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LeMans Start
24 Hours of Snowshoe 2000
Trek
VW East Coast Factory Team wins at 24 Hours of Snowshoe on new Fuel
By Roger Bird
June 12, 2000
The Trek VW East Coast Factory
Team was on fire this weekend and was FUELed by Trek's new 2001 full
suspension Cross Country race bike, the Fuel.
This year's race was moved from Davis,
West Virginia in the Canaan Valley where it has been held for the last
8 years to the new race site at the Snowshoe Mountain resort in West
Virginia.
The cash purse for this race was $20,000
with the first place Pro team (called Co-ed ProAm) walking away with
a cool $8,000.
The Trek VW team consisted of: Chris Eatough
(Maryland) Paul Buschi (Virginia) Susan (Sue) Haywood (West Virginia)
Katie Compton (Delaware) Roger Bird, Manager (Maryland) Sean Langeheine,
Mechanic (Maryland)
We came to the new venue in Snowshoe,
West Virginia looking to defend our title as the Coed ProAm champions
from the last two years in a row. Getting on the new Trek full suspension
bikes and pre-riding the course on Friday was a real treat with the
super light and super plush cross country race bikes riding like a charm.
The new bikes should be in your local Trek dealer's stores this October.
3 inches of super sweet rear suspension.
All of our riders are superb when it comes
to rough, technical riding and we were so excited to ride the new course.
This course consisted of about 1300 feet of climbing per lap and most
of the 11 mile lap was very rocky and rooty singletrack. We agreed that
this new course was at least 5 times more technical than the old 24
Hours of Canaan course. We loved it and especially on the new Fuel bikes!
Projected Pro lap times were rumored to
be about 1:30 and when our rider Chris Eatough took a semi-casual practice
lap of 1:15, we knew it was going to be a fast course. We heard many
riders commenting that the course was too rough and I would agree that
it was definitely a expert race course.
The weather was perfect. Sunny skies,
slight breeze and cool nights.
There was some standing water from heavy rains the previous week, but
the course dried out minute by minute.
We expected to celebrate a record with
our East Coast Team rider David Duvall this year and be together when
he records his fifth Pro win at The 24 Hour race in West Virginia. David
was on the winning Pro team in 1994, 1995, 1998 and 1999. Everything
was going to plan until about two months ago when David complained of
muscle spasms in his legs and pain in his lower back. One week before
the race, David went and had an MRI done on his back. We got the results
from the MRI and on Tuesday before the race David decided to scratch
himself from the roster for 24 Hours of Snowshoe. David had a disc in
his back that was sticking out and causing the pain. Although David
was still racing and training throughout the injury, he thought of the
team and felt that there was the risk of the pain getting in his way
during the race. Especially on a 24 hour race course we had never ridden,
he walked away from the opportunity to win this race a record number
of five times. We wish David a speedy and complete recovery.
We pulled
Paul Buschi from his rookie year on our Trek VW East Coast Factory Team
to join us in Snowshoe. Paul comes from Harrisonburg, VA where you will
find some of the fastest guys and girls in the country. Paul was some
sort of ringer in that he was Chris Eatough's college roommate at UVA
and Paul also placed second in the last year's ProDuo class at 24 Hours
of Canaan (Paul finished the race last year after dislocating his shoulder
hours before the finish). Paul is the spaced-out looking guy sitting
on the ground in the photo of the 2000 Trek catalog with me leaning
over him, he had just dislocated his shoulder before this picture was
taken.
The race started as it always does with
500 people running about a half-mile to their bikes and riding out on
the course. Our lead off rider was Chris and although he came into the
bike transition area in about fifth place, a good bike position in the
bike racks proved to be the charm as he was the first rider on the bike
and out on to the course.
We stayed on a perfect rotation of our
riders doing one lap each, Chris then Paul then Sue then Katie. Chris
came in after the first lap with a comfortable lead and we built the
lead minute by minute each lap.
For many years now, the second place Pro
team has been the Cane Creek team (CC) and they were there again this
year trying to knock us off the top spot. Their plan crumbled quickly
when their first rider John flatted and got caught in the traffic of
500 riders off on their first lap of this 24 hour race. Things got a
little better for them as their second rider posted the race's fastest
lap of 1:07. But even at the end of the second lap, CC was 11 minutes
behind us.
For us, Chris and Paul had logged in identical
times for their first lap, 1:11.
The two Trek guys started the race and
now it was time for Katie and Sue to strut their stuff and race their
first laps. Sue pulled a 1:17 and Katie did a 1:22.
Chris went out for his second lap and
logged his fastest lap for the race, a 1:09. Paul was perfectly consistent
with a 1:11 on his second lap.
The girls went out at night and did 1:20
and 1:33 for their first night time laps.
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Chris left at 10:14 PM for his third
lap of the race and did a 1:15 night lap! At this point, we were 52
minutes in front of the second place pro team. Chris has been riding
very well this year and just weeks before had returned from Europe,
continuing his attendance of all five World Cup races so far.
It went on and on all night where we getting
further and further ahead of CC.
I pre-rode the course on Friday and afterwards,
joked about being able to lap the CC team by Midnight because the course
was so tough. At almost 7 AM on Sunday, it looked like it was about
to happen.
At 6:46 AM on Sunday morning, our rider
Sue Haywood left for her fourth and what would be her final lap of the
race. This would be our 15th lap and CC was still on the course trying
to finish their 14th lap. Sue started at 6:46 AM, a full 8 minutes behind
CC rider Willow Koerber If Sue could catch and pass Willow, then we
would officially be lapping them. **Never in the 8 race history has
the lead Pro team legitimately ridden past and lapped the second place
team**. Now for those of you who don't know it, these girls are some
of the fastest in the Country. Willow is one of the fastest women on
the NORBA circuit and was last year's Under 23 champion. Sue placed
eleventh Pro woman at the Big Bear, CA NORBA National this year. So
back to West Virginia, Sue went out hard and two thirds through the
course closed to just one minute behind Willow. Sue put her head down
and caught Willow after the top of the climb approaching the end of
the course. Sue went on and passed her in the singletrack to come into
the finish area one minute ahead of Willow, we lapped them! Sue had
just done her fourth lap in 1:21.
Sue said she did it for Katie who was
next in line and because Katie was feeling the pain of a light season
of racing this year and also because of back and muscle problems. Since
we had just lapped them, Katie now had to try to hold back the CC leadoff
Pro men's rider, John Card. Katie went out hoping to have a consistent
lap and even if John caught her, we would have a comfortable lead. But
John was having problems of his own, a sour stomach made him sick a
few hours before and he had stepped out of the regular rotation the
previous lap in a attempt to rest and feel better. This would be the
last lap for John, his fourth for the race. Katie went out hoping to
go steady and also hoping to hold our lead of one lap on CC. Well, things
didn't go exactly to plan when not only did Katie hold off an attempt
by John to pass her, but Katie extended our lead another 8 minutes over
CC.
At this point, it was 9:47 AM and we were
a full lap and 10 minutes ahead of the second place Pro team.
With only two hours to go before the finish,
we decided to keep pushing and make sure that we would make it right
up to the top of the podium with the new FUEL bike.
Chris left at 9:47 AM on Sunday to do
his fifth lap, our 17th of the race. I urged Chris to ride smart but
go fast. Chris in his usually cool style said not to worry and to expect
him in about 1:10 or 1:12. Well, with that I produced a big smile and
told Chris to go have fun. Chris came into the finish line 1:13 later.
We still had one hour before the finish
and speaking for everyone who has ever done a 24 hour race, we all know
that anything could happen.
The girls had done 4 laps each and Chris
had done five. Now it was Paul's turn to finish this thing up and log
his fifth lap, our 18th.
Taking the overly-cautious approach, we
turned Chris straight around after his fifth lap and he chased after
Paul to join him on his final and our 18th lap. Now going along with
the rules, a registered racer may ride with another racer to provide
mechanical assistance in anyway they wish including swapping entire
bikes or allowing them to draft. So just in case something crazy would
have happened, Chris rode with Paul on the final lap of the race. Chris
mentioned that Paul was actually going a little too fast for him to
keep up on some of the climbs, but they came into the finish area together
at 12:32 PM to log our final 18th lap.
*CC decided to hold their last rider before
the finish line who had left at 9:57 AM and wait until Noon to come
in so they did not have to send out another rider.*
We finished 18 laps in 24 hours and 32
minutes and won the race. The second place pro team finished 16 laps
in 24 hours exactly.
The new Fuel bikes worked great, the other
racers and spectators were awesome and we had a lot of fun. Thanks to
Trek for giving us an opportunity to join in the worldwide debut of
the new FUEL bike and come see us next year in West Virginia.
The Trek VW East Coast Factory Team would
like to thank it's sponsors for continuing to provide us the best products
in the World: Trek Bicycles, Volkswagen, JBL, Rock Shox, SRAM, Hayes
Disc Brakes, Chris King, Bontrager Components (Keith Bontrager was there
in Snowshoe racing on a four man expert team and completed 3 laps of
the race), Icon Components, Rolf Wheels, Time Pedals, Northwave Shoes,
Zeal Sunglasses, Powerbar, and Let's Go Aero Trailers.
We would also like to thank John Haywood
and Brain Prescott from Niterider Technical Lighting Systems for their
gracious support and all of the cheering.
Notes: *A team can chose to hold their
last rider just before the finish line and wait for Noon, then they
could log in their final lap and their race would be over. If a team
were to come in and log an official time before Noon, they would have
five minutes to send out another rider and then that rider would have
to complete their lap or they would not finish the race and be listed
as DNF.*
**In the 8 year history of this race,
the first place Pro team has never caught and lapped the second place
Pro team on the bike. There have been several times when the second
place pro team has finished one lap less than the first place Pro team
because they had held their rider before Noon and decided not to do
another lap**
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