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February 2009 Team Santa Fe Activities
RACES:
El Paso Puzzler Mountain Bike Race
Franklin Mountains State Park
Feb. 7th, 2009, El Paso, TX
http://elpasopuzzler.wordpress.com
Kim Bear 1st Cat 1 women 8:16
Jan Bear 5th Cat 1 men 6:48
By Kim Bear
Kim with her 1St Place Prize, a rock from the course!
Jan and I decided to do this race to help prepare for the 24 hours of Old Pueblo. We
drove to Anthony, NM and stayed overnight as it was only 15 miles from Franklin
Mountain State Park. The next day we drove to the park and were looking forward to the
day as the weather seemed clear and not too cold. It was a mass start with about 55
riders from Texas and New Mexico. The route was 50 miles and proved to be rocky and
challenging. It was well marked and took you into arroyos, river beds, and canyons. The
fun part was having different checkpoints where stickers were placed on your racer
number making it spell out the race name "Puzzler". The first loop was 35 miles long
with highlights of having a rest stop in a very nice park in a residential area which made
you want to stay. The second memorable part of this loop was a major climb up Mundy
Gap and then having to head down a boulder scree slope. From there you went back to
the start/finish area and began the 15 mile second loop. By that time, you had covered all
the different types of terrain that would be on this route so it was fun.
I ended up being the only one in my category so got first place and Jan got 5th of 9 riders.
Thank you to Team Santa Fe Sponsors: Litespeed, BTI, Bike & Sport, ThorLo, GoLite,
Gaerne, Camelbak, Montrail, Leki, Niterider, Dermatone, CW-X, Princeton Tec, SofSole,
Shain, Polar, Hydropel, Outdoor Research, Suunto, Polar HRM, Maxxis, E-Caps, Wingnut
Gear, Potable Aqua and Bolle.
10th Annual 24 Hours of Old Pueblo
Tucson, Arizona
February 14-15, 2009, Noon to Noon
http://www.epicrides.com/twofour/24.htm
Gary Johnson and Kate Prusack, Coed duo, 11th/29 pairs
Kim Bear and Jan Bear, Coed duo, 5th/29 pairs
By Jan Bear
The 10th Annual Kona 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo hosted more than 3,000 participants,
volunteers, and spectators. This race site is located in the middle of the desert about one
hour northeast of Tucson, AZ. People set up camp in "24-Hour Town" which has street
names to help you find your way as it's so large. The Town was surrounded by the vistas
of the Tortolita, Catalina, and Galiuro Mountain Ranges. We arrived the night before the
race found our camp site on "Granite Construction Road" which had been arranged for us
by some friends from Santa Fe. In the center of the 24 hour town was a large tent which
was to be the transition area. The night before the race there was a ceremony to honor
Dave Weins of Leadville fame, Kim and I had an opportunity to talk to Dave and get his
autograph. The plan for the night was for some truck camping but boy was it chilly so we
didn't sleep all that well.
The course was roughly 16 miles per lap with only 1200 feet of elevation gain. The first
lap was slightly different than the subsequent laps in an attempt to allow a little smoother
transition into the single track and thus it began with some double track dirt roads. Then
you hit a section of dirt road hills along a power line called the Bitches". The trail then
weaved through a corral and was aptly named Corral Trail followed by Rattlesnake Trail,
Junebug Trail and then the major climb on Highpoint Trail. On Highpoint trail, you knew
you were almost finished when you neared the summit near a burial cross marked in
memory of "Sassy". The makeshift cross had a finisher's medal on it and a rear bike light
flasher at night.
Kim decided that I would run the Le Mans style start, it was about a ½ mile run to the bike
start where you had to find your bike and start the ride. Unfortunately someone had
moved my bike and it took me a couple minutes to find it. The run is thru a gauntlet of
people lining the dirt road. At noon the race was off and I had a good lap and handed the
baton off to Kim for lap number 2. Kim and I alternated laps for the next few hours, at
5PM it was mandatory that your bike lights were on. Kim had to do the first dark lap but
was happy she had her Princeton Tec lights illuminating the way. We both used
Switchback 3's on our handlebars and Apex's on our helmets to light up the night. We
continued to alternate laps until about midnight when our plan was to each do two laps so
the other could get some sleep. This worked well but we really slowed down in the dark
especially on the second lap. Finally the sun came up and the day started to warm up
reenergizing us both. A few more laps and the race was over, for a while we were in
fourth place but slipped to fifth at the end only four minutes back from fourth.
Gary was teamed with Kate but she had recently sustained an ankle fracture so was
unable to ride. Consequently, Gary was the only rider for the duo team of Johnson/
Prusack. He turned in an awesome twelve laps to finish eleventh all by himself.
When it was all done we quickly cleaned up our camp site and headed home to get back
to our two new Siamese kittens Boog and Shoog. We were please with the results as this
was planned to be our first big training event for our upcoming TransPortugal Mountain
Bike Stage Race.
Thank you to Team Santa Fe Sponsors: Litespeed, BTI, Bike & Sport, ThorLo, GoLite,
PokerJunkie.com, Camelbak, Leki, Niterider, Dermatone, CW-X, Princeton Tec, SofSole,
Shain, Polar, Hydropel, Outdoor Research, Suunto, Polar HRM, Maxxis, E-Caps, Wingnut
Gear, Potable Aqua and Bolle.
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