I decided that I was not recovered enough from the previous 24 Hour of Afton to participate in the 24 Hours of Iowa which left me two choices. I could either head to Wisconsin with my mother for a annual reuinion with her family or I could help out with the pit area for Kerkove and his attempt at back-to-back 24 hour race weekends. Not one to miss out on possible history making events, Amy and I made the trip to Boone with Kerkove for his second 24 hour race in a week.

Jeff set the pit area up so that we all knew where everything was at and what he would need between laps. We were ready to go with a little over an hour before the start so we settled in for the duration and did a bit of mingling with the other racers. Squirrel was ready to go with his Karate Monkey SSer and a K2 Razorback SS as a backup. This was his first solo 24 hour attempt and he looked to be pretty stoked about. Cam was there with the ultimate four-man team ready for team class domination. I also ran into the great Josh Shively from Smith's Cycle & Fitness in LaCrosse, WI. Josh has family in the area and he swung over to see if there was other lengths of races such as six or twelve hour. Unfortunatetly they not so we did not get to see him tear it up on Gary Fisher Rig which is a singlespeed and rigid too. He did hang out with Amy and I in the pit area for a couple of laps before he headed out which was really cool. We have a few mutual friends so it allowed us time to swap ride and race stories and such.

At high noon the race was on as all of the participants ran by in the traditional Le Mans style start. As usual, Jeff was up front with the team racers to set a high pace for the first few laps before settling in to his long-term pace. During the first lap, Amy gave me the low-down on how to prepare for the pit stops with information such as what food and drinks to have ready. I should know all of this since it is ready for me when I race but being on the other side of it all was a little weird. I got myself dialed in and then started watching for the riders to come down the hill to the start/finish line. Jeff finished the first lap in first position for the solos and second position overall in right around 40 minutes. His pit stop was a quick refuel of water and gel bloks and then away he went after 17 seconds. Jeff kept the pits short and sweet for the first seven laps and was also keeping the lap times in the 43-47 minute range. I went to check the placings board and it displayed a rider in front of Jeff who was still turning sub-40 minute lap times. Say what???? Even the teams were barely keeping that pace. This guy is flying...the only problem was that we had no idea who he was or even what he looked like. I got his number, figured out who he was, and then started to keep an eye on him as he went by...when he went by. Seems that he was cutting through the pit area instead of going around it so I didn't see him very often. Interesting.

Lap nine was the first lap that Jeff would need lights so he swapped helmets and I installed his battery for the fun and excitement that is night racing. :) Watching the racers come in during the night laps makes it a little more difficult to tell who's coming. The Cateye Double Shot Pro makes a bright bluish-white beam which allowed me to narrow down who was coming down the hill but I still had to walk a few feet down the pit areas to see the start/finish area and get a glimpse of who was actually coming in. A stopwatch definately helped out to determine when we should expect him. It became more and more difficult between laps when it ws dark too. Team riders start sleeping between their shifts so I was running out of people to talk to. Eventually it came down to me drinking Red Bull to stay awake between laps. I think that the pit crews might have it harder than the racers in some ways.

During some of the night laps Kerkove (2nd) and Dennis Grelk (3rd) were turning almost the same lap times right around and hour and change while this "super rider" was still turning 40-45 minute laps. Amy timed one of his laps at 36 minutes and looked at me with that WTF? look on her face. I went down to check the board again and it displayed this guy as having a four lap lead. I was really getting confused witrh all of this. Mostly because this guy was turning Eatough-like lap times in his first ever solo 24. Not an impossible task but not a likely task either. I went back to the pit area and told Amy what was going on and she was just as confused. You see, Amy has pitted for enough 12 and 24 hour races that she knows how to keep track of the leaders and she has a great sense of when each rider will roll through. Most riders slow down throughout the race and especially during the night laps. This guy was actually turning faster laps in the dark than he was in the light. Wow. Eventually I had a few other racers, team members, coming by stating that they believed this guy was cutting course and asked my thoughts. I was thankful that I wasn't the only one that noticed it. However, everyone agreed that we had no hard proof and would have a hard time proving it without actually seeing the course-cutting. Things were not adding up but everyone was getting tired and went back to their areas for some sleep.

Jeff called it a race at around 3:00 in the morning and he went to get some sleep. I feel asleep for a couple of hours, waking up around 6am and then went to check the board. "Super Rider" had a multi-lap lead on the Rassy's team according to the board. The Rassy's team is composed of some of the fastrest XC racers in the state of Iowa. Something was just not adding up. Jeff, being the modest racer that he is, blew it off and stated that it will all work itself out. We loaded up and headed for home. I received an e-mail form Jeff around 4pm that stated the "Super Rider" had been disqualified for cutting course. The race-director stated that they had a very hard time doing this but knew that it had to be done. I agree that this had to be really hard for them but I am also grateful that they did what was right. Iowa mountain bike racers have a lot of integrity and it really hurts to know that someone tried to tarnish that. Thanks to Kyle for doing the right thing.

I have a couple of conclusions from this weekends festivities. First off, working the pit area for a 24 hour solo rider is hard work. I would rather be riding and suffering physically than sitting and fighting sleep. Be sure you thank your pit crew every time that they stay up all night for you. Secondly, doing back-back 24 hour solo races looks like a bit much. Maybe a 24 hour one weekend and as a team the next? Hmmm... Third and final observation is that cheating sucks. I am pretty confident in stating that we are all out there to have fun racing our bikes. To cheat someone out of all of their hard work for your own tarnished glory is pretty sad. Hopefully a lessoned was learned here.

Congratulations to Dennis Grelk for his hard fought victory. Way to tough it out Dennis.

This entry was posted on 9.04.2006 at 9:39 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.