24 hour Summer Solstice

I found myself in a change of rolls this year. It was a nice change and a great weekend but for some reason though I still feel almost as exhausted racing on a corporate team as I do racing solo or tag. It might be my lack of fitness, the beer I drank in between laps, the lack of sleeping. What ever, I had fun.

I got the privilege of riding with the Racedayrush.com crew, great guys. With 7 of us it meant a good rest between laps. It also meant lots of time to wander around and enjoy all the festivities that I normally don't get to see.

First lap was late afternoon, rocked the 29er. Description of the course, fast and extremely dry. After many years of being rained on we had the exact opposite, no complaints here. The corners were about as slippery as in previous years. Fast laps, longer than in previous years which I think most were happy about, half decent performance of my legs but far from where they used to be. Didn't care, had fun.

Returned to the dualie for the night. I love night riding, maybe it's because with the exposure lights it's not really dark. Love my dualie, first night lap was pretty much episode free, lots of traffic but passing was easy with everyone knowing what to do. Everyone was friendly, seemed like lots of first time racers and potentially first time night riders, great to see.

My second night lap was on going along smoothly until just over the midway point, at roughly 3 in the morning every solo is going through those demon hours, I caught up with one who seemed to be doing well with the demons, then they struck. Reached out of the darkness and knocked him down, I found myself on the ground right behind him. Made sure he was ok, got him back on his bike and then motored on. A few seconds late I felt weak, It wnt me, it was the bike. In the tumble my rear rotor got bent, a quick once over had me a little concerned, of course I didn't have any tools on me to attempt to resolve it. Tried to bend it back, it was beyond that, screw it ride it you wuss. The downhills were fine, it was that drag on the uphills and flats that started to take a toll on the legs, was happy that it was cool, only a minute or so slower with all the extra fun.

Team was on track for a podium, everyone picked it up on their last laps. Solid gap over 4th, not catching 2nd. 3rd is a great finish out of 99 teams. Smack talked Mr. Wagler and the milk kids on the podium, if your going to finish behind a team you don't mind it being them.

End of the day, had a great weekend, glad I had the opportunity to race with a great group of guys. Return to the road bike this week. Couple weeks till the next adventure.
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