The 24 Hours of Big Bear: from the eyes of Chrissy

Team Bi-atch took our bikes, lights and beer to the 24 Hours of Big Bear. We competed on different teams and in different classes but we all stayed in the Big Bear Lake VIP Penthouse (Thanks Mark and the whole Schooley family) as a united front and family.

The Teams…

iPlayoutside/WVMBA Pro Dream Team (pretentious I know): I was asked to join some of WV’s ( and the east coast too) finest and fastest: Jason Cyr, Andy Wiedrich, Joey Riddle (on a single speed) and myself the token slow guy Chrissy McGill (also riding SS).

iPlayoutside/WVMBA Women Dream Team: Betsy Shogren, Elizabeth Shogren, Cassie Jo Smith and Cassie “one fast mom” Smith.

Hipster Doofest Duo Pro Men: Morgan Miller (still in high School) and Sam Hill aka Gunnar Shogren (member of the AARP).

Here is the tale from my eyes for our fan….

FRIDAY…

I was focused and ready for what the weekend had in store (finally). I had been getting my things together all week. I have been slowly removing my head from ass and began to get the needed focus that has been lacking in the past weeks (the “Pro” Life starts in 10 days so I better find my A game).

I hit the road for the Shogren’s with only a few minor Friday-Eve-DC traffic shit bag delays. My ETA 8pm, yippee. I sadly received some bad news from the “rents” during my travels though. I was tempted to throw in the towel and head north for NY but my Pops (a wise man) an old Pro Moto-crosser himself said” Kid, there aint shit you can do here so go ride hard, take chances and win the damn thing”. Mom agreed, but added “be safe and try to sleep some”. So the decision was made, I am going racn’!!!! So I made my way to Shogren’s with a weary heart. We loaded the vans, ate some food, drank some beer and had a little dance party. Man can that Betsy dance!! Gunnar please insert proof.

Ok Goose and phans. Here's Betsy, but you must remember that we were listening to "The Real McCoy's" and not the Avett Brothers...-

But wait! There's more, that grrl is just non-stop Clubbing!

In bed by midnight…

SATURDAY and SUNDAY RACE TIME…

We arrived at the camp grounds around 10am and got set up pretty quickly. Joey, Andy and I began discussing the rider order and such but we also began to worry as it was after 11am and no one had seen Jason who incidentally planned on doing the first lap run. The three of us came to the decision that if Jason did not arrive soon I would do the run. So I began gearing up and thinking about the task at hand. Jason arrived around 11:30 and he was a bit frazzled so I stepped up to the plate to take on the running start, ugh!!

The Race... Our riding order: Me, Jason, Joey and Andy.

I lined up on the front row, exchanged some pleasantries and got focused on what I had
ahead of me. 5,4,3,2,1 and we were off and running. I was in the top 20 but man there were some dirty contenders elbowing and punching ( un-called for) just to get passed once we got on the bikes, idiots. We grabbed the bikes and most of us headed back out onto the running section catching a few runners on our way. I entered the woods around 10^th, not so bad after such a shitty running experience.
Go Goose Go!

I did not feel as though I was riding well, in fact I felt like ass (I had the runs for the previous 24hrs) and I dropped my chain 4 times so I was not too pleased with things. I still managed to have a pretty fast time so that was cool and came in around 6^th place.

After the first rotation of riders we found ourselves in 2^nd place approximately 10 minutes behind the Dirty Harry Boys. The race was on, oh boy. Around lap 6 we started to dig into their lead so we were not out of it yet.

The Night….
The night turned out to be our friend. Every lap we were gaining a minute or two. Around 11pm, I was waiting in the staging area anticipating Andy to be in 4-5 minutes behind the Dirty Harry guy. Ahh, the waiting was the worse. Then came the DH guy I began to get ready as Andy would be in soon. I ran to the tree line to take care of one last Mother Nature call but before I could I heard Andy yelling my name. Oh, shit he gained mad minutes. I ran to the table and got ready for what be very hard lap. Andy had a stellar lap bringing us close to the lead. I entered the woods approx. 2 minutes down. It was time to bury myself and I would. I put myself in the pain-box from the start. I was riding well and the darkness didn’t seem to be slowing me much. I was plugging away passing many and off in the distance I could see that some one was riding pretty fast too, however, I was gaining on him. It had to be that fast Spreng fella from Dirty Harry’s. The pain meter was off the charts as I bridge the gap. It was the DH fella. I got on his wheel for 10 seconds saw the open line then passed and attacked. I could see his light from over my shoulder for a few minutes so I attacked again harder then before finally losing him. I sprinted the ball-buster-climb run up completely burying myself in hopes to give Jason a 1 to 2 minute lead. I passed the piton to Jason and waited. 1 minute, 2 minutes and then 3 finally Spreng arrived. It was 12:30am and we now had a 3 minute lead. Jason, Andy, Joey and I would nail the door shut in the coming laps and by day break we had close to a 30 minute lead and by noon we had 45 minutes, whew!!

The Course: Very single speed friendly 12 miles of super fast single-double track, mud and rocks ah plenty, the pines with the amazing view off to the left, the smokin’ fast stream bed descent, the hairy rock garden and then the very un-friendly dick dragger climb around mile 10.

The results:

iPlayoutside/WVMBA Pro Dream Team: 1^st Pro/ex and 1^st over all by 45 minutes

iPlayoutside/WVMBA Women Dream Team: 1^st Women Pro/ex, unofficial 2^nd Pro/duo, Cassie fastest mom lap and Betsy fastest female lap

Hipster Doofest Duo Pro Men: 1st Duo/pro, Gunnar had the fastest lap at 1:07…he broke his chain and ran ½ mile too

My shout outs…

- Jason, Joey and Andy: You guys rode like rock stars and looked sexy doing it, it was a pleasure. Next year?

Here's the sexy things, and Goose trying to get a grab off Joey-

- Betsy, Cassie, Morgan, Matt M., ole Man Vernon and Sam also Rockstars not as sexy though.

- Mr. Morgan, Dan C., Mandy Riddle and Jeff Smith for being there when we were lost.

- JR for putting this together

- The Schooley’s of Big Bear Lake for treating us like rock stars and allowing such amazing events to occur on your property.

- To all that lent Gunnar and me (we dip-shits) lights and other needed gear.

- The Dirty Harry Boys for taking us to task, The Custom Contracting Cancer Awareness team you rode hard, partied harder and heckled hardest, The Wamsley Cycles Factory Team (Jeremy slow down please). And to all that raced. We all suffered the same but at our own speed and ability, hats off to ya!!

- Granny gear

- To the guy playing the Deliverance tune on his guitar in the pines at 2am, creepy yet funny.

Better coverage:

http://www.iplayoutside.com/Events/2008/06/10603c.html

http://www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com

http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb.php?id=mtb/2008/jun08/24hrbigbear

• Director please add pic’s and edit . I am tired and only hit spell check 1 time and proofed it zero.

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