2015 Erock Sunrise to Sunset MTB team race

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June 27, 2015

2015 Erock Sunrise to Sunset MTB team race

We, Dave, Ilka, Brent, john and myself decided to do the 11 hours or Erock aka Sunrise to sunset team MTB race. I was wishing it was a 24 hour race just to get more miles in but this will be fun anyway. It's a different course than I race in the 24 hours or Erock and thank goodness because that course was so boring that I swore I would never do that one again.

In any case we had been talking about this for a few months but we didn't actually register until an hour before registration was to close. It was someone of an interesting team since Ilka has only been on a MTB maybe 10 times in the last 3 years or so and Brent and John are pretty new to mtbking.   Ilka and Brent were pretty nervous about the whole thing, but we were just here to get some experience and have some fun.   There were no expectations of any kind of podium experience so there's no pressure, we're just here to have fun.

We arrive at the venue on time and park etc. The weather is looking good since the forecast was for horrible rains. It was cloudy but I'll take that over the the blazing heat of the sun as that heat can take a lot out of you. Seems like no one wanted to go 1st so Dave volunteers and I plan to go 2nd.   The start was a huge mass start which was crazy large. If we were int this for some good laps we would need to be near the front, but since we didn't care Dave got a spot buried deep in the pack.
Bang the gun goes off and there is lots of cheering and it's a relief to finally be racing.

Seems like it took forever to get all of the riders past the start line.   5 minutes later John an I decide to get in some course checkout and we ran into the line of starters only 200 yards down the course! We hang out for a bit and check out some of the course and we know it's going to be a fun day as this course is awesome!

Dave finishes his 1st lap and I am waiting for him. I not really nervous but I am anxious to get that Cannondale of mine into battle.   That bike is like a rocket and on this course it should be a blast.   I take off and I immediately start passing riders.   Seems like I am picking them off quite easily but there are only a few good places to pass and riders are letting be by but not as fast as I would like.   At least I can let the bike run on most of the down hill sections without being held up too much. I'm probably loosing more time than I think I am but I press on knowing that everyone pretty much has the same disadvantage.

This course is sooooo much fun. It just flows with lots of twisty fun ups and downs.   It's also easy enough that Ilka and Brent won't have too much trouble with any of it. I want everyone to have good experience here so this is a good thing!   I am ripping past riders feeling a bit guilty that I am riding a $$$$ bike, but it feels good!   I wish I had this bike for some of the other races I did in the past as I might have been on the podium a few more times.    Anyway I get down with my 1st lap and I can't wait to get out there again!

Ilka is waiting for me at the handoff and I really hope that she has a good experience. She was soooo nervous. I know that she can ride this course easily and her climbing and endurance will be a real asset longer in the race.   I am wishing it was a 24hr race to really be able to take advantage of her strengths but there's always next year to find a 24 race! We are waiting and watching for Ilka.   I decide to go up to the start finish line and to my surprise she is rolling in and Brent is not waiting for her!!! I run back to our pit area and announce that Ilka is back!   Brent grabs his bike and heads to the start finish and takes off.   That was a major faux pas! one that we don't need to repeat again!
Brent done a pretty good lap despite the fact that he crashed a couple of times over cooking a couple of turns.   I am sure he was going pretty hard which is good that he is treating this event as a "let's see what I can do" event.   I am not sure how much time was lost in those crashes but I am sure it was at least a minute or so.    Good think he wasn't physically or mentally hurt by this one.   He definitely learned from that experience and was ready go for his next few laps.

John is up next and I know he will be pretty fast.    He goes off and he is looking pretty smooth.    He come back at a reasonably fast time, but turns out that he crashed pretty hard out there.   He basically had to one leg pedal it back as he hit a tendon or something and was in a lot of pain when he pedaled.   He was bummed that he had crashed, but more bummed that he might not be able to do any more laps! John is a real team player and the thought of letting his team down was tearing at him and I could see the anguish on his face that at this point he won't be able to do another lap!   Major bummer here!   So we get John somewhat cleaned up while Dave is on his second lap. John visits the EMTs and they bandage him up. The didn't have any crazy news like he broke anything, but Johns still in a lot of pain!
At some point John finds the intermediate results and it seems that despite our woes, we are in 4th place and only down by a few minutes.   This was quite surprising but it was motivating to have a decent finish and perhaps the chance to reel in the folks in 3rd.   In any case it was a relief I am sure for all that we weren't in last place or embarrassing ourselves.

I take my next lap and I am still feeling pretty good.   The riders are more spread out and I am able to go a bit faster on this lap!   Since I the 1st time I had seen the course in it's entirety was on my 1st lap, it was nice to know where I can go hard and recover.   I was feeling as strong as the 1st lap but that can be an illusion when fatigue sets in and perceived effort isn't in actuality a good gauge of performance.
Ilka takes her next lap and we are doing pretty well. John is still in a good bit of discomfort, more from the feeling of letting his team down.

It's more of rinse later repeat and we keep doing our turns.   John is unable to take his next lap so I slide into his slot to give him more time to recover. He's thinking he may be able to do a lap but not just yet, but he is feeling better.

I check the results after my lap and I find out that have moved up into 3rd place!   Yes we are now in a podium spot. This is quite motivating for the team.   Knowing that now we could podium we are much more attentive to not making any more mistakes.    We are only up on 4th by a few minutes and they could come back on us so we don't want to celebrate as the race isn't even half over yet.
We keep checking the results and find that we are pretty solidly in 3rd as we put a ton of time between us and 4th place.   We seem to be putting time into 2nd place and are 6 minutes back or so.   That's a lot of time to make up but looks like we have 3rd locked in unless some thing catastrophic happens.   There is lots of excitement in our pits and ya know, racing seems like more fun now that we have a reason to go hard in that a podium is possible.

John is feeling good enough to take his turn.   I am hoping that he isn't pushing himself too hard and risking season ending damage by not just calling it quits. John is out on the course for about 10 minutes and it begins to rain! Boom, lighting and it's raining really hard! We all scramble to get into the cars and I am really hoping that John is OK since it would suck to be out there in the cold rain! with the wind chill on the bike, it could easily mean hypothermia for John and that would be bad!

At some point the race officials call for a rain delay and they are not letting anyone else out on the course.   John had made the choice to keep going. which turned out to be a good thing to ensure our podium spot and keep us on the same lap as the top 2 teams.
Finally John makes it back to the start finish!.   I was so worried that he would be hurt, cold tired or worse.   He was pushing pretty hard, so he wasn't cold. You could almost see the steam coming of of his body!

The results come in after a while and we are now in 2nd place! Holy cow, that would be so cool to get a silver. We are only up on 3rd by a couple of minutes and I know they will realize that they are close to a silver so they will push hard.
Seems like a 45 minute delay and the rain blows over and they are doing another mass restart. Bummer, cause we need to get a good postion over the 3rd place team as we only a few minutes apart.   Brent was going to start near the back, but Ilka makes him move up and this is a good thing, since as it turns out later, we would have lost our podium spot if he hadn't.

My turn to ride again and it's going to be my 4th and last lap so I don't need to save anything.   I am definitely not as fresh as earlier but I am still OK.    I immediately start passing people but it starts to rain again slightly and the course is getting slicker.   My front wheel almost washed out a couple of times and I am really missing the blue groove lines that were there on my 2nd lap. With all the rain and much, my glasses are getting foggy and I can't go nearly as fast as I would like. I keep pressing on and find myself behind a young woman who asked me if I wanted to pass. Her speed is good, so I just sa nah and hang behind her for a minute or so. Then I ask her if she was on a 5 person team, and she said yes!   Turns out she was on the 1st place team that we were competing with.   At that point I decided that I should go by her! I pass her and checkout.   I pushed pretty hard to the end.   I know that with the time delay we are still 20 minutes behind 1st place, but we must have made up a could of minutes.
I come in and Dave, Brent, John finish up our laps.   John was pushing so hard on that last lap coming up the hill. I'm not even sure if he saw me when he went by.   He was so focused on doing well and putting the team 1st in his effort to finish strong.

When it was all said and done there was a timing snafu and the promoters weren't able to give out the medals in our category.

kind of a bummer not to get to get our medals and accolades from the crowd but it's all good!   After a week or so they sorted it out and we ended up in 2nd, yes!   Nice time was had by all.   We could win this one next year, maybe we will be back!