Location: Albion Hills
Weather: Hot Humid and no rain....
This past weekend we had a blast, 2 team van go teams were entered into the 24 hour summer solstice, a 5 person open team 200-249, and a 10 person mixed team. We had a lot of fun, with Derek not riding his own bike for any laps, Tyler pulling a girl out of some shrubbery, Garnett posting sub 1hr laps, Beer drinking between laps, kids running around playing, just an all around great atmosphere!! A typical team van go atmosphere for sure...
The 5 person team consisted of: Tyler, Tracey, Derek, John, and Garnett
The 10 person team consisted of: Jean, Ashad, Jon, Penny, Dai, Jackie, Sean, Leslie, and Mark.
The race started noon, with Derek leading out the 5 person team, and Mark leading out the 10 person team. Both shot out like rockets, posting great first lap times putting both teams up near the front of the pack. Derek riding his first borrowed bike from the Specialized booth, you will see a theme...
After the first round of riders finished the laps, the 5 person team was in 3rd, 10 person team sitting 7th. Originally Chico had the 5 person team in mixed category, but that was to changed to the correct category.
Over the course of the afternoon, the weather stayed very hot and humid, so drinking water was key. Luckily we did not have major mechanical issues, other than Derek, on his second borrowed bike from Specialized. His S Works that he borrowed for the remainder of the race, the crank decided it didn't want to stay tight, so he fought it over his lap.
On Tyler's second night lap, he came across a girl who was off the trail on her back, still clipped to her bike. She had better days, cut up bruised and just out of it. It was around 3am so you can't blame her. Brought her to the next marshal station, she unfortunately did not finish her lap.
There was one point of the course that everyone hated... the dreaded 5km to go sign... The last 5km were the hardest of the whole lap, mostly up hill... by that point of the lap you were exhausted, and hated your life going up it...
The 5 person team had a ringer, Garnett who was consistently pulling sub 1 hour laps!! A great guy from Burlington who fit in perfectly. The complete lap worked out to be 18.73km (Based on Tyler's Bike computer), so to post sub 1 hr laps meant you were averaging 19km/hr!!!!
As the 5 person team was in contention for a podium Derek double lapped before sending Garnett out to finish the race off. Overall everyone stayed in their spot with only the double lap being the only order change.
We have to thank Emily again for the help keeping both the 10 and 5 person teams somewhat in line, making sure people knew who was out, when they were due out. Only a couple misses at the transfer but nothing crazy...
At the end of the day, the 5 person team completed 23 laps in 24hr 25min. This time was good enough for the 5 person team to Finish 3rd out of 37 teams!!!!!
The 10 person team completed 18 laps in 23hrs 50 min. The 10 person team finished with a 10th place finish out of 19 which was a great showing as well!!
Both teams had a great time, met a lot of new people, and everyone seemed to enjoy the day!
Beer and podium...nice! Congrads to all TVG riders!
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