Me, the Summit Chuters, and all the other racers had a great time at 8/24 Hrs of Cool last weekend. Eric was racing on an 8 hr corporate team (the famous Summit Chuters, sponsored by CB Hannegan's of Los Gatos). I was actually racing for Global Biorhythms, which is the organization putting on this race.
The course was almost the same as when I raced there in the fall (the Knickerbocker), but it was definitely less dusty, and there were several spots where the mud was quite deep. The solo racers took off at noon and the relay racers left 3 minutes behind. The weather was really nice, a bit warm, but there was a nice breeze. I felt really good from the start and my lap-times were 56-58 minutes. I was trying to hold off the Summit Chuters as long as possible. On my forth lap Mark Jeffrey came flying by me out of nowhere. I guess you don't get those rainbow stripes for nothing!!!
I was hoping to get 8 laps, but on lap 5 an 6 I sort of lost my motivation, and slowed down a little bit.... I decided 7 laps would be a good ride. I was also looking forward to hanging out at the pit area and especially to eating some of Alex's Ceviche. He had brought all the ingredients and was chopping everything up to make a huge bowl of shrimp ceviche to go with all the beer the guys had brought. Tough racing I have to say....
Happy to Cross the Finish-line
Dave Hokeness doing his pre-race ritual before taking off on one of his laps
When I finished my race shortly after 7 pm, the Summit Chuters were leading the corporate category by over 25 minutes. Even though they were having plenty of refreshments, they took their race very seriously as you can see from the picture of Dave on the trainer above.
After the night laps, the Summit Chuters had pulled ahead of the 2nd team. Apparently this lead made a certain rider feel like he didn't have to race his last lap but could continue drinking beer and bail out early to go to the Sharks' game instead. Alex took his role on the team very seriously and pushed hard to try to get 24 laps and missed it by only a couple of minutes. Good job to the Summit Chuters!!!
The Summit Chuters and me (replacing the missing Shark's fan)
