Last weekend I raced the 24 Hours of Moab which was also the USA Cycling 24 Hour National Championship for 2009. After a long, hard, successful season, I elected not to race Moab as a solo. The course is physically very brutal, my season has been going strong since February and I have accomplished more than I set out to do this season. So, I let myself relax a little on this one and teamed up with Colorado mtb pro and good friend, Gretchen Reeves as a women’s duo team. Gretchen has a long, impressive resume in cycling and is a blast to hang out with. My biggest fear was that she’d be significantly faster and I’d be a disappointment. It turned out we were a perfect match up.

The weather in Ketchum turned horrendous, so a group of us headed down to Moab 6 days early for some warm riding and hanging out. It was a luxury to have that much time to settle in, stake out transition territory for the race and hit some classic Moab trails. A big posse of friends from Smith Optics, Salomon and other Idaho friends were also racing, so we staked out a huge transition area for about 35 people. As the weekend drew closer tents, motor homes, campers all started to roll in and spring up to form the city of about 5000 people who turn out for the event.

The course is a 15 mile loop that’s very technical for the first 6 miles and then high speed sand surfing for the remaining 9 miles. The shifting sands change the nature of the course every year and even change the lines from lap to lap during the event. It’s a course that requires a ton of power for the sharp climbs and strong technical skills to stay safe and on top of your bike. Gretchen and I were disappointed to find out that there were no other duo women’s teams entered in the race. However, we did find out that all duo pro teams would be scored together for the prize money, so that meant the men’s teams and the mixed teams were fair game for us. It would have been easy to ride a couple of laps, then just hang out and win the championship jersey. Gretchen and I are too competitive for that, so the race was on regardless of gender. Gretchen was game to tackle the first lap which includes a running start with a horde of people in the sandy desert. As you can imagine, air quality and traffic on that first lap are intense. She ripped a great first lap and came in with the 2nd fastest women’s time of 1:12. We tagged off, exchanged the baton and off I went.

I was amped to not let Gretchen down and rode hard. I passed the first place women’s solo rider on that lap, so I was in the lead for all the female riders. Our team was 7th in the duo pro category after 2 laps and 42nd overall.

The weather was crisp and dropped into the 30’s at night, but it was perfect for riding. Moab has a reputation of serving up sandstorms, flash floods or intense heat. We had none of those things and I was relived. The biggest risk seemed to be the ever-shifting sands and trying to find a way to keep pedaling through it. Each lap, the lines would change or get blown out, especially during the night laps as more riders were walking or missing the narrow path that was established. It took alot of focus to stay on top of the bike without slowing down too much or having to walk your bike.

I was lucky enough to get both the sunset and sunrise laps and some killer views during those times. Overnight our consistency had slowly moved us up and by sunrise we were battling it out for 2nd place in the duo pro category. The first place team was a men’s team that was way out in front. Gretchen and I had been going back and forth for a number of hours with a mixed team and exchanging 2nd and 3rd placing. I started calculating how many laps we could still get in before the cut off time and figured if we were fast enough, we’d just have time for 9 laps each. Gretchen finished her 9th lap at about 11:40, so that meant I had time to do get out for one more lap and try to keep us in 2nd place for the duo pro category. I had no idea how far back the next team was and I knew their faster rider was up next. I churned the last lap as if I was being chased because I thought I was. As it turns out, the other team did not do their final lap, so we had our placing sealed before I even started the last lap.

I was really glad that Gretchen and I made a race of it and battled it out with the men and mixed teams. It’s way more exciting to have some incentive and motivation to ride hard. I was really happy with my performance after a long hard season. I had not geared up for this race and my training leading up to it was less than perfect. Despite that, my times on that course were faster than ever and I was able to ride sections of the course that I had previously walked. Moab is the race that launched my endurance mountain biking career four years ago and it was really rewarding to come back to the same course and use it as a measuring stick for how far my riding has come. It was also fantastic to beat all the men’s and mixed duo teams except for one. Of course, being a National Champion for the third time is also a huge reward!! I now have 24 hour solo, duo and four person National Championship titles!In the end, we rode 18 laps (9 each) for a total of 268 miles and over 24,000 ft of climbing. We were first in our division, 2nd in all duo teams and 24th overall out of around 400 teams. For those interested, you can search complete results and lap times here: http://www.grannygear.com

Next up, I will be heading out of my element and into the cement jungle of Manhattan. I leave Sunday for a media tour of NYC where I’ll be riding with magazine editors, hitting some bikes shops for clinics and getting some face time with the media!