12 Hours of Dauset was quickly approaching and I had no plan to attend. I had nothing against the trail system, in fact, the only time I had the opportunity to ride there was over a year ago and I enjoyed it quite a bit. No, the reason I had no plan to attend the event was more of a financial issue. Just bought a new car, and the down payment I put on it left me fiscally tighter than I originally intended.
In comes my good friend Sheri Taylor. Jokingly I told her to sign up for 6 hours solo on her rigid singlespeed. She laughed and then asked if I would do a 12 hour co-ed with her. I told her "You buy, I fly" :-) This decision happened 4 days before the race. Timing was great as I had nothing unusual planned for the weekend ride anyhow.
We pulled in that morning around 8am with my new Honda Pilot stuffed to the rafters. Camping gear, racing gear, multiple changes of cycling clothing as well as after-race wear. Charles Weaving III was kind enough to hold us a spot close to the transition area, and right next to the trail too. We set up Sheri's big neon pink pop-up there and started getting ready. The race had a 'Lemans start' which means basically a sizable group of cyclists standing without their bikes, but in full-race attire, run for a bit before getting to the invention of interest for the day. It looks quite humorous, just picture for a moment a mass of people running in lycra with bicycle helmets and cycling shoes, waddling like ducks more than running. Yep. That was me.
First lap time was kind of slower than I hoped because I'm not a quick runner, so I got stuck behind a bunch of slower bikers by the time I made it to the ride. The race turnout wasn't huge, but with Dauset's tight twisties and a nearly 10 mile lap of unfamiliar trail, slower was smarter the first lap. That, and there were a few pile-ups, and probably a half dozen flat tires on the first lap alone. My tires are set up tubeless so that wasn't a concern for me. Finishing up, I handed Sheri the 'baton' which basically was a rubber coiled wire that you would hang some keys from. 55 minutes. I blame the run ha! I figured if it took me 55 minutes it would take her an hour. I think it was an hour and a minute which is absolutely respectable. We stayed very consistant, my laps between 51 and 55 minutes and hers between an 1:01 and 1:10.
We both were expecting to be fairly competitive in the co-ed field, but as it turned out there was NO 12 hour 2 person Co-ed. There was 12 hour 4 person co-ed, or just 2person open. So even after busting our asses for 11 laps and feeling quite good about it, we were in 6th of the 8 2 person teams. Grrrr. Luckily we checked out the timing sheet and saw they missed one of our laps, which moved us up to 5th. The only teams that beat us were 2person Male teams, and we even beat one of them. It turned out okay. That course was so fun and had lots of flow. I actually yelled out loud at one point 'I LOVE THIS TRAIL!' while I was flying around a turn.
We had the privilege of seeing Eddie and Namrita O'Dea tearing it up on their 3 person team, as well as a 4 or 5 other professionals. They make normal beings feel slow on our best of laps lol. Mark Duffus got 10th out of 50, and once again, had their been different (or CORRECT) class structure, Mark would have been a top finisher. However, there was only 'Men's open 6hr' so guess who won? Yes, the pros. Mark deserves a round of applause for getting 10th still with that kind of pressure, he rode very well.
After the race wrapped up, we retired to our mini-grill and I whipped up some awesome angus burgers, and enjoyed a few Sierra Nevada Rye Pale Ales, as well as 1 or 2 Terrapins. Great weather all day and night. Good people, good times...
