24 Hours of Landahl -- Man, that was fun...

After downpour-style rains the night prior to the 2007 24 Hours of Landahl, everybody was stoked to be greeted to absolutely perfect weather at noon Saturday for the race start.

I'll post more detailed thoughts about the race later tonight when my mind is better recovered, and hopefully my fingers are more adept at typing, but in short, Landahl was my first 24-hour solo event, and I ended up finishing on the podium in third place, with 12 laps. Colorado-based pro Josh Tostato (Giant Bicycles) won the race with an incredible 17 lap effort. He was riding INSANELY fast laps at night. In fact, there were a few night laps where it seemed he was riding three laps for every two I rode. Looking at the time splits, I don't think it was that far off.

Second place went to an incredible individual -- a genuinely nice guy named Dwayne Goscinski. Like me, this was his first solo 24, and he was out to make the most of it. We rode together for the first two laps before he just turned it onto rheostat mode and cranked out lap-after-super-consistent-lap. In the end, he amazed even race promoter Laird Knight with how close he came to Tostato with his stellar 16 lap performance. WAY TO GO DWAYNE!!

In fact, let me tell you a little story about Dwayne... I first met Dwayne on the first lap of the race. We were in about 4th and 5th place overall, and were riding pretty comfortably -- trying our best to be fast, but not waste too much energy. So I'm thinking to myself that, I've got guys on my tail, it felt like I was riding choppy, and slow, and that maybe I should just let these guys by and ride at my own pace.

Right then Dwayne introduces himself with, "Man, you sure ride these rocks smoothly."

Brother, you couldn't have said anything better at that point... I was absolutely taken aback.

As I struggled to get a "thank you" out, Dwayne proceeded to strike up a rousing conversation with me that ended up lasting the duration of that lap, and most of the next. It was AWESOME. And when he continued to have the sixteen lap "ride of his life" (to date -- he's got better performances to come -- mark my words), it was easy for me to feel great for him, because I knew that he'd earned it, and he appreciated it. Heck, when he learned that I was flying solo, without a support crew, he basically offered his up to me. We were only two camps away from eachother, and he said if I needed anything... ANYTHING, just to make myself at home.

So if you're reading this, thank you Dwayne. You are a class act, 100-percent, and I can't wait to see the performances you've still got hidden away in those legs. The massive cheers at the awards ceremony when they called your name are proof that you spread the love thick. I look forward to crossing paths with you again.

Okay, with that said, a couple other "tech" notes:

• About 1/2-way through the race, as I struggled to figure out why I couldn't stand to sit on my saddle, I realized I had been riding with my saddle about 6mm too high. As soon as I lowered it, I was immediately able to sit back down. Thank God! I was struggling to figure out how I was going to finish the race before I came to that realization and re-measured the seat height.
• For the first time ever, I ran the rear shock on my Salsa Dos Niner at zero psi. When my backside was chafed beyond belief, the difference in cush between my standard 20psi and zero psi was amazing, and just what the Dr. ordered. I still contend that, for the type of riding and racing I do most often, the Dos Niner is the single best bike I can ride. I feel very fortutate to have one in my stable.
• WTB front hub bearings apparently don't like Landahl rocks. Both of my WTB front hubs developed enough lateral play in them during the race that the disc rotors were rubbing on the calipers in left-to-right transitions. Not good... The newer of my two WTB-hubbed wheels lasted the first five laps of the race before giving up the ghost. So I pulled the wheel from my singlespeed, which was running a two year older WTB hub (same model - LaserDisc Lite). That stayed quiet for about five more laps before the nagging squeals returned to haunt me for my last two laps. Fun... Perhaps the assorted grumbling about the diminuitive bearing size on WTB's hubs I've heard is true? That said, this is the first problem I've had with it, and I raced a 6-hour at Landahl earlier in the season with no problems. Hmmm???