I arrived in Moab on Thursday to set up by myself and proceeded to get sand blasted for about 3 hours of set up time. When I finally got my light weight screen tent up I sat there and watched it get abused by the wind and figured it wouldn’t make it through the weekend.
The next morning when I woke up inside my tent I was covered by a nice layer of red dust, the wind continued through the day even stronger than the day before. For Friday night I abandoned my camp sight for the comforts of a hotel room and a good night sleep.
Saturday morning I woke to even stronger wind and got to the venue around 9am and to my surprise my tent was still standing. The race start was the usual long run and got out on the road quick and was in good position entering the single track with me were Tinker, Eatough, and the new comer Roan Exelby, for the first few miles we all jockeyed for position, then I went to the front to go with a little faster pace after a couple minutes I saw that I was pulling away I kept the pace high and by mid way through the lap I saw I had about a minute on the other guys. I could see them and they were in a pace line so I figured that they would catch me but I don’t think they were working together well.
By the end of the first lap I had upped my lead to a couple minutes and took a bottle on the fly and kept it going. I kept the hard pace with very quick pits into the night. I had no clue what my lead was till about midnight when I was told that Chris had dropped out and I had almost an hour on second place Tinker, This was great news although I new I had a long way to go. The next 8 hours until the morning light were very cold with temps hitting there low of about 29 at three in the morning.
With the morning light and the cold subsiding a bit I was still In great position. I had got to within 20 minutes of lapping tinker this was good because I was beginning to crack the last 5 hours were very hard I was hurting, luckily so was everyone else. I ended up having to go until 12:48 to take the win I have to say I was hard fought but every time I race 24 hours It’s always hard.
I have to give a huge thanks to my crew without them suffering through the night with me I never could have done it my crew are my best friends and I will have them for life. Thanks Ryan, Dan, Keven, Ryan and Missy, Nate, Seth, Fran, Kent, and Liam.
I also want to thank the Bach Brothers for all there help you guys have been great. Thanks to Jack and Nite Rider for convincing me to do the race and providing me with incredible lights. Also thanks to Mike and Santa Cruz for an incredible bike (Super Light) without it, my body would have been even more battered. Thanks to Mike and Michelin for the incredible tires I didn’t have a flat all year, thanks Gabe and Smith for providing me with the best sunglasses out there. Thanks Jeff and Ergon for the greatest grips out there thy have saved my hands, thanks Liam and Ground Wear for incredible clothing and apparel, Thanks Steve and Red Bull for keeping me supplied with tons of Red Bull witch was saved me at the end of many races.
This season was a great year had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people I am looking forward to a little rest and some skiing see you next year.