24 Hours of Boyne: Sofa King Fast

The 24 hours of Boyne is done and over, and everyone had an absolutely great time. To get some of the details out of the way: we got 2nd place in the 4 man team category (even though we only have 3 people) and we had just as many laps as first place, they just managed to finish 40 minutes earlier than us, a really close race with everything considered.

I would first like to thank my team, Dad and Nick, you guys really gave it 100% and it really payed off. Next I would like to thank my support crew, Caroline, Mom, Kelly, and Maria, without you guys we would have gone hungry, never woken up for that graveyard lap, and prabley still be figuring out whos turn it was and how fast our laps were!!!!!
Here is a picture of our tent with some of the team and support crew.

From my perspective the race was very very brutal. I ended up riding 12 laps which equals about 120 miles and about 2 miles of vertical gain. I really gave it my best shot, and I have the chafing and blisters to prove it (of coarse these are on my rear end, so I wont prove it, but you can take my word for it). The highlight of my racing came from the first lap. Let me explain the beginning of the race a little bit for everyone. Everyteam sends one rider, and every one who does it individually, these people place there bikes about 100 yards away at the beginning of the coarse, and remove their front wheel. When the race begins everyone sprints over to their bike and then puts on the front wheel, and then starts heading to the trail. This part is really fun, and its a really cool way to start a race. My team selected me to be this guy, so I ran as fast as I could, and I ended up being the 4th or 5th guy to get on their bike and start moving. After that I turned up the heat and caught and passed everyone within about 2 minutes. After that I just kept on crusing around the coarse, going fast, but not quite as fast as I could, I mean I had to ride another 24 hours, so I had to play it safe. I kept up this pace the whole way through, and I ended up being the very first person to finish the first lap. I then went out for the second lap and continued at this pace making sure that I kept in mind that I had to race for 24 hours. When I finished up this second lap I taged Nick to go and he went for it. I then found that I was not only the first person accross, but I was the first person accross by about 5 minutes (a big chunk of time when the lap took me 43 minutes.) So that was my glory for the race.
This is a picture of me coming around for the first lap, with the fastest time!

The rest of the race was pretty good, we got some rain in the middle of the night, which made it difficult to see with the lights we use for night riding, but we all made it through! The team really pulled it together at the end with Dad puting in a really great lap, setting up Nick and I to do some serious work, allowing us to pack a lot of laps in the last few hours, and get 3 laps counted for the last hour of riding, which put us right next to the first place team.
I also have to give credit to my friend Steve, who rode in the solo class. He came in first place with 17 laps, what a race!

Here is Dad rolling in from one of his laps. This guy was nuts, when ever he was about to go he would ride about 400 circles right around the tag off area, waiting for the guy to come through, he was always ready to go, although I am not sure how he didn't get dizzy.


Once again, thanks again to my team and my support crew, it was a great race and I am really happy that I flew back for it!This is the dance I made up at 3:30 in the morning, it may not look like much, but believe me it was awesome!!!!!