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| 26th Aug 2004 Update |
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| Jenn O'Connor successfully defended her Global
24 hour Solo Title at the Saab Salomon Mountain Maythen in UK. |
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Saturday 26 - Sunday 27 June 2004
Well, the biggest and toughest race of the season is now over,
and what a fantastic event! We arrived on Thursday evening to
set up camp, and I pre-rode the course on Friday. At that stage
the weather was still fine and sunny, but the forecast was for
rain, so we were ready with mudguards and mud tyres.
We had a full set of Panaracer mud, trail and semi-slick tyres
for both bikes (although the semi-slicks never made it out of
the car all weekend!).
We really didn't know how close my race would be, as Titus had
brought a 24 hour solo specialist in from the States, Barbara
Kreisle, and we expected a serious challenge from her. In fact
Barbara was totally overwhelmed by the mud and rain (she’s
from Idaho) and never looked like a contender for the lead.
The rain came in on Saturday morning as predicted and the race
started in the rain. I set out fast and began putting serious
time into the women’s field from the gun, lapping my competition
within the first six hours. The women were lapping at 1.5 -
2+ hours, so this margin allowed me to stop each lap for lactic
testing and stay pretty relaxed.
I rode the first two laps on Trailblaster Tubeless 1.95s, but
switched to Trailraker 1.95s for both bikes from the third lap.
It was the right decision, as the mud tyres were perfect for
the wet, slippery conditions and allowed me to ride pretty much
100% of the course. I lost track of the number of people pushing
their bikes who asked me what tyres I was running!
The weather eased up a little on Saturday afternoon, but the
rain and gales began again just as it was getting properly dark,
about 10pm. I was swapping bikes each lap as the mud had become
so deep and thick that the bikes were nearly twice their original
weight by the time they came in (no really, we weighed one at
40 pounds!). Andy had his work cut out just keeping the bikes
clean and running smoothly through the night, although apart
from mud-related shifting problems (the Epic got two full cable
refits) we had no mechanical setbacks. Credit to Andy and to
Duncan from Specialized for that.
The stars came out just before dawn, about 4am, and it was a
real boost. The atmosphere on course was grim as most people
had given up trying to ride and were instead focused on pushing
and swearing. I had lapped the women’s field again by the
time the sun came up and I knew I just had to keep moving to
win my race.
At that point I switched off from the women’s race and
began focusing on the men’s field, as I was placed 5th
out of about 90 at that stage. A couple more fast laps put me
in a comfortable and respectable 4th overall with 13 laps at
22 hours, and I took a well-earned 30 minute break before going
out for a leisurely final lap to finish right on 24 hours.
I lapped the women’s field three times in the end to complete
14 laps. Nat Ross (USA, Gary Fisher) and my good friend Jean
Claude van der Veken (GB, Halfords) dominated the men’s
solo race, each completing 17 laps, with Nat taking the win.
The third placed man was Isaac Wilson (GB) with 15 laps. Debbie
Smith (GB) and Barbara Kreisle (USA, Titus) made up the women’s
podium, each with 11 laps. |
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