I’m tired but wired. I can’t think in a straight line but my head is buzzing with random thoughts. OP was good to me this year. Not so much for Dave. He’ll blog his story later perhaps.
I finished first female solo single speed with 16 laps. At 16 mile laps that adds up to 256 miles which is the furthest I have ever ridden a bike in one sitting. Any kind of bike… I got back to my pit at 11:30am and had time to go out for a 17th lap. Lying down in the tent sounded like a much better idea at that point tho.
I finished a lap up on the female geared winner and the male SS winner. Passing 1st place SS solo male about 6am I waved and gave a thumbs up cause I feared any words that might have come out of my mouth at that point :-0
Here was my steed set up:
29er with a 32×18 and 26er with a 34×17 both coming out at 52 gear inches. I had a whole library of other cogs at my disposal and was willing to use any of them but ended up keeping the gear the same the entire 24. I rode the first 4 laps on the 29er, 1 lap on the 26er and then 11 laps on the 29er.
Random thoughts:
Rebecca Tomaszewski and I had a neck and neck race for the first 12 hours. That was fun. We rode together a little and yo-yoed with the lead a few times. She finished with 14 laps which would have put her on the men’s podium too. Most often the women’s single speed class is either non-existent or a sideshow but at this one to me it was the main show and that was really cool.
On the pre-ride I visited the ditch I crashed into in 2007 and shattered my collar bone. It is a sleeper. It is inside corner of the second turn in a right-left “S” turn before you hit the 7-bitches. If you overcook the first one you swing out into the ditch. I lined up small logs and wrapped them in orange flagging. Dave said he still saw a racer go head first into it. Unless you are overcooking the pace it is a completely insignificant feature.
Every single one of my LW Coaching athletes who attended Old Pueblo finished 1st in their category. That made me super proud and happy. They rocked it.
Dave and I had a mechanic during the race and self supported all the food and clothing. I didn’t change clothes – wash or toss that chammy now?? The self support thing turned out ok.
Pit at sunset
I love Ergon grips. I ran the GE1’s with carbon bar ends. My hands were 100% happy 100% of the race and I have no post race hand soreness. That is a tall order for 24 hours on a hard tail. My rear end did not come off the race quite as happy…
The OP course is full of fun single track and wads and wads of cacti. On every lap I guess I passed about 20 racers and was passed by about 10. Multiply that by 16 laps and it comes out to about 480 passes. Probably 90% were good passes. I apologize to the 10% involved in the not so perfect ones… Out of those 48 bad passes I never hit a cacti and saw only one dude full on nail a Cholla – he was an overeager passer. Some places you just sit and wait…
Other weekend highlights include meeting new folks and learning more about World Bicycle Relief. I hope to put some of my energy into World Bicycle Relief in the future. Helping the world with bikes is a cause I can get behind. Their mission statement is Providing access to independence and livelihood through the power of bicycles.
I followed the race results on the live feed all weekend. You are just too cool. Beware of Kryptonite, Superwoman.
grannygear
Congrats!
Great Job Lynda! Having done 13 laps on the SS at OP, I think I could squeeze out 14, but 16??? NO WAY! That’s just HUGE. Glad to see you have the good taste NOT to post any pics of your raw hiney.
I’m sorry to hear Dave’s race was not so good. I know he’ll come back though!
Well done!
Ed
I loved being passed by you. I tried to have a conversation with you, but you mumbled stuff at me instead. Do you remember me tryng to talk to you on the b!tches?
Chad – you asked me what my lap count was and I had really no idea at that point. I lost count on about the 3rd one and took my watch off cause it was wearing a hole through my skin. It was a funny race for me in that I wasn’t really into chatting along with folks. Not sure why?
Wow, that is a lot of mileage! Congrats on such a strong win.
How long does it take you to mentally and physically recover from those kinds of efforts? Are you “Normal” in like 3-4 weeks or longer? I’m always amazed by the abilities our bodies can pull off.
Nice job. How about some comparisons between the 26er & the 29er. Obviously we know which won out but it’s not what I expected (I bet you didn’t either).
Super Woman! I’m proud to call you Coach.
way to race, lynda — you are such a badass and rockstar….. it might have been really, really interesting hearing what WOULD have come out of your mouth as you passed the Mr.SSer… ;-)
way to FLY!!!!!!!
jj
Yesterday I pulled up the SS Solo W results first to see how you did and was impressed, 1st place & 16 laps, impressive. Then I started pulling up results from the other class’s. And just go more and more blown away, wow—way to rock!!
So cool. Congratulations! Way to knock em all down!
Congratulations Lynda. Are you going to talk about your 26er vs 29er experience?
Way to go Linda. That’s awesome.
Big time congratulations!
Steve – I rode 15 laps on the 29er and 1 on the 26er. What more is there to say?
Way to kill it Lynda. Awesome to have everything come together, eh?
Nice SS victory!! thats no side show thats as real as it gets :) awsome
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Congrats!!!
You ROCK Lynda! I am beginning to believe that you aren’t so ambiguously bionic now. Mattel will sooon be making action figurines based on you. ;-)
You da woman!! :) My she-ro!
Lynda–what a great race result! I just started doing enduro last summer -I love your vibe and approach. Heck I’m even training with a powertap on my 29er -geared and SS. How many TSS points did you tally? you have me jazzed to go 24 this years