24 hours of big bear

Wow! That was a blast. This year was by far, the best weather for one of these in a long time. Although it rained on Friday, the course was well packed and fast on Saturday. It also stood up to all the tires and punishment from the race remained fast all weekend long.

Our first rider was Todd Dawson. He is new to mountain biking but runs and lifts regularly. Since he still has cartilage in both of his knees, we let him run. Since he is new, his equipment choices are a little off for biking. He was in Converse tennis shoes and running shorts and quickly moved up in the pack.

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The 24 Hours of Big Bear is the 3rd venue that the original 24 hour relay race has taken place at. MTB Hall of Famer Laird Knight invented the format and premiered it in Canaan, West Virginia 16 years ago. The format, a relay race where each team attempts to ride as many laps as possible in 24 hours, proved to be a huge success and spawned many other races around the country and world wide, but this is the original. In order to improve course conditions and keep the customers happy it has moved locations twice in it's history, first to Snowshoe and next to Big Bear, it's current location. But it's always remained in Laird's adopted home state of West Virginia and after completing this years race I've now had the pleasure of racing all three venues. Each has had it own challenges and highlights but I have to say I can see why Big Bear is such a crowd pleaser. The course is great, the terrain is beautiful, the location only several miles off of a major interstate and the venue is great for camping.

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