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2006 24-Hours of Adrenalin - Monterey, CA with Team Cookie Parade . May 13/14, 2006 Photos by Lester (click on photo) Photos by Jen (click on photo) The awesome support crew of Lester and Baby Mak Pardoe, Glenda, Cary, Heather and Rita. The Cookie Parade Team: Captain Jen Galbreath, Sherreme Gurtler, Catherine Talbot, Kim Pardoe, Marg Fedyna Finally, I got my chance to be on Team Cookie Parade. It was 2003 when I first tried a solo event at Laguna Seca in Monterey. Team Cookie Parade was racing and generously offered me a different person each loop for support. This year, they asked me to fill in for some riders that dropped out - ok so I wasn't first in line, but I got in! I requested to race five continuous laps into the night. I wanted to see what it was like to ride at these hours fresh and test out my new Lupine Edison lights. The Cookies decided I was to race the first lap as well. The first lap starts with a Lemans start of an 800 metre run before jumping on the bikes. It is very competitive and someone usually goes down so I was prepared taking a front row spot and keeping my elbows wide. Wow, did everyone seem tall around me! I knew I would be revved up racing the first lap as it would be a race atmosphere so I offered to race a second loop as well. There was no point to waste that energy. Made it cleanly thru the Lemans run and grabbed my bike. Up and over the bridge crossing the racetrack, I chose to ride down the stairs on this side as it was short. I wanted to be conscious of minimizing the extra bumps for my recovering wrists from the World Solo 24-hour race. It was fun keeping up to a few guys and passing on the climbs. Me and my hardtail roared! Halfway into Lap 1, I hooked up with a very strong solo male rider. He cheered me on with "Go girl power" and we worked the long 3 mile ascent together. Closing the first lap, I ran up the stairs and also ran down the other side each time. Not too much slower and I was saving the bod. Had an awesome bottle handoff from Lester and scooted into Lap 2. On a climb, my solo buddy was just behind me again. We rode together. On the bumpiest descent on the far end of the course and I heard the fateful noise kkccckkackkk. Even though I was in my big chain ring, the chain slack jammed together and flew into my spokes. I wasn't even pedalling. The chain was so badly jammed behind the rivets of the cassette. Now, this isn't the first time. This is the 3rd frickin time and I thought the problem had been solved. I was only 200 metres from a checkpoint where I could call off my lap and have another teammate start. I thought I'd try to rip my chain out as it was hooped anyway. Riders passing by called out if I was ok. I cheerfully said thanks but was wishing some strong rider would stop to help pull the chain out. Finally, miraculously I pried the chain out, put my wheel back in. Hmm, there were two loops in my chain yet. I removed the wheel, flipped the chain right, put the wheel back in and hoofed off. The drivetrain sounded abit off though I managed to finish the loop. Passed off the baton to Jen. My time still looked pretty good despite it took at least 6 minutes of mechanical effort. I walked around the expo area and found a very nice man who helped me with my bike. It was Terrence Ford from Connecticut. He was mechanic support for Sulli from Santa Cruz who was racing solo. The gals on the team each rode three laps relaying. This gave me about a 12-hour break. Once it got dark I rested in the back of the truck for a couple hours then was ready to go for after midnight. I set up a chair in the expo area with an extra camelbak, spare parts, spare bike, extra battery and food. A note was set up so I could write down what time I came thru on the last few laps so the crew could figure out when to put on the next rider. It was tiring to get up at midnight, though once on the bike, I was doing alright. After my first night lap, I had some cheers from Lester and Glenda who were still up to check on me. Then it was lonely after that. A few riders to pass. Riding under a full moon was quite spectacular. My drivetrain scared me and I rode pensively on the descents hoping the chain would stay on the cogs. Everything worked out ok. My new Lupine light was awesome. I could set it high enough on my helmet to reduce neck pain unlike my previous light system. I put an extra strap to hold it in place to give it 3 points of attachment and it didn't budge. The light could be raised and lowered easily on the go. The battery pack was negligible in my rear jersey pocket. I had the light on highbeam switching to lowbeam in the sandy tree-d areas as it was too bright! and definition was better on low. After 3 laps, I stopped to change the battery which runs at 3 hours on highbeam. The light comes with a battery power indicator but this switch was on my helmet and out of sight. I thought the battery would last me for 5 loops at 4:35 with my intermittent switching it to lowbeam. If I had carried the spare with me, I could have run the battery out as a test. I found I didn't need to drink as much at night and I was already fueled up with food. After lap 3, I wrote on the note that I would definitely ride only 5 laps. My wrists were dictating this as they were getting tighter and achey. The bumpy terrain took its toll on them. For the day laps, I wore my Adidas Evil Eye Pro glasses which are cool and very Euro-looking! For the night laps, I wore my Adidas Supernova frames with the smoke/clear lense. This lense is one solid piece which gave me the maximum view for the night and shield against bugs and sand. Coming into the end of lap 5, the sun had risen and it worked out that the next rider Jen did not need to wear lights. Off I went to the showers. Ate and rested for a couple hours. The team rotated one more time each and we finished with 23 laps. It was fun getting the leaders jerseys with the team. Thanks to the awesome support crew and Team! |
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