Another one in the books. This marks number 4 in the old pueblo for me, and a monumental number 10 for the event ever.

Todd knows how to throw a party, that’s for sure.

We rolled down friday night and hooked up with Kevin Noble for some beers and fire at the Kona compound. Seems as though the Kona team riders were staying in a hotel getting ready, and Kevin was staying in a whiskey bottle getting ready.

We enjoyed some late night entertainment from the guys at the BBQ booth and their cargo bike.

After a hearty breakfast, we began preparations for the race.

I somehow missed Ben going past during the lemans start, but I did catch everyones favorite ape in the act.

We rolled through the first few laps without too much event. We traded every lap, and were posting times in the sub 1:15 range. It was smooth going, and we decided after two apiece to switch to doubles. Ben rode the first one, which involved a day lap and the first night lap. He rocked them out in fine form, and then turned the first set of full night laps over to me.

I busted out a couple laps, and came back around to trade it off to Ben.

What I was unaware of at that time was the fact that Ben had been having a bit of a rough time recovering. He got cold, didn’t get food in him quick enough, and as a result didn’t get much rest. So, I was greeted with some food and a request to take another while Ben got some rest.

So, I rolled back to camp, grabbed some socks, a jacket and a red bull. I filled my pockets with some food, and made the mental switch to grinding out some more laps instead of ‘racing’ so much. Just keep the pedals turning.

I ended up doing 4 in a row, from about 8:30pm to 2:30am.

Remarkably, we held on to 8th place through my night ordeal and ben took over at around 3am and pulled the graveyard shift double.

I pulled the dawn lap, and realized that I had transferred to full-on survival mode. The result of which looks something like this.

We were both pretty beat up, so we decided to call it quits. Ben took some ibuprofin, got some food in him, and rocked out the final lap with FKR and shawn.

Doesn’t FKR look fast?

And shawn just looks like a rockstar, as usual.

Speaking of rockstar, look it up in the dictionary, and you may find a picture of this man.

You may be asking yourself, “Wait a second, didn’t FKR and Raney ride a duo also?”.

Why yes, they did. In fact, they were in first place up until about 8 hours into the race. They were still in the top three at this point. FKR went out for his first double, and when he got back. . . .

They both went to bed for the night.

After the third lap of my night marathon, we had successfully passed them, and they only posted one more on the board when all was said and done, and that was the final lap (to avoid the DNF).

Did anyone ever mention that a NORBA race and a 24 hour race were a bit different? I’ll bet you can ask FKR and Raney about that.

In the end team HandlebarSandwich ended up 16th out of 62 male duo teams, with a grand total of 14 laps.

Congrats to Art and Jason, represenin’ flagstaff and indiana on the duo team ‘old growth hoosiers’. They came in 4th place with an amazing 18 laps.

Chad also busted out a very impressive performance on a singlespeed for 12 laps and a 4th place finish in solo singlespeed. Here he is, all smiles, on his way in from the final lap.

In case you’re looking for preliminary results, they’re up here. If you want some enjoyment, check out the creative team names in the four person singlespeed category, I have decided that singlespeeders have the most creative (and typicall vulgar or sexual) team names.

Another good race in the books, and a learning experience for all involved.