12 hour / 24 hour of Fury race Write up

March 20th, 2017 10:17am

NOVEMBER 7. 2010

BicycleWorld.TV mountain bike team took to the trails to compete in the 12/24 hours of Fury with several duo and one 4 man team. The duo teams were all participating in the 12 hour version, while the 4 man team was entered in the 24 hour race.

The 4 man team was composed of Paul Broadtrip, Jimmie Alexander, Scott Arnold and (me) Art Macfarland. Paul started us off with a smoking fast lap - one of the fastest of the day, coming in seconds behind another 4 man team. I was second in line and kept the pace, coming in about 30 seconds behind the first place team. Jimmie had a fast lap and pulled us into first, then Scott had a good lap going when disaster struck. A ripped sidewall!!! Luck was on his side when he discovered a $1 dollar bill in his jersey pocket (who carries only $1 dollar?). He was able to finish the lap in 57:44 (remember this time). We fell into second place by about 10 minutes. We stayed 10 minutes behind for most of the day until nightime, when I passed the first place team on the side of the trail. Apparently, he slashed a tire and finished with a time of.... you guessed it, 57:44. We were now back in the lead by less than 2 minutes.

Luck was on our side or rather, bad luck was on their side, because a couple of laps later they had another flat. Around midnight we were up almost 15 minutes. We maintained our lead, but we were losing 1-2 minutes almost every lap. When daylight arrived we still had a 10 minute lead, and 4 laps to go based on our calculations. By the last lap, the gap was just under 5 minutes. As luck would have it, I had to do the last lap, but I felt pretty good most of the race, so I wasn't too worried, but I couldn't let up. I kept the pace up (as much as I could without sleep and after 70 miles of riding) and actually managed to put a minute on the other team. Both teams finished with 30 laps with a difference of about 5-6 minutes. That's 300 miles in 23 1/2 hours.

On the 12 hour race, our duo teams had a great showing. Jeff Herrera and Tom O'Brian had a big lead, but decided to call with 3 hours left as this was a training race for our two Pro riders. Matt Berault and Jay Robinson were doing well.... except in their transition planning... until Matt crashed hard and broke his hand on his second lap.

Steve Hughes and Dean Henthorn did well in the Duo 80+ but decided to call it with 2-3 left and ended up in 7. Jack Adams also raced in a duo team and finished 4th in the 80+ category as well.

Almost everyone was using Geax tires (with the exception of Scott - who had the slashed tire) and they performed great. Everyone that was using Accelerade products did well. The only bonks came from the people not using them ... hmmmmm... I wonder why?