Aug 12-13, 2006
The 11th running of the northeast's biggest 24-hour mountain bike race.
Team Blesso Consulting reached the podium, placing third in the Four Man Expert
category and fith overall. They completed 29 laps on the 8.5 mile course.
Official Results
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 | | photo by Philbrick Photography | | Jake |
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Tom Greene
Great race guys. I think we all rode our best and have a good showing for our
efforts. Highlights of the race for me were my first lap out - riding as hard
as I could racing with the team pinnacle rider, the second time around on my
double night lap while the sun was coming up on Mt. Washington and putting
in a good effort during my final lap of the race to help cement our third place
position in the expert category. Let's do it again next year.
Jake Berry
Well it was my first race in exactly a year and I came in ill prepared due to travel
for work over the past month. The first lap really hurt my lungs; they were burning
and screaming after 45 minutes of sucking up as much oxygen as they could. I was
surprised my lap time was so short given how I felt. As I went out on the second lap
I was feeling much better and really thought I was clearing and riding stuff better,
but in the end I was 4 minutes slower. I did my double lap at midnight without
eating enough and bonked hard at the end of the second lap. That was the first and
only lap where I was passed; once by the pro team and once by the team ahead of us.
When I got back to camp I sat on the ground next to the cooler eating anything I
could stuff in my face. I ate until I felt like I was going to get sick and went
to bed.
Riding after you wake up is the worst; it’s just not something you want to do
when you get out of the warm sleeping bag. Although I really didn’t want to ride
the last lap, I was really happy I did once I started riding. The course was dry
and fast and I knew I could go all out. By that point I felt like knew every twist
and turn on the course and I was just counting the hills to the end. As I came into
mile 8 I could hear someone gaining on me fast. I knew the 1st place sport team was
behind us but I had no idea how far. All I could think of was what if they passed
me and finished ahead of us in the overall. I shifted into my big ring and went
as fast as I could to the finish making sure he was far enough back as I
dismounted to run into the tent.
Barry Petzold
What a perfect weekend!! Everything went smoothly, except that Francis had about 48 flats.
The course was great, especially with the new singletrack across the road. Almost
went off one of those bridges on my first lap... it was almost 6 minutes of GG for
me..
Huge thanks to everyone hanging out in our giant Ewok village. Having all those people
there made it twice as fun. Im pretty happy with my lap times
(46, 46, 51, 53, 52, 51, 46) considering this was my 5th mtn bike ride of the
year... or does it count as 5th through 11th?
Francis Blesso
Pre race
I pre-rode the course on Friday to check everything out. About 15 minutes before the
start I was checking the tire pressure in my rear tire. As I pulled the pump off the
valve, the valve pulled out of the tire. Everyone else was at the start and I quickly put
in a new tube and made it there in time. That was a little more stress than I needed.
The Start
I lined up in the front row for the Le Mans start and was out with a blast. I think
I finished the run in third or fourth. Tom was holding my bike at the beginning of the
transistion zone, so I was able to ride past everyone who was still running to
their bikes. This put me in second very briefly. From there it was under the tunnel to
the other side and up the twisty switchbacks and another climb. By the top I was in
fourth, but the three in front of me took off in the singletrack. Another guy caught me about halfway through
the lap, but I stayed close to him, finishing the first lap tied for fourth with a
lap time of 45 minutes, including the run.
Lap Two
I had the great idea to switch my tire before this lap to a real skinny one. Barry
was sitting with me while we waited for Jake to finish his first lap. I remarked how
I could see the casing through the sidewalls. "Maybe I should take a candy wrapper
with me just in case," I told him, recalling the great tips from those Bicycling
magazines. In a few minutes Barry brought one he fished out of the trash. The lap was
going great, and I felt really fast, until I heard a loud gunshot. It turns out it
was my rear tire failing. I had trouble removing the tire because the bead was very
tight and I had only one tire lever. After much fruitless effort, I remembered another
great Bicycling tip, and used the skewer as a tire lever. I shoved the candy wrapper
inside the tire, refilled and was ready to go. I ended up with a 50 minute lap, but
I felt I would have done 45 or faster.
Lap Three
After putting back the orignial tire, I went back out and cranked a 45 minute lap
with no problems.
Lap Four
Nothing special here, I finished with 48 minutes at 6:59, allowing Tom to race
without bringing his lights.
Laps Five and Six
I went out at 2:13am, and having heard it was getting wet and slippery, I decided to
let some air out. Can you guess what happened? A pinch flat before half way through.
I changed it pretty fast, but heard a disquieting hissing noise after emptying the
CO2 cartridge into the spare. I felt like I was going to cry, and decided to keep
racing and hope I made it before all the air leaked out. I did make it back and
headed to the Red Jersey support tent after finishing the lap. I had to give them
an IOU for a new tube and C02 cartridge. I also jacked the pressure in the
rear tire up to 55 psi. I was starting to feel pretty tired on the second lap, which
was definitely my slowest. I ended up with a 53 and 54, including all the stopping
to deal with my tires.
Lap Seven
As Tom and Barry completed their double laps, I had rested for about 4.5 hours so I was
real fresh and psyched to race again in the daylight. I took the baton from Jake. I tried
to take his bike too, but he politely reminded me that it was his and mine was waiting
for me a few feet away. I pulled a 45 minute lap.
Lap Eight
Jake was pretty unpsyched for another lap, and we decided to switch for the final
two laps. I turned out respectable 49.
