Upcoming Team Santa Fe Events

October 2000 TSF Highlights

6th Annual 24 Hours of Moab Ð Solo, Jan Bear
October 14, 2000

I traveled to Moab, Utah to compete in my first 24-hour solo mountain bike race, the sixth Annual 24 Hours of Moab. Arriving in Moab at 8PM, I went for a quick dinner at Eddie McStiffs with Kim and her team; "Toxic Shock", then off to bed trying to get plenty of rest before the race. Friday involved picking up my race packet, driving to the race site, about 15 miles south of Moab and riding the course a 16-mile loop, this was followed by the final bike tune up and dinner again at Eddie McStiffs with Team Santa Fe member Daphne Young who was riding on another team from Colorado. Race day was beautiful with temperatures quickly reaching 65-70 degrees. We got to the race site at about 10 AM. After unloading bikes and gear, I headed to the race briefing wanting to get the scoop on the rules of 24-hour racing. The briefing took almost an hour and I quickly headed back to the camp site, picked up my bike and headed to the start line to park my bike on the rack and pick up my baton. The race started at 12 noon with a _ mile run to the bike racks then I jumped on my bike and headed out onto the course a 16-mile loop. The first lap was very tight with 300 + teams and aprox. 30 soloists on the course. Passing was difficult and there was a lot of walking thru the technical sections. The technical part of the course was about 6 miles then the speed picked up prior to a 2-mile climb then a 2-mile decent to the start-finish line. There was sand a plenty interspersed throughout the course. My first lap was one hour and 26 minutes, no stop then 1Õ 26" or the second lap. My Litespeed Unicoi was handling the course like a charm. A quick break was followed by laps 3 and 4 in about 1Õ 30" each. Then another break slightly longer and than I had my first lap in partial darkness but was done by 8 PM with lap 5. After 5 laps, I was beginning to know the course quite well, there were areas I hated and ones I looked forward to. At this point I switched bikes to my Litespeed Owl Hollow MTS with its NightRider Lighting System, both a handle bar and helmet system. I completed 3 more laps by 3:30 AM and felt like a short nap and warm up was in order. I headed out on lap 9 at about 5:20 AM finished it at 7:25 AM and finally I was done with the cold weather gear and needing lights. It started to warm quickly after the sun came up and I completed 2 more laps by 11:30 AM. At this point, I was tired and fairly sore but headed out for my final lap at 11:50 after a pit stop. This lap was tough but was done by 1:47 allowing me to finish in 10th place in the MenÕs Solo Pro division. I was pleased with the way my Litespeeds functioned as well as the NightRider Lights. Both were great. Nutrition was important and both JogMate and PhilÕs Bars provided my primary caloric intake. I fell once but it was a slow endo in the middle of the night and I was well protected with several clothing layers and my Cratoni helmet. I felt good about my finish considering the competition which included well known endurance racers like John Stamstad, Andrew Hamilton, Isaac Wilson, to name only a few. It was a well-run event and I really enjoyed myself. After the awards ceremony it was back to Santa Fe for some rest before heading to work the next morning.

6th Annual 24 Hours of Moab - Team
October 14, 2000

Kim Bear raced with a Women's Veteran team named "Toxic Shock". All the women were from New Mexico. Kim rode her LiteSpeed titanium full suspension bike. The handling was excellent in all the sand and technical areas that the 16-mile lap offered. During the day, it was very sunny and Native Eyewear sunglasses were essential. Kim had only taken her head Digital Extreme NiteRider¨ lamp and the women on her team lent her a Digital Pro 12 Extreme and mounted it on her handlebars for night time riding. She was very happy as she had to ride twice at night and more lighting made her more confident when the terrain got difficult. She now plans to do all her nighttime riding with the Digital Pro 12 Extreme and head Digital Extreme NiteRider¨ lighting systems. Toxic Shock also had the car adapters set up to charge the batteries, which helped in keeping batteries charged throughout the cold night. The race was sponsored by NiteRider¨ Technical Lighting Support and they helped in charging the batteries. The NiteRider¨ Wagon was very professional and when it started to get very cold in the early hours of the morning and the batteries were not charging as quickly as they should, they made sure everyone who needed to ride had a charged battery to venture out into the night; even if it was a loaner. Another sponsor of this race and of Team Santa Fe was Platypus¨/Cascade Design. They had a great table with very cool socks for $5/pair as well as their cool gear.

Kim rode the 13th lap in her new Platypus¨/Cascade Design socks. The nighttime rides were very cold and Kim was kept warm with the Lowe Alpine Adrenaline jacket, Lowe Alpine Polartec top and the Pearl Izumi winter gloves. It was also essential to use the Acumen TZ-Max 100 to keep track of heart rate to help pace the laps. "Toxic Shock" completed 13 laps and placed second in the Women's Vet category. Platypus supplied a great prize of a Platypus Pack and had embroidered "Women's Vet, Second Place" on the pack. It was a very neat prize!

Next year, Kim would like to have a Team Santa Fe Women's Vet team for 24 hours of Moab. It was a great experience to have our own sponsors, NiteRider and Platypus at this fun event.

George Broome's Bike Adventure
Nov 13-27, 2000

George has been training and preparing for his trip to Bhutan where he will do a mountain bike ride across the country. I am joining a group of 12 riders for the two-week trip. We will fly into Paro, Bhutan and ride from there about 450 miles to the southeastern border of Bhutan and Assan, a province of India. During the ride we will climb 53,000 feet and descend 60,000 feet in this very mountainous kingdom. The ride begins Monday, the 13th. For training, I traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada, and did the Tour Las Vegas, a 100-mile road ride on October 15th in ideal conditions. We took off at 6:30 AM with a chill in the air and the temperature only rose to the high 70's by 1:00 PM. I finished the ride in 6 hours, 10 minutes riding time and felt like I could do more so I do feel that I am in good shape for the Bhutan ride.

Be sure to check out our ongoing feature - The Racer's Story.
This segment teammate, Slate Stern, trains for North Pole adventure

.