7:00 Sunday night. I lay sleeping soundly in my bed, I sleep soundly, exhausted, sore assed, but most definitely Victoriously. This weekend I had the pleasure of competing in the 18 hours on the Farm, in Richmond Virginia. As a member of the IFSPOTWOOD team, made up of Lauri Weber (IF), Me (Spot) and Buddy Briggs, and Keith Goulet (wooden wheels). Fitzy and Jeffery (Lauri's son) did a great job of keeping us supported and in line. For the record, Fitzy is undefeated as team manager in endurance races. As a team, we won not only the single speed class but we ended up being the fastest team in the entire race, besting the top men's expert team by over 10 minutes in the end. 40 teams, And yup, IFSPOTWOOD was the fastest.
Yeah, that was cool.

The course.

The 9.25 mile loop was mostly flat, there was one climb, that was rideable at about the 6 mile mark, but was not more the ½ a mile long. There were lots of logs, a number of bridges and The course was all single track, all very tight twisting and challenging. There were constant switch back turns, and if some one had told me the whole 9 mile course was in a one square mile area, I wouldn't have doubted it. It really was a fast fun course.

The Plan.

As an 18 hour race starting at 6:00 p.m., we felt strongly we could get our first 3 riders through before dark, make a strong statement, and then focus on riding consistently through the night. We felt strongly that if we rode our race, rode cleanly we would be able to distance ourselves from the rest of the single speed racers. This plan worked like a charm. By midnight we had a lap lead over the 2nd place single speeders and we continued to grow our lead.

The Race.

As expected the race was very fast. Locals (who we will refer to as the top expert team) Took the first lap as the strongest rider, a pro extra-tri-guy, turned what started out as the fastest lap (46:20). Keith led off for us and came in third overall despite a flat, at an impressive 53. We settled into the rotation of Keith, Me, Buddy, and Lauri. After the first rotation we trailed the Locals by mere minutes. At the transition area, at spectator areas folks were cheering like mad for the locals and would just get so quiet when we came through. It was like the locals were Hulk Hogan, and we were Rowdy Roddy Piper. No one could believe that these 3 guys and a woman on single speeds were taking it to the top local team. Shortly after midnight we had taken the overall lead. Keith without a flat, was matching, and beating their top rider's times, Buddy and I were eating up our guys, and Lauri consistently matched the local's rider. We were on cruise control, the single speed race looked good, and quietly we talked about taking the overall.

Disaster Strikes.

2:00 a.m. 3 miles into the course, we hold a 19 minute lead in the overall. Buddy snaps his crank brother pedal spindle, and has to run back to our site to get another pedal. Buddy turns a 1:19, and now we trail the Locals by 15. Buddy was upset; we had worked really hard to build our lead. For a moment, our camp was somber. I spoke up. Reminded everyone that we came to win single speed, the overall was a cherry. We were still up by a lap in single speed and to stay focused on the goal at hand. We agreed. And focused again on our race.

The Final Drive.

Okay, morning comes, fast laps get done, as we head into the final rotation, Fitzy, lets us know we are with in striking distance of the overall again. Going into the final rotation we were less than 3 minutes down. This is where the magic starts. Keith goes out and takes 2:30 out of the fastest guy. That's right the pro-extra-tri-guy. Let me further explain, Keith goes out on his final lap, his 5th lap, and turns not only his fastest lap, but the fastest lap of the entire race with a 46:10. The locals, botched their transition, so despite pro-extera-tri-getting in 30 seconds or so before hand, I got out 15 seconds before their 2nd rider. I suffered, I hurt, I cussed at myself, I reminded myself that this is why you do things like hill repeats and intervals, this was the reason why we suffered. At the top of the hardest climb, a glimpsed left and saw my guy at a switch back, a course marshal was giving him the split to me. I attacked again, in the end I put 7 minutes or so, on the fella and handed off the baton to Buddy. Buddy had that look in his eye. That look of a man who will not be denied. Buddy crushed the lap, and put another 5 minutes into his guy. And at 11:30, we passed the baton to our closer Lauri. She had roughly 13 minute lead. As expected she rode cleanly, she rode smartly, and she rode in victoriously. In the end we had not only taken the single speed class, our goal, but also were the fastest team at the race, we had defeated crowd sentiment, had bested the favorites and won the race.

The Prize.

In the end, and throughout the race, everyone was very nice. We had a chance to meet the other single speed teams, and talk with them .

Everyone from the promoters, to the locals, to the local's girlfriends were very nice. The promoters, the fans, everyone was cool. I will say it was weird kinda being the bad guys. But that's okay, the entire race, no one understood how 3 guys and a woman on single speeds were doing it. Yeah that was cool. As the awards were handed out, the announcers says the top single speed team, all the way from Delaware, who won a tough battle with the top men's expert team, IFSPOTWOOD. He proceeded to guide us to the prize table where we all got some single speed chains, and lock on grips. And then the top expert team was handed a check for $240. Yikes. To be honest, none of us really cared, we thought it made the fact that we were the fastest even more ironic. We had a great time, rode our arses off, and changed a lot of people's minds about what you can do on a single speed bike. Well, I guess Hogan always gets the paycheck huh? Good thing I never got into this for the money.