Steel City Endurance Racing

24 Hour Champion Challenge

Seven Springs Ski Resort

Seven Springs, PA

September 3-4, 2011

Four years ago our team had it’s beginnings on the road. Coach Suzanne gathered a group of women, who for some reason or another, wanted to try bike racing. Few of us had ever raced our bikes, so this was completely new to us. As you can see from posts, the team grew into a group of women (and later men) with a passion for bike racing.

Looking to expand our bike experience, this past year, a group of women took their riding off road, and started mountain biking. Spearheaded by Stacie and Kate, and supported by Coach Suzanne and Pam (who have some mad skills and passion for the mountain bike) the women joined up with local area expert mountain bikers on Girls Rule Boys Drool rides, and started to get some skills – mad skills. Skills led to expansions of the bike repertoires, and fun in the woods led to thinking about competing in this new sport.

Stacie was the first to race in the mountains in a Month of Mud TT last Fall and then at Cranky Monkey this year with JR, and she was soon followed by Kate at 6HOP. On the men’s side, Dustin – a true ace on the mountain bike – rode his first 24h race at Seven Springs last year. With more SCE women riding and racing their mountain bikes, the pinnacle for 2011 would be the 24 hour Champion Challenge at Seven Springs (7S).

To prepare for the 24hour race, Kate and Stacie rode their bikes a TON this summer. At least twice per week on the mountain bike, riding in the heat of the summer on their road bikes, they honed their skills and confidence for the challenge that lay ahead. In fact, it was rare to see Stacie off the mountain bike – she took to it like a natural! Pam Milavec, who came to biking on a mountain bike, and had raced 7S in the past, was a natural anchor for the team. In their rides they picked up Greta Daniels, racer with DPS Penn, and one of the funnest people you’ll meet. It soon became obvious that this would be the foursome for the race, under the appropriate name, Team One Non Blonde. Joining the women at Seven Springs were Kate’s husband, Aaron, who rode with Dustin on a 4-man team. Greg Flood rounded out the competitors doing it solo.

Mountain bike racing carries with it a different vibe than road racing. Yes, it is strenuous (in some ways more than road racing), but when you’re at these events it feels like a celebration of the sport. Racers and spectators tent out in a tent city, where people relax, refuel, and recuperate in between laps. When you race and ride the trails you can’t help but think one of two things (at least as a newbie): 1. This is plain scary, or #2. This is plain fun. When you think #1 too much, you figure out a way through a tough section – even if it means running up a steep, muddy switchback, and then you’re back to thinking this is fun again.

The day before the race, our team forged an amazing camp with JR and Gina and the Dynamic Physical Therapy Team on the mountain. Tents, Christmas lights, fire pit. Water, water, ice, and more water. And food and beer. What more could one need? Fans – yeah, I was one of the many groupies, as Doug, Coach and I went up and camped overnight just to hang out and experience this cool event. Pam’s family was there, Rob Riddell. Our friend, Gray Patton rode her cross bike to 7S (Gray = tough) and hung out with the Trek team, cycling friends, and camped out with us. It was really a ton of fun.

On Saturday, the race began at high noon, with Greta elected to run the Le Mans start. It was HOT. When I say hot, I mean HOT HOT. In fact there was a rider down on the first lap due to heat stroke. Despite the heat, Greta rode steady and strong for the ~11-mile lap, and pulled an awesome lap time, just under 2:20 – incredible for someone who had ridden the mountain bike for less than 6 months! Next up was seasoned veteran, Pam, and now everyone was feeling the heat. Pam rode a blistering 1:40 lap time, and she was followed by Stacie with another blistering 1:41. On the men’s side, Aaron and Dustin were riding fast, and – like everyone – feeling the heat. Dustin came in carrying his rear deraileur hanger in 2 pieces in his hand, but Anya came to the rescue and restored his trusty steed to racing form. Greg had issues with cramping, so he tried to recover, refuel, and be smart. He set off on a dusk lap to see if his recovery helped. With this crazy heat, the teams looked forward (even though fatigued) to the cooler night laps. Kate, the anchor of Team One Non Blonde, set out on the women’s dusk lap and finished a 2:05 lap taking the race from daylight into the evening. Incredible – the women’s team was now safely 4 laps in in the first 8 hours of the race and into night riding.

Yes, night riding. This is a 24h race, afterall. At night, you hear crickets, tree frogs, and see the racers roll down the hillside between the trees with headlamps and handlebar lights. It is one of the coolest things in the sport. The night is filled with pulling a lap, eating and recapturing calories, and trying to sleep.

When morning broke, the teams were all now 2/3 through the race. Although the team was tired from the heat of Saturday and a long night of racing, there was this vibe of, well, coolness in the camp. You see, these folks were just getting it done, racing in one of the most physically challenging events in their racing careers. And cyclists are just, well, cool people. For Greta, this was her first mountain bike race ever – why not a 24h race? (Damn!) You look at these folks and you realize how tough they are. And a piece of me that morning, as a true fan of these peeps, really wished to be suffering alongside them.

As the day wound down, and the clock approached noon, Stacie and Dustin set out on a final lap. Stacie ended up bringing it home for the women, Aaron followed Dustin and pulled the graveyard lap for the men. The team was spent, they gave it everything they had, and definitely deserved the post-race beers, post-race DQ, and whatever the heck they wanted. Team One Non Blonde came in 2nd in the women’s 4-person division – mad props to the women! So proud of Dustin, Aaron and Greg for putting it all out there this beast of a race as well!

It’s exciting to see Team SCE moving in new directions – from road biking to cyclocross and now mountain biking. And I had a blast this past weekend just being a groupie for my team. As a fan watching from the outside looking in, I can say for sure that on Team SCE, no matter the event, no matter the terrain, it is all just tons of fun.