2nd place for SSMTC
Race Report by Kevin Ledwith
Sport Systems MTC represented well at the inaugural 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest, which took place June 19-20 under the ponderosa pines of the Zuni Mountains outside of Gallup. Breaux Burns, Lawrence Herrera, Cole Oberman and I churned out 18 laps in the 24-hour period and finished in second place behind a strong Colavita team. We also finished third overall, with the Enchanted Dream Team in the Single Speed category taking first with 19 laps.
The course was designed in order to maximize the amount of singletrack and the organizers didn’t disappoint. It was fast, fun, flowing singletrack from start to end with only about 200 meters of total jeep road – pretty awesome. Weaving in and out of the trees at night was definitely a major highlight of the ride. Although there was only about 1300 feet of climbing, the slow and gradual incline through mile 8 seemed to get steeper with every lap. I was always thinking about mile 8 where I could get my flow on and mile 11 where I was always rewarded with fast downhill fun over the whoopty doos.
The racing went pretty smoothly even though we had a couple minor mechanicals. On lap two, my first lap, I crushed my pedal on a rock which left me to pedal 12 miles clipped in to only the left side. On lap four Breaux’s tires wouldn’t keep more than 10psi and forced him to stop several times. We got those small problems out of the way early and thankfully had a pretty uneventful race throughout the night.
Overall we felt like we put out a strong effort. This was the first 24 hour race ever for Lawrence (and only his second night ride) and he still impressed with consistently fast lap times. Cole was also racing his first 24 hour race and started us off with a blazing first lap of 1:00 flat. Breaux also turned in fast laps, especially considering his month –long hiatus from the bike.
Big kudos to the 24HITEF race and volunteer crew. They put on a very well-organized race with tons of NM flavor, fun activities, live music, cheer sections, fast results, and a steady flow of beer. Everything was so well done that it didn’t even seem like a first year event. Check out www.24hitef.com for results and make sure to mark your calendars for next year.