12 Hours of Temecula Race Summary

Well, it's been almost a week since the race in Temecula and I'm still stoked I took 1st place in the solo single speed category. With the shorter daylight the race ends in the dark. 9am to 9pm. So I ended up completing 10 laps in 11 hours 14 minutes. 2 laps up on 2nd place. The climbing was pretty tough for a single speed......10.5 miles with 1300 feet of climbing; with most of the climbing in the first 3-4 miles. I was running a 32x20 on the 29er Airborne. I was able to ride about 99 percent of everything until lap 6 and needed to start walking the steep stuff. By lap 8 I was well tired but needed to keep pushing as I was in 1st place and hadn't known where I stood all day until Matt gave me the good news. The whole day I hadn't seen a single speeder go by me or me pass any; the only exception is when Matt caught up to me on lap 2 while I was taking a nature break before 'the damn climb'. So Matt and I started climbing together but I ended up in front of him on the climb and for the first 4 laps we were only a minute or so apart until I found out later he had stopped after lap 4 due to some issues. So as in any multi lap race you just keep pedaling and moving until you have to stop or the race is over. The last lap was great as I was able to ride with Keevin Blue and his girl Heidi. That was fun and kept me motivated to push through that last lap. Thanks you two!! And thanks to Matt for the fast pits at the end and the cold beer and Rubio's burrito after I was cleaned up. Pretty awesome!!