6-hour solo, 12 laps, 2nd overall (on a Singlespeed)

I raced men's singlespeed again and placed 2nd out of 66 total solo racers (59 men, 7 women). There were 15 of us in the singlespeed class. I love the Fireline as a singlespeed; it is so fast, light and smooth! Two weeks ago I finished ~8.5 minutes behind Stephen Ridgeway in a 6-hour solo race. I thought that was too much to make up, but yesterday I finished only ~2.5 minutes back. We were the only two solo racers with 12 laps! Out of the 43 teams, there were also two (3-person-male) teams with 12 laps (due to the muddy conditions the course was slower than last year.) This is what happens when you invite your parents to a race: Aside from a little poster embarrassment, it was great to have them at the race. They helped me out with feeds and split times. I was hoping Stephen would think I couldn't fit in a 12th lap and would quit early, but his Dad was giving him splits as well... Supportive families are awesome.

6-hour Singlespeed Dirty Spokes - Conyers!

Last year Eric (Dedicated Athlete) beat me at Gainesville, I was geared and he was singlespeed; this year I tried to get him in the Singlespeed class, I got close! Results

What fun! I thought it was a hard course for a singlespeed, super steep climbs and flat fields. I entered the men's SS 6-hour solo class and didn't have a clue what to expect, there were 11 in the field and I finished 3rd, ~38 seconds behind Eric Ritenour (2nd) and 8.4 minutes behind Stephen Ridgeway (1st). The first few hours were very social, seeing a lot of people I haven't seen in over a year and meeting lots of new people.

With three laps to go I asked John Myers what place I was, he checked it out and let me know I was in 3rd with Eric ~5 minutes up, I did what I could for the last three laps, but couldn't get him...

I pitted with Addictive Cycles who were performing neutral support. Thank you Cody, Scott and Matt for making sure the bike stayed together. Thank you Tim and Dirty Spokes for such a great race! Congrats Nam and Eddie O'Dea & Chris and Tina Pic in the 12 hour 4-person team class. Namrita rode her SS, I would guess that adds 4+ minutes a lap compared to gears.

Congrats to my sister Erika, Jen Hanks and the rest of the Utah Girls team for their Pro Woman category win in the 24 hours at Moab this weekend.

Single Speed AZ 2008

SSAZ08, 45 mile loop (50 if you include riding to the start and back from the finish), ~6500feet of climbing, lots of hike-a-bike, super techy and a long crazy DH descent (good picture in one of the links below) to the finish. I have not seen any official results (single speeders…) I finished 5th or 6th SS out of 47 (1st of the 3 girls). My time was 5hrs23min. The race started in 32degree weather with a 47minute paved climb to singletrack, the first place guy soloed off, then there was my group of 6 including the other pro girl Jennifer Wilson, I looked back down the climb when we turned onto singletrack and didn't see anyone else. I was in a good position after the first downhill, but had to stop to change a flat then play catch up for a while. I rode with a quite a few different guys, it was a very social race; trying to figure out the trail with other racers is a lot more fun that going it alone.

And all on less than 3 hours sleep. Being a SS race, we had to be at the bar (in Tucson) the night before from 11:45 to midnight for "packet pickup". Some of the other serious racers blew it off and I probably should have as well, but I thought I would do the SS thing. And they actually got rolling at sun-up, hangovers and all.

This picture is the finish line, pizza and beer in a wash, very nice pictures in the MTBR links: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=378204 http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=376228