24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest-Post Race Write-up by El Freako

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest-The Results

Jeff And Paul of Kokopelli Bike and Board Racing Team on the wooden box!!!



The end result: 2nd place for myself overall in the solo single speed class. 13 laps, 208 miles and over 14,000 feet of climbing. Kokopelli Bike and Board Racing ended up with two on the podium; Paul Adams in 3rd. Nice job!!

It was a battle royal throughout the night and into the morning. I was in 2nd place by only a few minutes at times behind teammate Kiviok Hight until he dropped out with a mechanical on his Trek just before the halfway point. Paul was holding steadfast in 3rd place for the entire race. As Kiviok sat there with his broken down bike I just smiled and motored out without eating or drinking any food as I saw the opportunity to gain some time on Kiviok if he did manage to get back out on course which wasn't the case in the end. Bummer for him. Around lap 9 or so Jeff Wood got around me and I was chasing the whole time. After I completed lap 10 at 4am I was in rough shape and had to try to calm my nauseous stomach down by eating some solid food and drinking a Coke. It was hard to choke down the food but I forced myself so I could get myself going again. It took awhile and I was back on the bike after chilling for two hours which didn't cost me any placing as my teammate Paul Adams had to chill out for a bit as well and didn't take advantage of the opportunity to advance in the placings. People were hurting! Paul and I ended up going out together on our 11th lap. This was 2nd and 3rd place going out together. Game on!! Toward the end of the 11th lap Paul had dropped off into his own pace as I kept on the gas and I came into the pits fired up. I needed to close out the race still with two more laps and with the sun shining my energy was renewed. I was feeling great on my 12th and 13th lap with some good lap times but not enough to close in on the eventual winner Jeff Wood (2 hour down time cost me). Teammate Paul Adams kept it going as well to maintain a firm secure grasp on 3rd place with 13 laps to boot. Paul and I were pretty consistent with the lap times with the exception of the down time. Awesome job by the Kokopelli Bike and Board Racing Team!

My flat lander buddy Keevin Blue from Huntington Beach, California impressed all by taking the overall in the solo geared class with 13 laps. He beat up on the local boys while racing on a spanking shiny new 29er Specialized carbon rig. His first ride on the new bike as well as his first time on a 29er and killed it. Just awesome Keevin!!! Congrats!!!

Results here; http://www.24hitef.com/?q=node/10

Myself, Jeff Wood and Paul Adams on the podium.




Keevin Blue and Lenny Goodell post race fun.



Enjoying the after affect.

The 2nd place mug.

The pit.



The private after party away from the race venue. The wind drove us to a new location for Sunday night. Paul Adams, myself and Laura, Dan and Kara Dirtland and Keevin Blue. Kathryn Grohusky and crew ended up up in the same spot as well.



Paul enjoying the post-ride relaxing.

24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest

Jeff Hemperley and Paul Adams on the podium taking 2nd and 3rd palce in the solo single speed classification.

2011 Bailey Hundo, Epic competition

Shawn Gregory just finished 4th in the Bailey Hundo 100 mile race in about 8 hours on a rigid singlespeed (and around 30th out of all the geared bikes).  At the finish there was less than 10 minutes between the top 4 finishers.  Close race in Bailey Colorado!

Tough competition!  Shawn battled it out...

Read more.........

6am start

Denver Post Article

Check out the article in the Denver Post on the Denver-Aspen ride.  Nice shot of the team kit!
http://www.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_18267366

Getting ready for the Bailey Hundo this weekend

Here is my setup for the Bailey Hundo 100 miles mountain bike race starting in Bailey Colorado next weekend  http://www.bailey100.com/ .  Fully stupid rigid singlespeed!  Is this a good idea?  Well see.  I wished I could've pre-ridden the course but looking at the route I'm thinking of running a tougher gear.  http://www.bailey100.com/map.html  Riding on a Schwalbe Racing Ralph rear tire and either a Ralph or Nobby Nic on the front.


The Bailey HUNDO supports three youth biking initiatives in Colorado: Trips For Kids Denver/Boulder, which offers mountain biking opportunities to underserved youth and changes lives “two wheels at a time”! Colorado High School Cycling League, a new resource for high school students around the state to be exposed to the world of mountain bike racing--and developing the racers of tomorrow who will ride YOUR legs off!  Kids On Bikes giving new bikes to children in the Pikes Peak region "through programs that inspire a healthy lifestyle, independence, and achievement”.

I LOVE RACES THAT BENEFIT KIDS LIKE THIS!  If you have a pile of cash laying around, you can donate on my fund raising account at http://www.prerace.com/registration/donation/7299 or as an alternative just take a kid biking.  Thanks!

There is some tough competition!  I'm planning, as usual, to do my best and hope to get on the podium.  It looks like an awsome course.  A large portion of the singletrack is on the Colorado Trail which is always rewarding!


Check it all out on my blog at http://shawngregorymountainbiker.blogspot.com/

This is a proper parking spot if you consider lack of brain cells used to setup a bike like this to do a 100 mile race

Joe Lookingbill Denver-to-Aspen Classic

Saturday June 11 was Denver-to-Aspen.  A big day for me, as I was testing the progress of my low back recovery.  No holding back on this one, a big day with lots of vertical, and goals of a high placing with a good time.

The start was at the park-and-ride off of C-470 in Littleton at 4am.  The climbing starts immeidately, covering 7000' in the first 50 miles to Kenosha Pass.  I told myself to take it easy to start, and I did for a while, but I was feeling really good.  2nd in to the checkpoint at Conifer, and 2nd at Kenosha Pass.  (1st place was long gone, he was trying for sub-10 hours).  The next 60 miles through South Park to Buena Vista were tough - two smaller passes and strong headwinds the whole way.  I was wishing I had gone a little slower just to ride this section with some other riders.  Dropped to 3rd when I had to get some water in Fairplay, and maintained that position to the check point in Buena Vista.

Then I slowly started to run out of gas.  At least there was a tailwind up the Arkansas valley, and I traded pulls with Steve until the Rte 82 turnoff to Twin Lakes.  Really bad westerly headwinds off the lakes nearly stopped me in my tracks, and unfortunately I had to let Steve go.  Needed to regroup at the Twin Lakes checkpoint. 

Again I was overtaken for 4th place by the day's 2nd place women's finisher.  She had just been clipped on the helmet by a camper's wing mirror!  Thankfully she stayed upright, but the camper did not stop, and she was rightfully both shaken and extremely pissed off.  She stormed out of Twin Lakes and went on to finish 4th, a half hour faster than me.

I'd had enough of Perpetuem, so after a Mountain Dew and Hostess Cupcakes, the endurance fuel of champions, I headed for Independence Pass.  I was not feeling good, but recovered on the long rollers to the base of the pass, and found to my surprise that I was enjoying the climb.  Alternating headwind and tailwind depending on which switchback you were on, but a really nice steady climb, topping out over 12,000'!

Final break at Independence Pass

30 downhill miles to the finish at the Woody Creek Tavern, one of Hunter S. Thompson's former hang-outs.  Final time of 12:49, 5th place, and first in my age group.  And the back felt strong!

OK, that's two 5ths in a row - time to step up a spot or two at the Death Ride, the next round in the Colorado Triple Crown series on July 3rd!

Denver-Aspen, 180mi
13,100' vert
Top five:
1. Mark Lowe 10h 4min
2. Andrea Koenig 11h 39min
3. Steve Rudolph 12h 5min
4. Diane Benoit 12h 17min
5. Michael Henderson 12h 49min

Denver-Aspen Start

3:30am check-in at the park-&-ride!

Sent from my mobile phone

Left-hand Canyon 400k

As the lone roadie on the team, I'll be posting some of my rides as I build towards Paris-Brest-Paris in August.

Last w/e was my third of 4 qualifying events for PBP.  400k (250mi) and 10,000' of climbing, heading up Left-hand Canyon north of Boulder to the Peak-to-Peak highway, down around Carter and Horsetooth reservoirs, north of Fort Collins, then back to Louisville to finish.

Was in 2nd starting up the canyon, but my goal was merely to finish without stressing my back, so recovered up the climb, topping out in 5th.  From there, 4 of us worked well together to the control point in Wellington (see pic).  By that time we had done 180mi and 9k of climbing in 10:40, and as the front 4 were well ahead, we cruised it in, our group swelling to 7 by the finish.

Total time of 16:02 included 2hrs off the bike!  Usually that would only be about an hour for me for a 400k, so we really did cruise the last bit.  My back held up really well, which was the goal, and still a tie for 5th with a decent time.

Next up, Denver to Aspen this weekend, a more serious race rather than simply a qualifier.  I'll be flying the Kokopelli Racing Team colors for this one!

SSUSA Post Race Report



Hosting competition for 2012.



TR getting his drink on.

DJ  getting his drink on.



 I'll get right to it...bragging rights....4th place!!!

SSUSA 2011 in Boulder was pretty awesome. 100 of the finest single speeders around. TR and I from the Kokopelli team made our way over to Boulder on Friday morning. The event organizers did a great job putting this together with some fun hosting competition festivities for hosting the 2012 SSUSA. Vermont won. East coast next year for this one. Friday night kicked off with a mandatory cruiser ride to a couple of drinking establishments. First stop was Shooters where we drank PBR's, registered for the event and rode a mechanical bull. The bull was intimating but I gave it a go and was put to the ground fairly quickly. Next stop was to a bar in a basement called Downers or some thing close to that. Things got a bit out of control for sure. Getting to bed early for the 9am race start was the goal but 3am comes quick when hanging out with the Niner crew; Fuzzy, DJ to name a few. Wow, I was wrecked trying to get up Saturday morning after a passed out drunken stupor with 3 hours of sleep. If you want to call it sleep. Anyways TR and I drive over to the Nederland High School where the start of the race was to begin. There was some heavy hitters for this one; Fuzzy, DJ, Nick Gould, Cameron Chambers, Robin G, Chad Cheeney etc, etc. etc.....The neutral roll out was about 5 miles up the paved road and over to Rollinsville where we took a right turn on a dirt road and another right where to our surprise was the Dale's Pale Ale motor home blowing his horn. Awesome. No beer for me but Christina Begy was soon chugging one down before the start. For those of you that recognize that name she is a bad ass single speeder. So, Jake gives us a talk about the course and we do a short Le Mans style start and up, up, up we go. The first fire road climb was steep than we turn onto a short steep singletrack section where it is rocky and than over a short snow field. Game on. I had shaken off the drunken cob webs and realized it's racing time. Let's go people. With the uphill fire road section at the beginning the field had fractured apart. There was a handful of us blazing the first few miles with Eszther, DJ, Todd Sadow (Epic Rides Guru) and some others. Soon it was just a few of us. We saw Chad and some others at a later intersection looking for the flagging and they chose a direction that wasn't correct and Eszther found our way with our small group. Back on track and going again. The singletrack was awesome with some creek crossings, tight swooping climbs that were leg busters with the 32x20 gearing. The short punchy stuff was a fuel zapper but I just kept on the gas with a few of us hanging together. We soon made it to the halfway point where I kept on going and Todd stopped for some water and later missed a turn where a lot of others missed as well. I later passed up on the next feed stop where apparently there was margaritas and such but I motored through and a guy was handing out Slim Jim beef jerky so I threw that down for some fuel and kept on motoring. I was soon by myself and caught up with Will Inverso and DJ. Will was fading and DJ punched it and took off. He apparently soon missed a turn. I was up and over the final climbing sections where we were going backwards on where we had descended earlier. A lollipop route. I was to the final switchback and some dude passed me which to my surprise I rolled in at 4th place. That dude took my third! LOL!! I was stoked to get 4th. I was amazed so many had missed turns. I really should have been closer to 8th or 10th place. Nick, Fuzzy, DJ, Cameron, Chad, etc all missed turns (some multiple turns) on the route. TR as well missed a turn and rode a couple more miles. I was diligent to watch the flagging as I have learned in previous experiences it will pay off. Just don't put the head down and hammer. Nick probably would have won as he was off the front at the beginning but FAIL. Eszther finished right behind me and took the women's overall. She is tough!  People were trickling in for the next hour or more and we drank some Dale's fine beer and pedaled our way back to the high school in Nederland in which involved  more climbing on the pavement. The after party was held at 6pm at the 303 Distillery in Boulder.  Great schwag give aways and good times talking to old friends and meeting new friends. What a weekend!!!

Stats:
Miles. 26.66 including warm up
Elevation gain: 3800 feet
Calories burnt: 2000
Beers consummed: A fucking boatload.
Hours of sleep in two nights: 9 hours