Yesterday after riding to Monument with the kids in the trailer and having lunch with friends, Julie took the kids home in the car. I then rode on up to the Greenland Open Space to check out the 24 Hours of E-ROCK.
It had started 6:30 PM on Friday so they had been racing about 21 hours when I got there. Where I came in from the Santa Fe Trail was on the far end of the course. I rode a lap and took some pictures of the racers and the start finish/area.
I had planned on racing the 24 Hours of E-ROCK solo back when I thought I would be in shape. I actually have a lot of mixed feelings about racing it. It’s about 30 miles from my house which is very nice. It also is a power course which would be good for me. The problem is it isn’t really a mountain bike course. I saw somebody riding a cross bike which is the right bike for the course. I’d at least go full rigid on a mountain bike. It’s also only an 8 mile course which I think is too short even if it had technical sections.
It really didn’t look like anybody was very fast. Of course it was 21 hours into the race but still at that point in the 24 Hours of Moab, I’m getting passed by the Pros like I’m stopped.
The solo class was won this year by Edward Miller, the son of another Pikes Peak Velo member. It was his first 24 hour solo race and he was riding a townie bike. He put in 26 laps. I think that’s impressive! Dave Nice was also racing. I looked for him but didn’t see him. It doesn’t look like he had a very good race as he only got 12 laps in. Final results have been posted.
To give some comparison in competitiveness of this years solo class compared to last year, my friend and co-worker, James won the solo class with 37 laps in 2006. He was self supported most of the time and lost time during the night switching stuff out. James has also done the Leadville 100 in under 8 hours! My long time friend Larry and one of the few riders that will accompany me on some of my long rides, finished 2nd last year with 37 laps. When I’m fit and on the right course, I’m competitive with both James and Larry.
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Just happened across this blog as I'm thinking about riding E-ROCK again. That's me in your photo on the rigid single speed. It seemed like a good choice of ride until about lap 20…
Will
It’s definitely a course that full rigid would work but if you where doing it solo, I can see where it would get painful.