on Thursday evening, around 5 pm, and the plan was to build our three bikes ASAP and hit the course, which we did. The trail was awesome! It started with 15-20 minutes of solid climbing on a cinder path. There were parts that were nice and windy with dips and hills, and made for fairly high speed climbing. This path led us nearly all the way to the summit of the mountain, and turned off into singletrack with some rooty technical bits before the climb ended. As the climb concluded at the top of Silverstar, riders were treated to unmatchable views in every direction. After passing the uppermost lift stations, it was into the woods for some world class descending. The first third of the descent was pretty fast, open trails, but wishes for tighter trails were soon granted with extremely twisty, narrow and treacherous sections that forced all but the boldest of riders to dismount their bikes. At one point the trail traversed along the side of the mountain for a stretch and was extremely narrow, looking to the left offered only trees and mountain shrubs at less than an arms reach, while looking to the right revealed the mountain falling away at such a steep pitch you knew that if you fell you would keep falling for a while. The descent continued with more of this until riders were spit into a tunnel under the main access road of the mountain, pitch black inside, and full of whoops and bumps. After popping out the other side, riders trudged up another ski slope climb to checkpoint three. At this spot, team riders turned off to finish their laps, while solo riders began the extra 2 mile section that made up the rest of their loop. It consisted of continuing the rest of the way up the ski slope, then winding through some tight singletrack with lots of short steep ups and downs, finishing with riders flying down an access road and rejoining the trail on the way down the finishing straight. Most riders were turning about 1:20 to 1:40 lap times. Mike and I were able to do the ride in just over an hour on Friday, when we had to chance to ride the course a second time. Highlights included a high speed two and a half foot drop off, the narrow traverse that lasted three minutes, and a super steep rooted out section just following the tunnel exit.

Friday saw more race preparation, laying out our pit area and finding homes for all the backup supplies, meeting many of the other competitors and staff, and running through possible scenarios and what our responses would be. Mike and I rode the course a second time that afternoon, enjoying the vistas and challenging trails. Friday night we relaxed in the room with a pasta dinner and talked strategy. Both Chris and his dad are master planners and I felt like we had the entire race mapped out in our heads that evening. Chris was getting mentally ready for the effort of riding this type of course for 24 hours without stopping, and Mike and I were trying to think of any details we might have missed. Early to bed that night to get ahead on sleep, since none of us would see a bed for the next 36 hours. . . .

Saturday morning was beautiful. Temps in the 70’s, blue skies, and a light breeze. The race preparations continued, and after a large breakfast we headed down to the pit area to make sure everything was in it’s place before the noon start. The race follows traditional 24 hour format, that is it begins with a Le Mans start, the riders running a 10-12 minute loop on the trail and then returning to the start area to retrieve their bikes and begin riding. Chris seemed almost serene, and was all business as the time ticked away to twelve, in sharp contrast to Mike and me, who felt all jittery and nervous, tingling with excitement.

At noon sharp Adrenalin fired the starting gun and the race was off. Chris took a good start on the run, getting in to retrieve his bike in the top five, with Tinker Juarez hot on his heels. Tinker, who is a mountain biking legend and is in the MTB hall of fame, was Chris’ main competition. Tinker has been focusing exclusively on 24 hour endurance racing this year, and is the defending national champion, as well as holding an impressive list of wins at other 24 hour events. Other strong riders were not to be discounted either, and they included Ariel Lindsley, for Subaru-Gary Fisher(riding this year without a support crew), Mark Henderschot, for Alger Racing (4th last year at worlds), Rishi Grewal, (former world champ in 1999), and Tom Zidak ( a Canadian rider gaining notoriety) among others. After the run there was a prologue lap, and tinker came out first, with Chris pursuing. At the end of the first lap it was Chris in the lead, with Tinker only a few seconds off the pace, and the rest of the field chasing hard.

Chris seemed to be riding an unsustainable pace, turning lap times under 55 minutes for his first several laps, then barely going over an hour. He put several minutes on Tinker by lap five, and at the end of that lap, Tinker was overheard in his pit saying,”He is going too fast.” Chris’s strategy was to ride his own pace up the climbs, where Tinker was thought to have had the advantage, and then make time up with his superior descending skills. The plan was working, and it seemed that Chris was making so much time up on the descents that Tinker couldn’t make it back on the climbs! As the hours wore on, Chris continued to extend his lead a few minutes per lap. After 6 pm, riders had to go out with lighting systems, and we knew things would only improve then. Chris had the advantage of having at his disposal incredible new lights provided by Lupine lighting systems. These lights were extremely lightweight, with far superior wattage and burn times then anything else on the market, and his lap times reflected this as they hardly changed from his day lap times.

In the pits, Mike and I had settled into an efficient rhythm. I would ride out to checkpoint three and meet Chris on his way up the final climb. There I would find out from him what he wanted to eat, drink, how his bike was performing, etc. Then back to the pit area to await his arrival. When Chris came into the pits, he would swap bikes (nearly every lap) and grab whatever food and drink he wanted. His pit stops were kept to the shortest time we could manage. After he came through, Mike and I divided duties getting the bike washed and prepped for the next lap, readying the next round of food and drink, and trying to anticipate any other needs our rider might have. The system worked wonderfully and we kept down time to a minimum. There were a few times we broke rhythm though.  Chris came thought on one lap and told me he had twisted a chain, but it was rideable. He finished on the tweaked chain and Mike and I replaced it for the next lap. Later, on a night lap Chris came through (after turning two back to back 1:11 laps) and informed me he had flatted and spent some time fixing the problem. Despite the delay, he still put time on his competition that lap, a 1:17.

The night laps continued, with clouds moving in and a light rain falling. At first this was warmly received, the rain was laying down the choking dust and helping the trail surface tack up. As the hours wear on though, riders began to get wetter and wetter. Chris stopped to put on leg warmers and a rain shell around 1 am. The rain got steadily heavier, until it was no longer a drizzle but a full shower, and the clouds pile up thicker on the top of the mountain. Adrenalin staff reported that the weather service believed the front would break by early morning and blow through without incident, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Chris had just finished his last night lap, concluding at around 6:20 am, and headed back onto the course for lap # 18. The rain that had been falling was now being driven by increasing winds, and there was no end to the weather in sight. In a short time the rain was falling nearly sideways, and tents and metal barriers were being blown over and away. Tinker came in from a lap clad only in short sleeves and knickers, and was in pretty rough shape. He was wrapped in a blanket and whisked away, to a hot tub to warm up, we later found out.

The conditions continued to worsen. It felt like we were near the center of a hurricane. No lightning, but powerful wind gusts probably over 40 mph and freezing cold rains pummeled the venue. There were several reports of sleet and snow at the top of the mountain. By this time Chris had put over an hour on his closest competitor, Tinker, and Tinker had just left the race. When I went out to meet Chris at checkpoint three I knew he would be in bad shape, but strangely, I never even thought about him quitting. Chris came up the climb that lap with his teeth chattering and soaked to the bone. I told him Tinker had left the pits, all he had to do was keep riding, just keep moving, and he had the race won. I remember exactly what he said to me. As though he were on lap # 2, and in no hurry, Chris said, “Poz, I am really cold. I am going to want all new dry clothing and something hot to drink, maybe hot cocoa. And I will want the splits on the other top guys.” I was positively amazed at his iron will. Stopping never even entered his mind!

I radioed back to Mike to get dry clothing and a blanket ready and I rushed back to the pits. When Chris came in, he was in the worst shape I had ever seen. The next 20 minutes would be about the most intense I had ever experienced in bike racing. Chris arrived with his hands shaking, completely drenched by the cold rain, and nearly hypothermic. We gave him hot chocolate and rushed to strip him out of his wet clothing and replace the drenched articles with warm dry stuff. We applied heat packs everywhere we could, and layered as much technical clothing on him as we had. There were TV cameras and flashes going off all around us, and media people leaning in and asking Chris,”How cold is it at the top? Did you see any snow? Are you going to stop and rest?” I barely noticed they were there, the adrenalin was flowing. At this point the race all but stopped. Every solo racer arriving off a lap in those sixty minutes was in the same condition and no one was heading back out onto the course. Fortunately, Silverstar is home to the Canadian