6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships 2019

The 6-12-24 Hour World Time Trial Championships put on by the Race Across America (RAAM) organization is one of the best-run events in the world. Great people, great venue location and perfect course for a long time trial.

Borrego Springs California is the location.

Borrego is an amazing place to visit any time but it’s especially nice in October/November when the event is held.

I did the 24-hour event in 2016 and then again in 2018. Last year I did the 24-hour solo division where I won my age group even after some pretty bad problems with my feet and my back. This was not my goal. It just happened.

2016 was on my tandem bike with my friend Teresa. We didn’t get quite as many miles done as we had planned due to physical problems but we still had a blast. Teresa did the 12-hour event in 2018 on the tandem event with our friend Richard. They set a course record in their division. 

This year I signed up to do the 2-person, mixed, 60+, 24-hour race with Teresa on our single bikes.

The event is 3 different races within one event.

The 24 hour time trial starts on a Friday evening at 5pm and then finishes on Saturday afternoon 24 hours later. The 12 hour time trial starts at 5am the next morning, 12 hours after the 24 hour and the 6 hour then starts 18 hours after the long race at 11am. All races ride the same course and finish at the same time.

The course is an 18-mile circuit with a pit area for support. The pit area is at the start/finish where the tracking device/lap counter is. 
For the 24 hour race, the idea is to get as many laps in as you can in 24 hours. At about 1.5 hours from the 5 pm finish, they put you on a short 4+ mile loop till finish time. That way racers will be able to be closer to the lap counter and get as many miles as possible and not be stranded out on the long loop, not making it to the finish in time. All racers must be done and through the Shute by 5pm.

Thursday

As I did last year, I left home early in the morning so I could get to Borrego pretty early in case I needed to pick up anything.

This year, again, Ultra-cyclist Marko Baloh was holding a meet and greet friendship ride on Thursday afternoon. I really wanted to make that again.

We all had a great time. Quite a few more people showed up this time. Some really fast people. 

I again saw my friends from Norway who I had met last year the day before the race, Monica and her husband who I will call Duke (I gave him that name because he owns Duke Sport bicycles in Norway. I had a hard time remembering his name so I asked if I could call him Duke. )

Below are a few pictures of the friendship ride.

RAAM veteran Marko Baloh

Rolling through the flats at a leisure 20mph

I was feeling pretty good on the friendship ride. 

That night at the hotel, I started to develop a toothache and it became severe overnight. Plus I started to get a fever because I had the chills so I was thinking I had an infection too. My team-mate Teresa was en route from home.

 I was seriously thinking of calling her and calling off the race. It was that bad. I took some pain killers along with a sleeping pill she gave me when she arrived and I think I slept some. It was so bad that I went to bed at 8pm. All I remember was pain all night. I was not sure if I slept some or not.

Friday

I felt a little better in the morning after we all went out to breakfast. 

At 11am I moved the van into the pit area to set up our pit for the race. While I did this, Teresa went out for a short spin around the course to check it out. She arrived in the pits when we started getting the bike inspections done.

The pit is set up

We got checked-in, inspected and then we were ready to race. I set the van up with a small shade cover behind it for the time we had to wait before starting at 5pm. It was pretty warm but not as bad as last year.

Our friend Ron and his brother Howard, a two-man team, pitted next to us.

Our friend Ellen was a race official. Here she is inspecting Tigers bike.

4pm came around and it was time for the race meeting near the start. We were all ready to go so we just relaxed for a bit after the meeting.

We decided to switch-off every lap and I would go first at 5pm.  

The race is started in a number of "Waves", to keep things spread out. It is a "Non-drafting" race, so racers cannot follow in the rear of another rider unless they are passing.

We named our team, "TigerOwl" since that was our team name in 2016 when we did it on the tandem.

We started in the 3rd wave and I was on my way.

We did not miss a relay at the race and only lost 65 seconds doing the exchanges between riders. That means I only saw my team-mate for about a minute in the whole 24-hour race. We learned when we did RAAM,  from our crew-chief William,  just how much time you can lose during transitions from racer to racer so we really tried to keep it tight.

Teresa's boyfriend Chris was our crew. He did an amazing job taking care of us. He also helped others who were racing out there too when he had the chance. 

We started out the race, self-crewing ourselves for a couple hours while Chris drove out from work. He was following our progress on a phone app the whole time on his way out. He arrived at around 7pm.

As soon as the sun went down, I could tell we were going to be in for a cold night. It was really strange compared to the other 2 years we had done the event. 

In 2018 and 2016, I was able to get by with just a vest and knee warmers through the night. I never really got all that cold. This year was completely different. It seemed like there was a damp cold which is usually not the case in the desert. The prior 2 years it was in the low-50's or high-40's during the night and early morning. This year we had damp temps and in the mid-'30s. 

It was brutal and it really affected the times of most racers. Some actually called it quits due to the cold.

Then there was my infected tooth.

Throughout the night I fought that really bad toothache that was on and off. I also got extra cold and could feel that I had a fever because I just couldn't warm up, even sitting in the van with the heater on. I had the chills. 
I tried not to let on how bad I was feeling. I didn't want to bring everyone else down but I was not a happy camper. I kept telling myself that this 200 miles with a break every hour were going to be so much easier than when I did all my really long solo events. 
It was not. The conditions just made it feel harder.

Teresa on the other hand never said a negative thing the whole time, (although I only saw her for about a minute during the race. ) Every time I changed with her, she was upbeat!!

Our first couple of laps were pretty fast. My first was at about 20 mph. It went downhill for me as the night went on as far as my power and speed. The cold really affected me more and my lap times plummeted down to 3 laps that were in the low 16 mph range just before sunrise. I usually embrace the cold but not this time......argghhh!! 

Sunrise near Yaqui Pass Road. The temperature out on the cold part of the course was 35 degrees at this time.
Photo: Vic Armijo Photography

After the sun came up, we both started feeling much better. 
In fact, my lap times started to improve as the race went on during the day. 

Doing one of our transitions just after sunrise. It was still pretty cold.

Some fun in the pits. Our crew chief Chris

The temperature only reached the mid 80's which was perfect for the desert. In prior years we raced in temps that reached the low 100's during the day. 
If only I was feeling better through the night, we may have been able to win our division.

With about 4 hours to go, we had raised our average speed up to very close to our goal of 400 miles for 24 hours. Chris had been keeping good track of our progress and this really perked us up. 

Rolling late in the day on one of the final long laps.
Photo: Jen Magnuson Photography

We put the hammer down during this last part of the race. Many of my final laps were close to 18 mph which was getting us above the 16.6 mph average we would need to reach our goal.
Teresa was doing the same and cranking the final laps. 

When 3:30 came around, it was time for the short laps to come into play. 

Chris calculated that I would finish my final 18-mile circuit near 3:30. We discussed before I went out on the final long lap, that we would then have Teresa do 3 of the short laps to give me some recovery time from pushing really hard on the last long lap.

I kept a nice steady pace and was feeling much better on this final lap. I just didn't get it!!

Here it was, almost 24 hours in and the race almost over, and I was feeling so good. I surprisingly had my second fastest lap of the whole race on this final long circuit. Go figure.

I got back to the finish shute at right around 3:30 for the transition with Tiger.
 She hammered the next 3 short 4.7 mile laps averaging around 18.5 mph. She came on really strong at the end too.

I then went out to do as many laps as I could do before 5:03 pm which is 24 hours exactly from when our wave started. 

Making the turn on one of the final short laps.
 Photo: Vic Armijo Photography.

I got 2 great laps in and averaged about 19.2 mph. I rolled into the finish at just about 5 pm with not enough time for one more lap so we were done.

Wooooohooooo!! 

We were done and we got our goal. 402 miles for the 24 hours.

Thanks so much to Teresa and our awesome crew Chris Bergstrom. Chris did an outstanding job during the race, not only keeping us going but helping others wherever he could. Thanks so much, buddy!! Teresa was a rock star for the entire race.

Teresa (Tiger) Beck and I just as we finished the race. 

Left to right: Dee and husband Rob raced fixed gear, Rick raced fixed gear, Teresa and I, Ron and his brother Howard.

Thanks to everyone who came out to route us on.

A big shout out to Rick, Fred, Jeff, the crew at the RAAM organization and all the volunteers, for again putting on a stellar time trial event.

I know I have said it many times, but I really could not do this sort of thing without the support of my wife Ginny and my family. Thank you all for all your support and for putting up with my long training hours.

Link to all the pictures taken at the event: https://link.shutterfly.com/kO3CQN2Kc5