Michael Lau and I arrived in Ottawa at 10:00 last night after our 11 hour drive back from Middleville, MI ( 23 miles south of Grand Rapids ); site of the 19th annual National 24 hour Challenge. ) Results will be posted later on the N24HC website http://www.n24hc.org/index.html There were almost 550 riders and Michael Lau from the OBC was fourth in mileage and won his age category with 438 miles ( 712 kms ) during the 23 hours that he was on the bike. Michael could not get another 6.1 mile loop ( there were 3 loops - 125, 22 and 6 miles ) in the last 12 minutes. The top rider was Tom Buckley ( from Illinois, who rides 100 miles a day to work and back; almost everyday ) along with the 2nd and third best mileage results were all RAMM riders that had placed in the top 5. Tom had 472 miles. What I found even more remarkable is that all the other top riders had support and crews at each checkpoint and approximately 35% of the people had their own crew. My congratulations goes out to Michael Lau for an outstanding accomplishment; he was actually pulling the RAMM rides for some of the event, quite remarkable and having a conversation with them. I learned a lot from Michael and hope some day to return to the N24HC with this experience to improve my mileage. It was great to hear the Canadian National Anthem played before the start of the event and a pace car for the lead group (until they dropped me) I did not do as well, but I set a personal best of 327 miles or 533 kms in the 19 hours; miles ( 192 day and 135 night ); since I had problems with dehydration and energy level; I tried to keep up with the lead pack until the first check point ( 33.8 miles ) , but lost the group in the check point punching madness; imagine - over 50 riders and then 100 come in fast to have their cards punched and then everyone sprints out. Three of us tried for another 7 miles to catch them, but to no avail; good thing too, since my heartrate was too high. I finished the 125 miles in 6.5 hours. The main pack ( 25 riders ) was 5.5 hours. I rode with a camelbak and two bottles with Ensure, but it was not enough. I took a break for almost 45 minutes to have lunch and to get re-hydrated and stopped again at the check-point to eat again; I took another break after the 3 loops of 22 miles and tried to get my energy up; I stopped several times during the night and actually had good rests of 30 to 60 minutes ( enough to drive back yesterday ). My strained right shoulder muscle was hurting and needed more stretching and medication. Overall; it was a very impressive to see over 500 riders at the start and ride with so many fast riders in the race for setting new records and personal bests. Unfortunately, Another friend was not so lucky; he crashed after 2 hours when a part on his bike locked up; he went flying and ended up with a lot of abrasion and a broken clavicle, a separated shoulder and some pulled muscles and will take at least 6 weeks to recover and will probably miss the Boston � Montreal � Boston 1200 kms brevet . Another rider just a head of Michael Lau ( two bikes up and four from me )hit another bike and he went flying - he received a broken collar bone and a concussion; this in a pack of more than 100 riders, just 20 minutes into the race. His bike was completely wrecked; There were several riders from Canada and even a rider from Sweden; last year riders from 24 states, Canada and France. A great course and one that I would really like to return in the future with my experience to improve on my personal best. Again, my thanks for Michael Lau for inviting me to the National 24 hour Challenge and for his gracious support of me during the last few days and certainly wish him luck in the Gold Rush Randonee ( 1200 kms loop in Northern CA ) , during the July 7th weekend I will try to write up some more on the N24HC later David McCaw ------ To unsubscribe, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Club Office: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web/mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cyberus.ca/~obcweb Newsletter: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.cyberus.ca/~obcweb/Newsletter ==^================================================================ EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aVxiDo.a2i8p1 Or send an email To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This email was sent to: [email protected] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
