Dave Simmons

24 Hours of Nine Mile I'm back from the cheese state. Lots of rain and hot humid temps, but lots of fun anyway. The weekend started on Friday morning with a 7 hour trip to Wausau, WI. We arrived at the race venue and set up camp. Then went on a night time pre-ride lap. The course was a blast. By far the best singletrack I've ridden, and lots of it. Tons of rocks and roots that all flowed perfectly. We went back to our camp site and tried to get some sleep. Unfortunately it started to rain. At first it was just a little sprinkle. Then it went from a light rain to a windy downpour and back all night long. Needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep. The clouds had parted by the start of the race. I volunteered to do the first lap with the lemans running start. I saw a bunch of familiar faces in the starting shoot. Matt, Paddy, Kerkove and Endurosnob to name a few. 10:00am came and we were off. I felt pretty brave on the run, and tried to pass as many people as I could. Probably not the smartest thing to do. I passed Paddy and told him to pick it up : ) Once we got to our bikes and started down the course, he did just that, and flew by me. My first lap was decent. I definitely got caught up in the excitement and took off way to fast. I always seem to do that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I finished in 1 hour 15 minutes and tagged off with Trent. The afternoon laps were hot and sticky in the sun. Brian set the fastest lap for our team at 1 hour 4 minutes. Way to go! Trent had great times as well. And Sears kept up fast lap times even though he was on his fixed 29er. Greg made a quick trip up from Madison to cheer us on. I was saddened that the infamous Fox was a no show in his lederhosen : ) As the sun set, it started to cool off a little bit. I took off with my lights and had my best lap of the day. There were three checkpoints along the course. The first one was all lit up, and had a good sized cheering section by the dirt jump they had built. I got some good air and roar from the crowd. That got me pumped for the rest of the lap. At the third checkpoint (Checkpoint Charlie) there was quite the party going on. There were people cheering and ringing cowbells all over, and the music was just as loud. They sure know how to put on a race in Wisconsin : ) On my second night lap it was starting to lightning and thunder. After checkpoint charlie the skies opened up and the wind started to howl. I made it back to the finish, and that was the end of the race. The race organizers had stopped the race and eventually cancelled the rest of the event because of a tornado warning. We packed up camp and hit the road. This is a must do event for anyone thinking of trying a 24 hour event. Minus the weather everything about it was perfect. Great course, loud music, hot showers, bike wash and food and equipment vendors as well. A first rate experience. Our team had a great time and a lot of fun. That was our goal for the weekend. Mission accomplished. Great race guys! A big thanks go out to Terry, Monty and the gang at The Ski and Bike Shop for sponsoring us. Thanks guys and gals. You're the best!