24 hrs in the Old Pueblo

I have been wanting to make this post for the last couple of weeks but I have held off until my IT department could help me figure out how to upload the footage from my sweet new Contour HD camera. Well, she has been to busy to mess around with such trivial pursuits so I will give you the run down without my footage for now.

First off I want to say that the 24 HIOP was probably the best event I have ever been to. Great location, great trail, and well run. Duane and I loaded up his Dad's travel trailer and headed out around 3pm on thursday afternoon. A short 10hrs later we arrived at the camp site. I am pretty sure we woke a few people up maneuvering into a space. Sorry everyone.

The course itself is just shy of 17 miles, very smooth and full of cactus. Here's the map.


And here is a picture of the cactus slalom course.


Due to one of the team contacting Hoof and Mouth the week before the event we showed up without a 4th member, after much negotiation we a talked the one and only Gary Rock into riding for the Sons of the Red Sand. Here he and Duane are working on Duane's bike.


Gary ended up turning in the fastest lap for our team with a blistering 1:06:19. That is 13 minutes faster than my fastest time. I secretly hate that guy.

Here is the trusty Coconino in race form, resting comfortably before my first lap.

The track is so smooth that a rigid fork was the perfect choice. The SS is so simple that the only mechanic work I did the whole weekend was lube my chain.

Wrapping up the last lap.




Duane feeling the flow. "It's circular, you get on and it goes round and round." Gratuitous Happy Gilmore reference.


The end of the trail goes right thru the camp, I kept expecting a stray dog or wandering child to run out in front of me.




The support crew, who did an outstanding job of keeping us fed and the home fires burning.



Finish line.



We ended up in 8th place in the SS division with a total of 18 laps. I did 5 laps, 3 in the dark. That is not my preferred way to do it but overall I was happy with my performance. On the way home Duane announced that next year he wants to be in the top 5 next year. I guess we will see, I plan on doing this one for years to come.

I did find on the interweb a great video of the event. Much better than mine will eventually be.

24 Hours in the Old Pueblo from Vladimir Chaloupka on Vimeo.