NewsArticleBody
Jeff Linder about to take on world class MTB champs on a funny little green bike...
A few months ago, on a beautiful spring morning on the mountain bike trails of near by Ft. Ord, Califonia, I had a brief moment of insanity where the idea of entering the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solo event sounded like a good idea.
I rushed back home, hopped onto the race web-site, pre-registered, sent in my 50% deposit on the entry fee and sat back and watched the realization of what I had just emotionally and physically committed to sink in.
I kept the idea pretty much a secret for a wee while as I didn't quite know how my wife was going to take the news. I had already put her through the emotional wringer when I entered the 1990 Iditabike event in Alaska. Ah yes, the 1990 version of the Iditabike, where the snow was so deep, riding your bike was impossible and I was left with "post-holing" through the snow for 36 hours along side my bike while my wife was making repeated phone calls to the event organizers, only to be told that I was somewhere between here and there with no way to be contacted as unprecedented weather conditions had disabled their communications systems.
It was this memory in the back of my mind that kept me from breaking the news to Joannie. But as she saw me begin slipping out at midnight for a little bike ride things began to become just a wee bit suspect.
I finally came clean and fessed up a month or so ago and got little more than a shoulder shrug out of her.
Seems nothing much surprises her any more if its a bike related adventure. So preparation began in earnest, which meant that I had to be certain to take my Bike Friday on all of my trips (I'm a pilot for United Airlines) because I certainly didn't have enough time at home to train adequately! My Air Friday and I began to be a recognizable duo at all of the finer security screening stations at many of the world's airports.
There were times when I actually heard screeners say, "Oh, here's the pilot with the bicycle again". It's nice to be recognized.
Oh yes, about the race....Naturally you don't just step up to the start line without having a plan. Not having much to work with in the way of experience, I moved forward with hesitation. One thing that I knew for sure was that I wanted to use my Bike Friday in the event if at all possible.
On the road I am 100% Bike Friday. I haven't ridden a 700cc bike in years - in my mind, there's is no need to. In fact, I always find that I have a secret psychological advantage if I am in a competitive arena. People are caught off guard by how fast Bike Friday is, how well it climbs and how stable it is during the really high speed descents. Bike Friday has done a superb job in closing the gap on its 26" wheel brethren with theAir Llama . But in deep, deep dirt, a bigger wheel naturally does have a slight advantage. My plan was to use the Bike Friday as far as possible in combination with my Specialized S-Works Epic MTB.
I started preparing my Air Llama in earnest with a superb overhaul by Tim Link.The new SRAM Dual Drive hub was amazingly quick shifting (so much better than the old Sachs 3x drives of yesterday's Bike Fridays) and the cool new Nokon cable housing is an upgrade that all BF owners ought to look into.
After the LeMan start, where we had to run about a quarter mile before mounting our bikes, I roared off on the first lap with wild cheers of recognition for the bike (not me!)
"GO BIKE FRIDAY!" greeted me at every marshaller's station and the fans just kept cheering. Honestly, do you EVER hear anyone say "GO [insert mass-produced bike brand name here]!"?
Fast forwarding through 24 hours of mud, rock, dark, light, dark, rock, mud to the later stages of the event, I finally asked my crew-mates in the pit how I was going. I had just completed 13 laps and had never even entertained any thought of actually racing against anything other than my own slipstream (and several slips in several streams). Ken and Tom looked at each other and said, "Should we tell him?" Then they blurted it out:
I, A GREYING FIFTY-SOMETHING PILOT, WAS SITTING 4TH OVERALL!
That is, 4TH OUT OF 40 STARTERS! I was stunned.
I was in the open class, meaning there were NO AGE DIVISIONS and I could hardly believe it.
But now, the cat was out of the box and I got a whiff of the scent of the podium. I began to calculate just how much more adrenalin I had in me. As it turned out, there was exactly 17 laps, or 177 miles and 36,000+ feet of climbing in me .. but not a muscle twitch more.
To cut a long bike ride short I was placed 5th overall and got an invitation to the World Solo Championships to be held later this summer in Whistler, B.C.
There, they'll be age-grading the competition with a 55+ category that will suit me just fine. I haven't really committed myself yet, as there are a lot of other things vying for my time and energy, but I am tantalized...
Just keep a look out for the older bloke on the little wheeled bike. Oh, and for those who don't believe I came 5th, here's the official results - just click on May 17/18 Laguna Seca.
Jeff Linder, jjl@redshift.com
For more information, follow this link http://www.24hoursofadrenalin.com/.