Brad Nielsen was kind enough to give me a ride to the airport in Tulsa. Unfortunately, Dallas had a freak snowstorm the day I was to fly out, and my plane that was suppposed to take me to Denver never left Dallas. I flew to Vegas instead and then to Tucson. I was later getting in by 3 hours. Rob Kelsey picked me up at the airport. He was the captain of our team and pulled the whole thing together....quite well, I must say. I would never have done this without him.
We hit In-n-Out Burger before heading into the desert to where we were camping/racing. Dana Thornhill provided our luxury accomodations. His camper was very comfortable.
We rode the course on Friday after our fouth guy (actually, our starter) Jeff Glick, a captain in the army, arrived. The lap ended up being about 17 miles. There weren't any steep crazy climbs, just short ones. The best part was the downhill at the end of the lap. Lots of singletrack through the desert for the most part.
The race started Lamans style. We drafted Jeff to be the lead guy. He rode an old hardtail airborne bike. He sprinted down the start and was one of the first 50 or so to grab his bike from the crowds of spectators and get moving. Lucky for him! There were hundreds or maybe even thousands starting that race! What a sight!
My lap start times were 1:21pm, 7:42pm, 2:08am, and 8:45am.- so there were 2 laps in the daylight and 2 laps in the dark. My best lap was the first, 1hr 25min., then I had 1hr 31min, 1:39, and 1:30. Everyone on the team crashed on the first lap except for me, but I did manage to hit a cholla cactus with my right arm. It stuck right in my bicep and didn't move until I stopped to remove it.
Our team to 63rd out of 139 4-man teams, so not bad. Will I do it again? I would if drafted and sponsored, but I don't think I'm going out looking for that kind of trouble anytime soon.
