Observations of a 53 yr.old virgin 12 hr Mtn Biker

OK - I am back at my house, had a nice night's sleep in a comfortable bed. If you had ask me if you should start your your career in long distant Mtn Biking when you are over 50 I would have told you, only if you want to hear your back pop ever time you bend over at the end of the race and ask your younger racers to pack your car with the heavier stuff. But now that I have had almost 12 hours to recuperate I say HELL YES...

So with my first 12 hour race under my belt what are my observations...

Use Rock, Paper, Sissors to select who go, 2nd, 3rd, 4th

Make sure you have your proper belly dancing belt on so all those riders you come up upon know you are about to pass....

There were a lot of Gary Fisher Hard Tail 29ERs (Mostly Superflys, but some Paragons) in the race. This maybe because I was riding one, but I hope it is because I picked the right bike at least for 12 hours of Temecula.

For the first couple of laps I loved the Paragon (Hard Tail). As my legs got tired and the sun went down, I may have been better off with a Full Suspension Bike. My suspension legs that I used to good effect at first, sometimes did not work very well on my last lap. Maybe a Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL that Lance Armstrong and Jose Q rode to great results should be my pitch hitter bike.

Take the time to demo products from the vendors at the race. Troy from Cannondale gave John Abate a cool Cannondale Scalpel for the day, and he was shaving 2 minutes a lap after changing from his Specialized bike...


I need all the light I can get at night. I demo'd a Niterider Tri Newt for my bike and a cool dual beam CREE Q5 helmet light from AYUP for my two night laps. I was glad I had both. Light is so touchy for me that the first lap my Tri Newt was off center and did not work as well as my 2nd lap where it was pointed straight ahead.

Keep hydrated, but it may not be smart to drink a Coke just before your lap. My last lap had me wishing I would stop, pee and burp. But I just could not take the time....

Have a bunch of Swamis around in a great camp site and lots of Teams riding in the race. I think we had over 30 riders from Swamis or FOS. We were everywhere on the course and at the Start/Finish Line

If you want to see all the pictures I took with my crappy camera phone click here.