Ol' Pueblo

For some people it's Mecca for others it's Jerusalem but for me it will be an annual pilgrimage to a little piece of heaven just outside of Oracle Arizona. This years 24 hrs in the Old Pueblo solidified my lifetime reservation to that event. Gale force winds and rain could not diminish the incredibly enjoyable time we had.

Friday night I saw the best sunset I have ever seen.

The report was that 1850 riders took part in this years event, the whole thing is remarkably well run and organized for such a large gathering. This is a shot of the main drag in 24 hr Town during Todd Sadow's soapbox speech. There was a lot of bad facial hair this year.

Back at our camp we had the living room/ bike shop all set up, yes that is a piece of carpet.  JT our teammates from last year decided to ride solo this time and pulled off a third place finish hats off to him.
We replaced him with the guy in the center of the frame.

The race started as the clouds and wind started moving in. Duane did the run for the Le Mans style start again this year, I hope I never have to do that, it looks like no fun.

The picture below is just before my second lap, the clouds had settled to the ground and there was a fine mist accompanying the 20-25 mph gusts.
As I made the turn and started east the wind was at my back, I was riding at the same speed as the wind which creates a very quiet, almost eerie silence. This was the best part of any of my laps, riding thru the desert with the fog and silence was just incredible. Unfortunately just as it got too dark to continue without lights I  turned into the wind for the climb and that was when things got really ugly as the clouds opened up and soaked me to the bone in about 2.8 seconds flat. The last 5 miles of that lap were miserable; uphill, against the wind, in the pouring rain. There must have been 8 people walking up the climb.

With an incredible stroke of luck I managed to snag the sunrise lap as well, the rain was gone and the wind had lessened but the temps had dropped to around 40. The rain and traffic had packed the dirt into perfect conditions.

Duane finished his 5th lap just a few minutes past 12 o'clock giving us 17 total laps.
I call this his superman outfit.

We finished 8th out of 19 teams in our category, middle of the pack is where I live. Shout out to Delina of Sabrosa fame who cowgirled up for 11 laps all by her lonesome, that is one tough chick.
There are a lot more stories I could tell but long blahg posts upset me so call me if you want to hear about Chris's broken Gary Fisher frame, my double flat, the broken seat post, scratched corneas or the Chocolate Baby. Good times, good times.