Michelle Slingsby, Coreen Wright and Kay Levesque celebrate winning the women's team event at the US 24-hour championships at Moab, Utah ©Justin's/Titus
With the 2010 marathon and stage race season coming to a close in the northern hemisphere teams and riders are saddling up for their last races of the year. US masters endurance team Justin’s/Titus chose to finish their mountain-bike season at the US 24-hour Championships, held at Moab, Utah last month. One of the team’s riders, Drew Geer, explained how things transpired in what turned out to be an auspicious finale for the mixed squad.
The team is composed of men and women racers who compete across a calendar of US endurance mountain-bike events. Although supported by a number of sponsors, including Colorado-based spread maker Justin’s Nut Butter and bike manufacturer Titus, the squad retain their full-time jobs and compete for the love of their sport (with considerable success).
“Justin’s/Titus brought home seven more national championships over the weekend, winning both the women’s and men’s masters 24-hour championships,” said Geer on the team’s blog. “Mike Hogan, Thomas Dooley, Keith Sanders and myself climbed one step up on the podium after a second place finish last year. Mike is also the 2010 XC national champion, Keith the 2009 national XC champion, but it was the first [national] title for myself and Thomas.”
24-hour races are not the type of event usually featured on MarathonMTB.com, but they possess many similar challenges to marathon and stage races. One of those is the unpredictable nature of weather conditions. Geer said that in spite a week of wet weather in the lead-up to the October 10 race Utah turned on the sunshine just in time to deliver a near-perfect course.
“Moab has a reputation of very tough conditions – high wind, extreme dust, sand rain, snow and ice. This year had very low winds and no rain. It had been raining daily the week leading up to the race which makes for a fast course.
“The usual sand bogs were packed into a fast groove. Riders still had a bit of ‘sand surfing’ but none of the power-sucking long sand drags. The technical sections were fast and fun. Only a steep ‘nosedive’ and two steep sand run-ups disrupted the flow this year.” Depending on the location, a 24-hour race will typically involve ‘night laps’ – loved by some, loathed by others. Depending on your 24-hour race of choice, twilight may be long, or almost non-existant. The lack of twilight in an Australian spring recently caught out many foreign riders at the 24-hours of Adrenalin World Solo Championships. For Justin’s/Titus, their experience kept most of them out of trouble in Utah.
“At about 6pm the lights come out. That is when the riding gets fun. Moab is a fun, technical course. It is a 15 mile loop with everything – a bit of dirt road, sand, rock, drops, ripping fast single track and loose rock descents.
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- Michelle Slingsby, Coreen Wright and Kay Levesque celebrate winning the women’s team event at the US 24-hour championships at Moab, Utah ©Justin’s/Titus
“During the day it requires attention. At night it is best if you remembered your line from the day lap. The lines get blurred & as more riders take the wrong line it begins to confuse you. It is pretty easy to launch off a six foot drop at night when you were sure that was only one foot during the day. Riders have ridden off into the desert briefly and found themselves way off course.
“We had a few mishaps but no crisis that couldn’t be easily fixed. Mike took a big crash on his face during his first night lap but put it back together & pulled out a 1:17 night lap. Thomas lost power on one light, which is not an unusual occurrence, but then crashed and knocked out his second light and had to ride the rest of the way in the dark, tagging onto other riders with lights. He still finished [that lap] in 1:23.”
With a season closed by a rush of star-spangled jerseys the Colorado-based team will now turn their attention of cyclocross and nordic skiing for the winter. With their news season goals taking shape, MarathonMTB.com will keep you posted on their progress throughout 2011.