12 Hours of Temecula (or SDNG)

SDNG stands for "Sorry dad, no grandkids" because after this ride I'm pretty sure I can't produce kids. The plumbing might have been ok before this ride, but I can pretty much guarantee that I'm sterile now. It hurt that bad being on the bike this past weekend ...

Last Saturday I drove out to Temecula to compete in the 12 Hours of Temecula. I tried to get a 4 man team together, but Andrew and Corby didn't want to participate, so it was just Matt and I.

I had been itching to do a 12 or 24 hour race with a team and I figured that Matt and I could handle roughly 6 hours of riding each. The mistake was signing up for a race only one week after The Traverse. I wasn't quite 100% at the 12 hour race, but that's ok.


The race:

Our goal was to do 10 laps. I saw that the previous third place duo team at the last 12 Hours of Temecula did 10 laps - so I figured that would be our goal.

We managed to get 10 laps, but it was tough. The 10 laps landed us in third place for "2-person open". This is a pretty big deal for me since we were competing against some pro and semi-pro racers. I would consider myself a "sport" rider, which means I'm about two classes below the guys that got first and second. We might have even beaten some expert/semi-pro guys, but who knows until the results are released.

The scene was pretty chaotic at first. Lots of tents and booths and of course tons of riders around. We managed to get a prime spot for staging in between laps thanks to Doug Andrews. He set up a tent and some tables but had to leave because he wasn't feeling good.

We also got the support of Steve (chaos) and Traci (wife of a guy racing). It helped a lot to roll into the staging area in between laps and get help and encouragement.


Lap 1:

We decided that since Matt raced the first lap the last time he did 12 Hours of Temecula, that I would get to enjoy the start of the event this time around.

They basically made everyone line up in a large group and then had us make a "parade lap" around the campsite before starting the first lap on the official race course. It was a different experience, and I decided to just let most of the other riders get ahead so I didn't have to jockey too much for position.

Once we got going on the official course I started to get nervous. I had never been on the course before and so I had no idea what was in store for me. I wasn't worried about the climbs, but I was worried about some of the downhill. I had read some comments from someone that had pre-rode the course and he said there were a few sections where he expected riders to go down.

The first section of the course was really fast. I was able to ride and push in a very large gear until I got to the start of "The Damn Climb".

The climb turned out to be not as bad as I thought it would be. It wasn't easy, but it wasn't hard at all. I managed to clear 95% of it on the first three laps and 100% of it on the last two. There was one small rocky steep section that I didn't even try on the first three laps in order to save energy. The last two times though I went for it and made it.

At the top of the climb there was some fast downhill and then some singletrack that indeed had a steep loose section. There was a lot of sand and it freaked me out a bit. However I rode down it on every lap, mostly because of the confidence I was able to build up on the first lap.

That was the theme for the day really. The first lap I pushed myself to ride everything downhill, and that gave me the confidence to continue to ride technical stuff later on in the day.

Every technical section was marked with signs that read, "Caution! XXX". Hahaha. Not the most inspiring sign, but at least they let you know when to get ready.

The second half of the course had a lot of downhill and some really flowing sections. I can remember four technical sections that were problematic for me, but I rode all of them on every lap except for one drop that I walked on the last two laps.

The first lap ended at about 1:01 and a hair under 10 miles. I was hoping to get a sub hour lap, but I wasn't able to. The first lap ended up being my fastest all day - mostly because I was pushing myself to keep up with the large pack that went out on the first lap.


Other Laps:

I'm grouping all other laps into one section because I can't remember everything and I don't want this post to turn into "War and Peace".

I had some minor mechanicals on the course. Twice my chain came off and once my chain got sucked around the cranks and it took a few minutes to get back on.

The second issue was caused by a girl riding in front of me _really slowly_. I was behind her for a bit before she realized I was there and I had to gear down to match her speed since we were on singletrack. When I went to gear down though the chain came off and I rode it into the cranks. Oh well. At least the chain didn't break.

The heat was insane on laps 2 and 3. I read on a forum that one guy got over 105 degrees on his bike out on the course. Matt said he didn't think it got that hot, but I think it did. It was a very dry heat, but it was hot. Way hot. Too hot.

Other notes ...

- I got passed by the same Sho-Air guy twice on the course. He was super nice about it though, which was cool.

- There was a water station halfway through the course where I routinely poured one ice water cup over my head and one down my throat. So awesome.

- I endo'ed after my second lap. I went by the people that record lap times and said "220. 220. 220." to make sure they got my number. Apparently they were all spacing out because I heard someone call out "NUMBER!" after I had passed. I heard that and slammed on the brakes and crashed right in front of maybe 10 other riders. Good times.

- Matt had some really fast lap times. I think his first lap was 56 minutes, which was awesome.

- I calculated that we averaged about 1:04 for our lap times for the entire day. Not bad.

- Matt got sick after his fifth lap. We'll just leave it at that. Haha.

- I definitely passed more than I got passed. I passed the most on the climbs. In fact I don't think I passed anyone on the downhill sections. The longer the day went on the more people were walking, but I kept riding.

- We finished our race at 7:43pm. If I didn't have a MAJOR rash on my butt I would have gone out again. I'm confident I could have finished in under 1:20.

- Did I mention we got third? Haha.

This was one of those races where the memories will grow fond over time. The experience is still a bit fresh and raw for me to enjoy it to the fullest, but I think it was a good enough time to want to do another event like it.

Link to pics from the event:

12 Hours of Temecula