Yikes. I’m poor, or so it seems…. Somehow I hadn’t really realized it until I checked my bank account the weekend before the Coolest 24 Hour Race Against Cancer at Boggs. However, sitting there with my bank account balance displayed on the screen before me in bright red numbers (that means below zero), it was suddenly painfully clear that I may not be racing at Boggsafter all.
And wouldn’t you know it? I had been feeling alive once again on my bike in the few days prior to realizing that I may not get to race. I had already made plans for a pit crew and for once, my Scalpel was ready to go and already in good working order the week before the race; a good thing since I guess I didn’t have any cash to put into it at the moment. It seemed as though in the one race where all the other logistical stuff was ready to go and taken care of, the money hurdle had become taller than ever.
I had planned on sharing a pit with fellow 24 hour solo racer Mike Harrison and when I told him of my predicament, he offered to help me out a little so that I could race. I spent a couple of days being completely sure that I couldn’t accept any help and that I would not be racing in the coming weekend. I woke up the Wednesday before the race and was suddenly completely sure that I could not miss this race and that I needed to be there no matter what.
I had only a couple of days now to get everything together and dialed in for the race, but it seems like it gets easier to get things together with each passing race and by Thursday morning, supplies had been gathered and loaded into my (once again) trusty Subaru. I worked at the shop on Thursday and set out for South Lake Tahoe after work to pick up my pit crew. Huh? Yeah, stay with me here. My lovely girlfriend(Alicia, who lives in San Diego) had agreed to help me out at the race and as luck would have it, she and her family were vacationing in Tahoe for the week. I went up to Tahoe on Thursday night and we were going to head to the race on Friday morning from there.
So, while we’re all out racing our bikes around in the dirt, I sometimes forget that the skinny tired crowd is in the middle of their race season as well. Last weekend was not only the Boggs 24 hour race, but it was also the 49th annual Nevada City Classic road race in downtown Nevada City. So what, who cares, that’s a skinny tire crit and what in the world does this have to do with the Boggs Race?
Well, not really a whole lot. However, this race has to do with the story of last weekend because a certain Tour de France winner named Lance Armstrong had confirmed that he would be racing in our little hometown event and I wanted to see him in action something terrible. The pro race in the Nevada City started at 5 pm on Sunday afternoon. My race was over at noon on Sunday, plenty of time to make it back to town to witness Lance crushing the field. My only concern was whether or not I would be able to drive safely back from Boggs after racing for 24 hours. Well, what about Alicia? Yes, that was certainly the answer. She would be up all night, but she would be a better candidate for the drive than myself, no doubt. The only tricky part was that when I arrived in Tahoe on Thursday night, Alicia wasn’t yet able to drive a stick and my old Subaru always has been and likely always will be a manual… Hmmm. Well, no time like the present to learn, I suppose.
By midnight on Thursday, we were cruising around Tahoe with Alicia in the driver’s seat and me realizing all over again just how difficult it is to drive a stick. I had forgotten over the last couple of years just how terrifying it is to have so many things to worry about on top of all the other stuff one needs to worry about while driving a car to begin with. But, she was handling it like a champ and she didn’t realize it, but I was completely serious when I told her that she would be driving at least part of the way to the race the following day.
I’ve gotta tell you, it’s pretty awesome to be able to put your feet up and relax on the way to a bike race. I haven’t done that in a while, I’ve been driving solo to the races or we’ve taken my car and so Alicia has been able to use the “Can’t Drive Stick” Get Out of Jail Free Card up to this point. Not anymore… I drove us from South Lake down through Sacto, but after that it was time for Alicia to put her newly learned skills to use and get us the rest of the way to Boggs. We might get to see Lance after all… Oh boy!
We made it to Boggs in one piece, nothing to it. Super low key, a lot of familiar faces setting up camps and pits and perfect weather. I had a good feeling about this weekend. I was finally feeling good on my bike again, it wasn’t going to rain, what else could I ask for? We were set up right across the road from the Dirt City crew and it was good to see that we’d have some great neighbors for the weekend, just in case we needed to borrow a cup of sugar as the race went on. Pete Tipshus was Pit Master for Dirt City and would be crewing for an 8 hour solo, an 8 hour team, and a 24 hour solo, but still agreed to help Alicia out if she had any questions during the race on how to take care of little old me. She had crewed for an 8 hour, but never a 24. I had no worries, I knew she’d do a great job helping me go fast. Mike and his crew weren’t due to show up until Saturday morning, but they had already been up to Boggs to stake out a spot for the pits and they had left a couple of pop-ups and tables in a choice location.
After unloading the Subi, hanging out a bit with Pete, Brad Cole (Solo 24 Single), Scott Clark (Eight Hour), and Maria (Eight Hour[sorry I spelled your name wrong]), we headed down to get registered and say hello to Jim and the Auburn Bike Works Crew. As always, things were well organized and registration was a breeze. Jim and the crew had a pretty killer camp set up, complete with a TV and DVD player where movies would be playing later on in the evening. Alicia and I promised to come back for a flick later on, but we had some business to take care of first…
Although I was not particularly hungry as I’d been snacking on a car full of groceries, I had a 24 hour race coming up and I knew I needed to get a pretty good sized meal in me the night before the mayhem ensued. We had passed some sort of restaurant out in the woods on our way to the race. Maybe not the best idea to eat unfamiliar food from a shack in the sticks the night before a 24 hour event; but hey, racing your bike for 24 hours isn’t the best idea either. More influential in our decision to risk the the middle of nowhere cafe was the fact we didn’t actually bring anything that could be classified as ‘real’ food, or anything that we could cook food with, even if we had brought some…. So to the cafe we went.
“Y’all want some supper?” said the waitress as we stood in the bar room of the road side cafe which we had seen on our way to Boggs a few hours earlier. I had to bite my lip a little not to laugh out loud, but smiled and nodded my head. I only wanted to laugh because I’d never heard anyone refer to dinner as ’supper’ outside of my own home, where my grandpa used the term on a daily basis. Yep, we were gonna have us some right fine viddles for supper tonight, I reckon… Yeehaw!
Aside from the business of fueling for tomorrow’s event, we used dinner time as an opportunity to go over all the specifics of what Alicia would be in charge of in the coming weekend. The fact that she was so concerned with all the details of the race was exactly the reason that I knew she was going to do a great job crewing for me. I suspect that care for a racer and the outcome of their race is the key component to a good pit crew in a 24 hour race. It makes sense, what else but genuine care for me would drive anyone to make the sacrifices necessary pit for a 24 hour race?
After dinner and an outdoor movie night with some of my favoritepeople, Alicia and I blew up the air mattress and slept outside under the pop ups. I slept like a champ, though the mattress lost most of it’s air during the night…. I later learned that Alicia barely slept for fear of being eaten by a large woodland predator. He he he.
Morning came too quickly which is nothing unique to the morning of a race; morning always comes to quickly. Although I love the fact that 24s don’t start till noon (bike races should never start earlier than 10am, as far as I’m concerned), the few hours between rolling out of bed and lining up are not my favorite. These hours are full of nervous energy, checking and re-checking bikes and supplies and trying to kill the butterflies in my stomach with copious amounts of carbs. As much as I want these hours to end, I sometimes wish they wouldn’t because I know the end of these nervous hours means the beginning of 24 hours of racing and some very tough times are certainly in store for me…
I was surprised that Tinker Juarez recognized me and after a quick conversation with a living legend, I returned to my pit to make my final race preparations. What a trip, only a couple of years ago I was giddy to get Tinker’s autograph. Now I was lining up with him? Weird. Am I nervous? You bet.
Time to race….
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