Big Bikes

Freaky Photo Friday/GG24 Jus' A little Bit More

With The Dark Horse 40 looming on the horizon (more like my doorstep, it's in two days)
I really have to wrap up this GG24 stuff. I've basically taken the week off, I've learned that, after you do something stupid to yourself like a 100 miler or a 24, when you go back to training you have to be very, very careful. If you put some pressure on the legs and they're all like "Again? We just did it three days ago!'. You have to leave them be and come back later. Sometimes it's ridiculous, like this week, I rode to and from work in my 39 X 19 on the road bike for a total of 1.5 hours. I'm hoping to get a couple in today and a couple in tomorrow before the Darkhorse for a grand total of maybe 8 or 9 hours for the week. Woo Hoo!


The first time I did The GG24, which was my first 24, I had maybe two pair of shorts and possibly three jerseys. It rained 6 inches in 22 hours. The trauma of putting those mud-logged shorts and jersey back on a half dozen or so times has stayed with me. I came to GG strapped this year, more than enough fresh and clean outfits to go around. Problem was I neglected to bring undershirts, and it dropped to the low 50's at night, so I had to recycle my long sleeve jersey, and vest, even doubling up on jerseys a couple times. Putting on sweat/dew soaked lycra then sitting in my sleeping bag shivering and trying to warm up was just a notch below Philippe Gaumont's habit of rubbing salt on his testicles until they bled so he could get a prescription for otherwise-banned cortisone on the unpleasantness scale.

This is my go-to recovery position. I basically come back from my lap, change into something less sweaty and form fitting, grab a snack (this year we had Miriam on support so she actually did the snack wrangling which was sweet), and a drink, then throw the legs up and try to relax as hard as I possible for as long as possible. There are no warm ups and cool downs at 24s (if you wanna win 'em...heh, heh). You're going to need every twitch in every fiber of your muscles you can get, you don't wanna waste them on warming up or cooling down. Riding to and from the start tent is more than adequate.

The smell, you know that dirty chamois smell, the whole tent. Smelled like...victory.

Harry Precourt running, that's running his ass off at the end of his last lap. The kid turned himself inside out on his rigid 29er. He may fall into the same category as Jeff Whittingham on the mental toughness scale. A long time ago I voted Whittingham "Most likely to kill his body with his brain".


Mat Katz, Me, Whittingham, and Harry (who was so spent he couldn't even climb all the way up the podium). I gotta give Mat a special thanks. The guy came into this thing having no idea what he was getting into and he rocked the shit wicked hard to give us the win. When you put together a 24 team it's as much based on personalities as quickness. Who cares if your teammates are fast if by 3AM you want to smother them with a pillow in their sleep. Mat was an unknown quantity, but he turned out to be fast and good company in the weird, weird wee hours of the night.

OK, that's about it for GG24 until next time. Moving right along...this is Miriam's set up for her 10 day bike trek around northern New England. We set up her Madone with a seatpost mounted Trek trunk rack system, a compact crankset, some Continental Gatorskins, a map holder, and an 11-28 cassette (thanks Shimano for deciding that 12-27s are not what we want anymore). She's going to have to pack light but she should be alright. Hell, you could fit a Kitchen-Aid blender in the Detours stem pack there.

The Darkhorse...
I'm registered as a Single-Speed. Couldn't resist the pull of that custom painted Niner Fork. Looking forward to a good battle with James Harmon for the thing. Question is, if, I say if I win that thing do I get painted a color I might like or a color that will make it more easy to sell to someone else? Although, I have a feeling that if I get it painted one of my favorite colors it may be even more appealing to a certain someone in North Carolina.

DH40!