad omen, as my lap third lap went from okay to CRAP, quickly. It is always the third lap for me that is poor. This time it had gone okay until the 11 mile mark when I was coming up a rocky climb on the backside. As I rode up over the rocks, one grabbed my front tire, stopped it dead, catapulting the rear up in the air, with me still in the seat pedaling in the air, only to be slammed back down and toppled to the side, landing my ass on the rock. Since it was 4am, first, I thought maybe I was just dreaming? Alas, not to be. Got back up and started riding, pain in the ass not allowing full power to the left pedal, but luckily, not much climbing on this course. At the end of the long dirt road decent in the sand pit at the end, I pedaled half way though when my cranks suddenly pedaled round with no resistance. Dropped chain, crap. Dismounted and ran the rest of the way through. Put the chain on and took 1 pedal rev, dropped chain again, Crap. I focused my light on the chain, only to find 2 chain ring bolts gone, and the ring about 1 inch away from the crank, benty beyond repair. Double crap! So I ran (kind of, did I mention my ass?) the last mile pushing my bike. No bolt spacers to be found, my race was done. Steve, Brian and Zach finshed the day off in good style. A total of 16 laps, our most ever. All in all a great race. Everyone seemed pleased, happy and no injuries (my ass was better in a week). Everyyear, seems like it will be my last, but then I think of the sicko's who do it solo, the real sicko's who do it solo on singlespeeds, and the truely insane who do it solo on rigid singlespeeds and figure, I must not be that demented!!!