Two DMBA Teams at 24 Hours of Summer Solstice

For a few of us the festivities started on Friday evening. The weather was great, so we wanted to set up camp early and pre-ride the course. It was an awesome route. Chico Racing always puts together a fun course. They have also done lots of work at Albion Hills to build new trails and re-route other problem areas. It was fast, flowy and beautiful.

Saturday morning was a little overcast. Our riders arrived in anticipation of the 12:00 mass start. Then the forecasted rain began. The heavens opened up and it poured down. Chico Racing took good care of us with regards to our campsite. We shared a huge picnic shelter with one other team. While others were huddled under leaky canopies, we were dry as a bone sitting in our lawn chairs in front of Mike Ramsey’s roaring camp fire. I’m wondering if Mike has pyro tendencies, as he did a great job keeping the fire burning for the whole 24 hours. Because of the heavy rains, the start time kept being postponed while Sean and his crew changed vulnerable parts of the course, in order to minimize any trail impact from 2000 riders on wet trails.

Finally therain stopped and the race began at 2:00. If you’ve never seen the start of this race it is really quite a spectacle. It is a mass start of 300 – 400 riders. Cheering spectators line the sides of the course all the way up the first straight away. If you are one of the riders lined up for this first lap, your adrenaline is flowing.

Considering the amount of rain that had fallen, the 16 km long course was generally in quite good condition. The night laps were a challenge. A fog settled in making it difficult to see, and the roots became very slimy and treacherous. Some of us enjoyed the night laps more than others. Brodie was so excited about his lap that his exuberance brought the campground security guard to our site to tell us that we had our first warning. Wow! What a “bad-ass” group we were.

The daylight came and the fog disappeared, which allowed us to let down our guards and ride a little harder. By 12:00 the DMBA’s first participation in a 24 hour race was over.

An excellent time was had by all. Everyone brought and shared food, stories and looked forward to next year. For me the 24 Hours of Summer Solstice is about camaraderie as much as it is about riding. Maybe next year we can get enough riders to field 3 club teams.

Photos courtesy of Ian Parker. Sorry about the chopped off heads, the full pics are there if you click on the thumbnails.