The 2022 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo

I did what I had set out to do, I rode six laps. Sure I did comfortably sleep through most of the night, and I was only able to ride as many laps as I did because all of my teammates rode a little less. That being said, six laps of the famed 24 hour course is still six intense laps.

Overall I rode 98.9 miles with 5976 feet of elevation gain. Which surprisingly is not the most I've ridden in a 24 hour period. That record still goes to the 102.5 miles I rode in the 2022 Tour de Tucson, but this is the highest amount of elevation gain I've ridden in a single 24 hour period.

The 1st lap was the start to the 24 hour, meaning I took part in the Le Mans style start where there was a claimed 400 yard run (it felt much longer in cleats) and then the chaos of finding your bike and trying to get riding without taking out yourself or anyone around you. It was also my shortest lap because at the start you have to ride the hilly gas pipeline road, instead of the bypass. The bypass is well worth riding because you get more single-track mountain biking in, and you're less likely to break a collar bone.

The 2nd lap was my first at night, and I started a bit before total sunset so getting to ride the bypass was quite the sight, although I will admit a bit annoying at times because it was dark enough to have a light on, but not dark enough for it to overpower the beautiful sunset. I do wish I had stopped for a photo because at one point the horizon was a beautiful deep red-orange color, but I was on a mission to keep sub-two hour laps.

The 3rd lap I decided to do with no rest in between, I was warmed up and the temp was starting to drop so figured I wanted to keep it going. In previous years I had tried this and it was a mistake, but this time around I was much more prepared. Although it was a little slower than my 1st night lap, I blame the fact that it was now totally dark. I finished this lap and it was a little after 10pm so I decided to call it a night since I didn't feel like going out for another one. Some will say that they ride faster at night, but with the shadows the lights create it can be hard to keep up the speed, at least for me.

I remember waking up in the early morning and I could hear someone yelling from the exchange tent that it was 4:20am and it was, "time to crank out more laps!" I was much too cozy in my Tepui tent, so decided that I'd wake up when the sun was up and it was a bit warmer. I fell back asleep with the plan to get going right before sunrise, although I really hit the pillow and slept a bit longer.

I did eventually get up and get started on my 4th lap, it was just past 7am and it was still a little chilly, but it was great weather for a morning lap. This lap was my fastest yet, which was surprising because I just woke up and went for it with little thought about fueling beforehand. The real bummer though is I was the last to finish and no one went riding after I returned from my last night lap, so my lap time on the official site was 10+ hours due to how they keep track of times for the 24 hour.

Then came the 5th lap and for this one it was already well into the morning so it was clear sunny skies, but the real kicker is that the wind started picking up. I did take a small break between the start of this lap and the end of my 4th lap, which gave me a moment to refuel for a moment. Which was good because my teammate heard I was going for six laps and decided he wouldn't go out again to enable me to go for my goal of six.

The last lap of my 2022 24 hour experience, while was not my best, it was officially the most laps I've ever done in a single 24 hour. I really feel like that is what powered me through the last section of the route. The wind had really picked up by this point, so the June Bug portion of the trail became real tough, but this being mountain biking the amount of twists and turns made it so I wasn't consistently going into a headwind. And maybe that wind cooling things down was a blessing because at this point it was midday sun and it was really beating down on you.

Overall my team placed in 72nd place out of 75th, which is pretty good considering we were down a man and only completed 8 laps as a team. The most important thing is that we didn't DNF because we followed the simple 24 hour rule of finishing our last lap after 12pm on Sunday.

I'm already looking forward to the next 24 hour, and maybe I won't be able to beat my record of 6 laps again if I do a 4 man team again, just due to time constraints. I will try to keep cutting my lap time down because if I can do 6 laps and keep each lap right around 1.5 hours, there's definitely some juice I can squeeze out of my legs.

For anyone interested in more information about the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo, you can find that on the official site.