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Dirt Rag Articles
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24 Hours of Big Bear
June 10th & 11th, 2006
Hazelton, WV
Laird Knight is the forefather, godfather and father figure of 24 hour mountain bike competition. He and the Granny Gear group have been doing this 24 hour mountain bike race thing for 15 years now. Not only has the original idea of the 24 Hours of Canaan spawned many imitators, it has also grown into its own 24 hour mountain biking series with events all over the country. Though the 24 Hours of Canaan has moved first to Snowshoe, WV, and now the Big Bear Camp Area in Hazelton, WV, it's still a fine event.
I rolled out of Philly early on Friday and made it to Big Bear in less than four hours. Sure I broke some speed limit laws, but when it's a mostly highway drive, it's easy to hurry. Yes, by the way, Big Bear is extremely easy to reach from major highways. While I waited for the rest of the Dirt Rag crew, the booth and the beer to arrive, area Kona-guy Jeff Wuerthele and I hung out and shot the shit.
Jeff and Brad soon came and we started to set up the Dirt Rag booth. First order of business was to unload the fresh, full keg of Tröegs Sunshine Pils beer. Carol Clemens and Justin Steiner rolled in soon after, and we got most of the booth ready. Our original plan was to entertain the masses on Friday night with a Drag Race in front of the Dirt Rag booth. There would be some friendly competition and some friendly beer consumption.
It had rained a bit on Friday, but the last drops of precipitation for the whole weekend fell upon us around 5:30 on Friday evening. As soon as the rain stopped, Laird and I decided to go for a quick ride before the Drag Race. Laird's cousin, Loren Gouldman straight outta Davis, West Virginia joined us on our ride. The trails were a bit slick after the rain, but Laird led us through the woods like a smiling Zen Master with two understudies in tow.
Laird bailed half way through our ride to go check on the Drag Race, and Loren and I continued on to finish this fantastic course. Despite telling me she's only raced a few times and being perched atop a demo Maverick, I could see that she had some bike handling skills that would rival many veteran racers I know. As we wound through the singletrack, we came upon Justin Kline and the rest of the Princeton Tec gang. I knew they were looking for a fourth person for their team. It took me about ten minutes to put the pieces together, but I demanded that Justin find the 26 year old Loren to see if she wanted to race. She did and it worked out well.
Turns out the Drag Race never happened. No worries, though. Most racers were busy relaxing, eating and starting to sleep before a big day of racing. I made it back to the Dirt Rag compound where Justin offered me some fantastic pasta salad. I threw that back, had a couple beers and headed into the VW Eurovan motel early and called it a night.
I awoke to a chilly, but sunny, morning. The best kind of mornings to welcome when you're camping, I say! I immediately hightailed it over to open up the Dirt Rag booth. To my horror, the first thing I notice is that our keg of beer is floating in the ice tub. Could people have really snuck into the buttoned-up booth and drank all our beer last night? Hardly. Then the real horror set in. The keg was actually floating in its own juice. Meaning...the ice tub was full of beer. About 15 gallons of beer...the same amount that was IN the keg only a few hours before. Seems like whomever was helping themselves to beers accidently bumped the tap open when they were finished pouring their beer. Thus, the keg drained. Oh well.
Soon enough, I had the booth open and ready for business. As it always happens for me, the moment I take the first bite of breakfast, people swarm the booth looking for the latest loot and subscription premiums. Carol was soon there to help me, but It was still a solid two hours before I got to take my second bite of food. In the meantime, people were thrilled with the Bontrager tires we gave away with each subscription. Since it was quite cold, we quickly blew through all of our knit hats and most of our wool jerseys in a short amount of time.
Karl came down to hang out and shoot some photos. After being a member of the winning Master's team last year, this was his first year in a long time that he wasn't racing this event. Fortunately, he got to feel the love on a great ride before the start of the race.
Soon enough, the race had started. Over 165 teams hit the trails for 24 hours of fun. Word was that the trails were absolutely perfect. Combine that with the fact that it wasn't too hot or humid, and you have a perfect combination for a race.
Team Dirt Rag, while originally planning on merely having a fun time racing and hanging out, discovered that they were in the running for a podium finish in the Sport class. As luck, skill and determination would have it, Brad, Justin, Jeff and intern Ryan pulled off a fantastic second place finish! AND they had fun doing it! Other notable results include Dirt Rag veteran Gunnar Shogren taking home the fastest lap (1:02:39), while his wife Betsy had the fastest lap for the women (1:15:10). "Vegan" Rob Lichtenwalner had the fastest solo men’s lap (1:11:36) and Holly Forsyth had the fastest solo women’s lap (1:51:29). You can see all of the results here.
On Sunday morning, before we opened the booth, Carol wisely talked me into joining her for a quick loop on the course. Careful not to get in anyone's way, we hit the trail. I must say that this course is absolutely fantastic. I'd say more than 80% of the course is prime, groove-inducing singletrack. The ride was over before I knew it, but the energy it gave me, had me smiling (and awake) until I finally made it home to Philly about 8 hours later.
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