Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Deja Vu

Flashback to 1998 and my very first 24 Hours of 9-Mile where I was part of a 24hr 4 person team. Just like this past weekend we experienced a first lap mechanical and the race script throughout the day/night was almost a mirror image of my 2012 weekend at the Wausau 24 at 9-Mile. In 1998, my team was comprised of Russ Ginter, Tim Jennings, and Andrew Jennings. The day started the same as 1998 with a lap one mechanical with our lead-out rider going down and experiencing a stem/handlebar issue. For 2012, our mechanical was a flat tire just over a mile into the race that was somewhat of a small setback of about 27 minutes after a failed repair attempt. We ended up cancelling out our first riders lap and started last out of all races(6, 12, 24hr racers) with our 2nd rider checking in to restart the race for us. Just like 1998, our team got the pedals turning again and we slowly chipped away at the standings moving up after going from dead last overall to 20th out of 25 teams in our category after the first lap. I told the guys to think about the old video game PAC-Man(if they are old enough to remember it), and to just go out and chomp our way back to the top of the standings! After 14-16 hours of dusty racing, Ben Koenig, Ben Welnak, Jesse Shoemaker and me(the old guy) finally went into the lead by just 10 seconds which would see us go back and forth at the top of the standings with a fast KS Energy Team. Much the same as the 1998 race, we didn't have a comfortable lead until the last few hours of the race, but were able to let Ben K enjoy the last lap on his home course to take the overall victory for our Bike Hub/Twenty2 Cycles/Adventure 212 Team.
Congrats to all my teammates for being strong all day/night and thanks to our sponsors, especially Light & Motion for their great lights that turned darkness into daylight! With another 24 hour race at 9-Mile completed and with around 1,000 miles logged by myself at this events since the first 24-9 in 1998, the Wausau 24 continues to be a great event for everyone from the 6hr to the 24hr categories. Thanks to Adam and his crew for making the event lots of fun! Pedal on... RESULTS

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