We were joined in the pit by Scott and Matt, who were riding solo. Scott was fresh off winning the Sport class at the SoCal Endurance 50 miler in October, and had peaked his training for this race. Matt did 7 laps, and Scott did 8, good for 4th place in men's expert solo.
I led off, surprised that there was no parade lap through the campground. Instead, we went right onto the course, which opened with a fireroad traverse around the lake to the base of the Dam Climb. You can settle in on the lower half of the climb, but the upper part mixes flats and steep pitches. It's about 15-20 minutes of suffering, but then you're done with sustained climbing... for that lap. A fireroad traverse/descent followed the Dam Climb, then we turned onto Marlin Ridge, one of the fast, rolling ridge line descents that characterize Vail Lake. Marlin has a few ups to go with the downs, but you can carry enough momentum to easily make it up all but the steepest ones. The rest of the course included two steady and moderate fireroad climbs, the super fun Tunnel of Love singletrack descent, and the dreaded Marine Corp hill. Each lap was just over 10 miles, with about 1300 feet of climbing.
My first lap was right at 55 minutes. In a 12 hour race, your goal is to do as many laps as possible in 12 hours. We started at 9am, so any lap finished before 9pm counts. If you tie on laps, the team with the fastest time wins; if you finish 11 laps at 8:15, you beat a team that finishes 10 laps at 7:55 and a team that finishes 11 laps at 8:30. Consistent sub-60 minute laps give you the chance to do 12 laps. But lap times tend to drift up over the day, so a first lap of 55 minutes meant that 12 laps were uncertain. I like to know what I'm facing. Since I led off, I could count on at least 6 laps. If Mike turns 50 min laps, I might have time for a 7th. It's easy to over analyze things, and my math gets very dodgy once I'm a few laps in. So it's best just to keep riding as long as there's time on the clock.
Back in the pit, I put on dry clothes, took care of nutrition, adjusted the shifting, cleaned my chain, and tried to rest. I checked the clock every few minutes, and couldn't really relax because I was worried about being late to the transition zone. Paradoxically, 50 minutes passed slowly and quickly.
Mike turned a 54 minute lap, and I headed out again. There was less traffic, and I still felt pretty fresh. I had been fighting a cold all week, but except for a runny nose it hadn't bothered me much so far. My second lap was just under 55 minutes. We have a chance for 12 laps if we hold this pace.
Our closest competition in the series is SoCal Endurance. They were running ahead of us in the race, but needed to make up a lap to catch us in the series. So we felt pretty confident at the start, but as the day went on they were holding a strong pace and looked sure to do 12 laps. I struggled on my third lap, taking just under an hour. I bounced back and pulled a 57:22 fourth lap. I continued to feel decent on my fifth lap, but by then it was dark and I rode 1:01. Mike's third lap also went over an hour, so it looked like we were headed for 11 laps. However, the leader board showed SoCal Endurance with a 1:58 lap. They must've had a mechanical or bad crash... bad luck for them, but if we finish out our laps we should win easily. This was my current understanding of the race when I headed out on my last lap.
Nighttime laps are cold and lonely. It seems quieter as the darkness isolates each rider in a bubble of light. It's also peaceful and beautiful. I left the transition zone at 7:15pm, having already ridden about 50 miles and done 6500 feet of climbing. One more time around! Five minutes in, my rear tire started to feel squirmy. I rode a little further to be sure and there was no doubt about it. No problem, stay cool. I wasn't too worried about time, since I had 1:45 to finish the lap. But I was worried about the tire - I only had one compressed air canister, leaving no margin for error. It was too risky to re-inflate the tire and hope it sealed, so a tube was the only option. I got the tire off, dumped out the Stans, and put in the tube. Too slow! But I was careful to get the tube seated properly and avoid pinching it under the tire. I put the entire 40 gram canister into the tube, which gave a pretty high pressure. After about ten minutes delay, I was back on the bike... but with no way to inflate the tire again. Going light had seemed like a good idea until this point; now carrying the extra weight of a pump would have been a nice insurance policy. I started to worry. I hadn't checked the tire carefully. What if something stuck in the casing flatted the tube? What if I pinch flatted in a rocky section? As I started up the Dam Climb I settled back in, focused on the ride, and decided I would beg a canister off someone if I had to.
The rest of the lap went smoothly: no more trouble with the tire and a clean ride. I came in around 8:30, after a 1:13 lap. Not bad with the delay. But the results board had bad news. The slow lap for SoCal Endurance had been a typo. It was 58 minutes, not 1:58. They had finished 12 laps to our 11, tying us for the series with 36 laps each. And though we had come into the day with an extra 20 minute lead, they had been about 30 minutes ahead of us all day. It seemed like we had lost the series in the end. How bitter if it came down to a 10 minute delay for a flat on the last lap! We disappointedly waited for the awards. The series had been ours to lose, and this had not been our strongest day. Then Mike pointed out that, while SoCal had been 30 minutes ahead, it would have taken them nearly an hour to turn that extra lap. They should have finished with one more lap, but taken longer as well. At this point, I had been up for about 17 hours, ridden over 60 miles, and was in no shape to do the math even if I had known the exact finishing times. The awards began for our division and we really were not sure how it had ended up. Jason called up the 3rd place series finishers. He said the 2nd place team had thought they were going to win it. That certainly described us... but it was SoCal Endurance in 2nd! We took the series - after 36 hours of racing, we won by just 30 minutes.
Team Sherpa Dog: 12 Hours of Temecula 2010 Series Champions in the 2 person open division
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