Nebraska Cycling News

The coolest thing ever happened to me on the flight between Denver and Spokane.  As we were flying over Yellowstone the pilot of the plane came over the loudspeaker and started pointing out landmarks such as Yellowstone Falls and Old Faithful.  He added,"Sorry, Old Faithful isn't erupting right now."  One minute later the plane took a hard bank to the left, which I though was strange, and the pilot came on again,"If you look out the left side of the plane you can see Old Faithful erupting!"  Me being on the right side of the plane didn't allow me to see this but oh well,  rainbows and geysers, who would've thought.

Cameron and his wife, Amber, picked me up at the airtport and from there it was off to the course.  We prerode the course with Dejay and Jake from AZ. who were our neighbors in the pit area.  Dejay also rides for Gary Fisher, and was competing in the solo-singlespeed class.  As if riding for 24 hours with gears was easy...

After riding we got the bikes cleaned up, went back to the hotel to clean ourselves up, and from there it was off to dinner with the whole team.  Besides Cameron and Dejay, team manager John Rourke and racer Nat Ross were there too.  We ate at a great place in town that had the biggest servings I'd ever seen.  Only myself and Nat's mechanic Nick were able to finish our meals.  With a full belly it was time to sleep, and this was our last chance at it for a while.  Nick and I had also decided to get to the course early and prepare all of the bikes and tents. 

Nick, John, and I made it out to the course around 8 am after a short detour for some "hi-rev" coffee and ice for the cold beverages.  The bikes still needed a bit of work, plus we had to organize our tents for the mayhem we could feel approaching.  "It's good to have a midwest boy out here helping," was the quote of the moment from Cameron's dad at this point in the morning.  Amber and I continually joked about that one and the fact that, "We don't need no stinkin' coast!"

The first lap was the fastest lap, go figure, with Trek rider Chris Eatough, Cannondale rider Tinker Juarez and Gary Fisher rider Nat Ross all flying around the course in 53 minutes.  Cameron picked a more sensible pace at about 55 minutes, and was able to draft off of a relay-team rider most of the way.  This tactic proved to be the smart choice as the casualties soon began to mount up.

Nat Ross was the first casualty of the race when his rear tire blew off the rim.  He was thrown over the bars and knocked unconcious until the next rider, who was also a race organizer and an EMT, came along.  His bike was in the 44x12 gear when we got it back, and it hadn't been shifted since the accident.  Nat turned out to be okay with just a few bumps, bruises, scrapes and a mild concussion from the fall.  It would have been interesting to see how the race would have developed with Nat still in since he was right there at the front forcing the pace in the super hot afternoon.

The rest of the afternoon was a test of hydration.  We were meeting Cameron at a road crossing about 2/3 of the way through the lap and handing up more fluids.  Between one bottle there and two fresh ones in the pit area, plus what he drank while we put the new bottles on his bike, he was drinking close to four bottles per lap.

Mountain biking legend Tinker Juarez was the next victim of the heat.  I think it was after 4 or 5 laps that it got to be too much and he called it quits.  This left our boy Cameron in second place chasing Chris Eatough who was around 13 minutes up.

The high temperature was around 95 degrees Saturday afternoon which was quickly chased away by a low temperature of 46 degrees sometime that night.  For the riders this was a great relief, since all they had to do was put on their arm and knee warmers as well as drink less fluids.  For those of us who had to stand around, or try to fall asleep in a camp chair, it made for a cold night.  Trek rider and reigning World and National Champion Chris Eatough was starting to pay for his earlier efforts in the heat at this point.  After around 8 hours of riding he was starting to cramp up.  It took a 30 minute massage to coax Chris back onto his bike again, putting Cameron into the lead by about 15 minutes.  We decided not to tell Cameron about the lead at this point since we were expecting Chris to bounce back at any time.  On the next lap though it was decided that the first idea wasn't so smart since it would be advantageous for Cameron to be thinking about how he was going to race with Chris if the gap came back down.

The gap only grew larger and after another lap it was around 27 minutes.  Shortly after Chris came into the pits around 9 pm he called it quits realizing how far he had pushed through his own limits.  We were all sad to see Chris drop out, though, it would have made for an exciting race.

For the rest of the night it was a matter of keeping Cameron moving consistently and well fed.  Moving consistently seemed to be instinct for him as his lap times barely dropped at all the whole night.  And as far as the food part goes, it seemed like anything that was easily chewable was working fine.

None of us slept longer than an hour Saturday night, I think I slept 20 minutes and woke up with a numb leg and a shivering body.  All the clothes that were supposed to keep me warm just seemed to remind me how dirty I was from sweating all afternoon in the dusty air.  After a 4 am cup of coffee, thanks to Nick's portable java machine, and a moment of brilliance where Nick and I found the radiant heaters in the staging area, we were warmed through, and surprisingly tired.  Unfortunately, it only took about 5 minutes of sitting in a camp chair again to realize that there wouldn't be any sleep until the sun came up again.

At this time in the Solo-Singlespeed competition, Dejay had pretty much wrapped it up.  He was already up 2 laps and was starting to take slightly longer breaks to make sure his food intake was adequate.  For a while in the night he actually sitting fairly high overall in the men's solo competition as well.

It's nice being so far north that the sun comes up at 5 am, except, there is still 7 hours of racing.  With the sun up, though, a few of us fell victim to the sleep gods and I'm sure it was a pathetic sight.  I personally was on a defrosting mission and would wake up every 15 minutes or so and peel off a layer only to dose right back off again.  After an hour of that pattern I was warmed through and it was time to get up and put on some shorts again.  Sleep tally: 1.5 hours.  I can't complain though, Cameron hadn't taken much more than a seven minute break at this point in the race, and for those who are wondering, no, he didn't look tired yet.

By 9 am Cameron had been in the lead for a full 12 hours.  With three hours to go there was still one competitor within striking distance of the lead.  Sloan Andersen was riding about 40 minutes behind Cameron, and for a few laps brought the gap down to around 36 minutes.  But that was the closest it ever came.  It wasn't until his final two laps that Cameron even slowed down.  A group of eight or so of us that had worked in the pits all night suited up and rode the final lap with Cameron. Dejay even came along on his singlespeed even though he already had that competition wrapped up.  It was a great end to a long day.  22 laps, 315 miles.                                

"What they'll find out is that I don't get tired!"  Cameron's family shared the story of Cameron being photographed after each lap in a previous race, and his witty response.  Well, I would say he's got plenty of room to talk now.

Congratulations to Cameron and Dejay.  Unfortunately there are no stars 'n stripes for the solo singlespeed competion otherwise the Gary Fisher/Subaru Team would have rode away with two of them.