Epic Racing around the World

Where do you start when a team has its best weekend yet - winning the overall, the Co-ed/Pro category, as well as taking 3rd overall and winning Men’s Veteran’s category? Did I mention our Just for Fun Team ranked right up there among the teams that had the most fun….ever?

With 3 teams mixing it up among the 400 other teams…we didn’t know what to expect. Bart, Roger, and Isaac lead out the LeMan’s start, a huge and chaotic run.

Like a well oiled machine, the group performed flawlessly, and all of our bases were covered. The MonaVie/Cannondale base camp, established by settlers in mid-October, 2007, was stocked and ready to fuel bodies and maintain bikes regardless of what the course and mother nature threw at us.

As Bart returned from winning the first lap of the race….(and the first of 20 laps the Pro team would do)

I warmed up meticulously, knowing that not only is the 24 Hours of Moab a team effort, its also a total body experience.

Lap after lap, riders returned from the wilds of the desert, scanned their real time scoring card, passed the baton…and off the next teammate went. Sometimes into the wind, sometimes into the dark…

It was after a rider’s lap that the real work began…for the rest of the MonaVie/Cannondale team, that is. “Behind every fast lap at the 24 Hours of Moab is a village“, or something like that the saying goes.

It went something like this after a rider returned from the course:

Enter the scoring tent from the course, scan your card and hand off the baton as a support member gives the finishing rider warm and dry clothing. Your new ‘08 Scalpel is taken by Head Cannondale mechanic Troy Laffey for a wash, tune, and lube. It should be noted that we experienced zero mechanicals during the 782 miles the team raced over the weekend…Formula One pits would have been impressed.

While the bikes were receiving their TLC, bodies were next…fresh clothing, hot food, and a even though some of the riders rode like machines…

We all know that even machines need service, too.

A rider is on the course and another down is on the ground resting…while the rest of the crew is working away…preparing, maintaining, supporting, and gearing up for the next lap. Lights, fueling, resting, servicing…a lap is ridden by only one rider at a time, but it takes an entire crew to pull it off.

Even preparing for a ride isn’t done alone. I personally found this aspect of the team race to be the most impressive, inspiring, and most appealing element of the sport. How can I not go out there and turn the best lap possible when I know all the work the team put into my getting out there on the course in the first place?

Honestly, when the riders were being riders, they had the easiest job of all…because when you saw this:

You knew your job of being a rider was done….and the real fun was soon to begin. Thanks to everyone at MonaVie, Cannondale, Reynolds, Light and Motion, Crank Brothers, all of the staff, the riders, teammates, family members, friends, and supporters that were up all day and all night, in the dust, in the smoke, in the wind, the cold, then heat, and everything in between that helped create this experience.

I can’t wait until next time.