Granby – Jenn O’Connor’s strategy for endurance mountain-bike racing defies logic.
Rather than save energy for the long run, the 29-year-old superhuman pedaler goes full bore from the start, hammering as hard as she can on her pedals for the first six hours of a 24-hour race. For the remaining 18 hours, she simply survives, hoping the early lead she earned remains.
The scheme – an unnerving switch from the traditional approach that features riders holding back so there’s energy left in the later hours – served the Kiwi champion well last weekend. She notched 19 12.8-mile laps in 24 hours, winning the solo women’s title in this country’s first Kona 24-Hour Global Series outside Granby.
“I did six laps in the first six hours and built my gap and settled into the race and held onto that lead,” she said after logging nearly 250 miles in 24 hours, keeping intact her international solo title among women endurance cyclists. “It worked. I defended my jersey.”
Endurance mountain biking is wildly popular in Europe, with 24-hour races typically drawing thousands of cyclists. In the U.S., endurance cycling is a novelty, a strange offshoot of pedal-pushing freaks who actually enjoy suffering for 24 hours on their bikes.
That freakish commitment is worthy of celebration, regardless of location, said Patrick Adams, the British organizer of the U.K. racing series known as Sleepless in the Saddle. Adams enlisted bike-maker Kona to support a Euro-styled 24-hour race on American soil for the first time this year. The 24-Hour Global Series – one of three international races – combines a $20,000 per-race purse that lures top riders with a festival scene celebrating all things bike. In its American debut, the race last weekend at Snow Mountain Ranch drew 280 racers.
“The key is to create a race that is not just for the pros,” Adams said. “This is all about achieving personal horizons. These riders suffer. It’s more about inner strength than winning.”
Adams joined Nat Ross, a Vail-based international champion 24-hour racer and founder of Tough Guy Productions – a video and event production company – to ignite the Sleepless in the Saddle festival race among the lodgepole pines outside Granby.
Music blared and teams of riders battled. Nearly 50 solo riders staggered through the checkpoint, drawing cheers and applause at every hour. The cafeteria served hot food all night. Campgrounds bustled through the night, and Fat Tire beer flowed like water.
One solo rider drank a beer for each lap, guzzling nearly 20 cervezas to fuel 24 hours of pedal strokes. Another rider, a true suffer buff named Fred Wilkinson, won free entrance to the race by pedaling his bike and gear-laden trailer all the way from his home in Moab to the race. Then he raced solo, logging more than 200 miles in 24 hours. Then he planned to pedal home.
Those are the type of people who need their own event, Adams said.
“The festival feel is what we are going for. It’s not as race-oriented as other 24-hour events,” said Andy Held, Tough Guy’s second in command. “We see this growing into a four-day festival, with mountain-bike clinics and trial riding demos and anything we can do to promote the sport and the outdoor lifestyle.”
But the feel-good, party-time vibe did not eclipse the competitive spirit that spins through the tight- knit endurance cycling community. There was $20,000 in prize money for the winners. Rivalries needed settling. Some reputations needed protecting, and others needed building.
For Breckenridge’s Josh “Toast” Tostado, it’s all about winning. Of the four endurance races he entered this summer, he won three: the Breckenridge 100, Montezuma’s Revenge and the 24-Hour Global Series race. Each win was earned solo.
“I’m done,” he said, limping back to his camp after notching an incredible 22 laps – more than 280 miles – to win the first American Sleepless in the Saddle race.
“At least until next summer. I need a whole winter to make myself forget this.”
