Ringing in the old and the new
This story never made it to print and I just received it tonight, my first read as well.
Thought you might enjoy it!
RINGING IN THE OLD AND THE NEW
Aussie wins again, Rusch Three-Peats at the 24-Hr Solo, Which Heads to Oz in ‘10
By Roy M. Wallack
July 26, 2009, Canmore, Alberta—
The 2009 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solo World Championships, held in this Canadian Rockies resort town for the second year in a row, had something old and something new. The old news is that Rebecca Rusch, the two-time defending champion, dominated again, at the age of 40 gaining the magical three-peat that puts her in the company of the 24-hour gods.
The new news all had to do with Australia. Spearheading another huge Aussie worlds contingent, 2008 runner-up Jason English beat back strong challenges from American dentist Cary Smith and New Zealander Tony Hogg, who for over half the race were separated from each other by just seconds. That made him the third Aussie in the last four years to win the event, joining Chris Eatough-killer Craig Gordon in 2006 and James Williamson in 2008, who were both on English’s mind at the finish. “I’d have finished third if they were here,” said English.
He followed with a prediction: “We’ll sweep the podium next year at home.”
Home? What he means is that the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solos will be held in the land Down Under in 2010, the first time the event won’t be in the U.S. or Canada. How many North Americans will show up in Australia — beyond Rusch and Smith, who won free round-trip tickets for their performances — may not matter in terms of numbers of competitors expected to show. The first ever solo world’s to leave North America will tap the planet’s most rabid 24-hour scene, with has seen fields of over 4,000 riders, virtually assuring it of being the populous ever.
Whatever course they ride — Adrenalin owner Stuart Dorland is currently fielding bids from two locations, including one in Canberra that was the site of the Scott 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships — chances are it won’t match the difficulty of the trail encountered this weekend at the Canmore Nordic Ski Center, the site of first Solo Worlds in 1999 and the cross-country ski events at the 1988 Winter Olympics. The 10-mile loop included a daunting 2,000 feet of climbing on often-precarious, newly-built singletrack that intricately threaded its way through the forest in tightly-coiled squiggles.
The ungrooved trail was endlessly bumpy, “jackhammering me the whole time,” said singlespeed winner Greg Martin, the 37-year-old Idaho fireman and boyfriend of Rusch. Using an unusual Spot 29er with a fabric-rubber belt-drive system instead of a conventional metal chain, he took his second-straight solo crown in a time placed him fifth among the men overall.
The tough course didn’t seem to have any effect on Rusch, who bolted to a lead after the 1500-meter LeMans running start and never looked back at her expected challengers: Jari Kirkland of Crested Butte, CO, who beat Rusch at the 24 Hours of Moab last year, and 2009 Aussie champion Jessica Douglas, who tried a go-for-broke strategy that work back home. But Rusch was uncrackable, jumping to a lead form the start and steadily lengthening it. By midnight, barring accident, the race was hers.
Riding like a woman half her age, the four-decade wise Rusch, a world-class paddler, climber, adventure racer, and now endurance mountain biker, won by an hour. It makes her the first three-time winner in women’s Solo history
"I worked all year on this one," she told the crowd at the finish. "I put all my eggs in one basket, doing only cycling this year and nothing else — the (8-day) Cape Epic mountain bike stage race in March, the Firecracker 50 in Colorado a couple weeks ago, and several 12-hour and shorter races in-between. It was a little scary staying so focused. But it worked."
The men’s race was a very different story. Sixty minutes into it, New Zealander Hogg came into the pits 30 seconds ahead of Smith and English, who were riding wheel-to-wheel. From there, it got tighter – and stayed that way for a nail-biting 14 hours.
That was a surprise to English, the favorite here after his 2008 2nd place finish, who admitted he’d never even heard of his rivals before the race began. No surprise there, as Hogg, a 34-year-old firewood contractor and rugby player from the remote south island city of Dunedin who didn’t start mountain biking until 4 years ago, was riding in only his second 24-hour solo after winning the New Zealand title with a dominating win at the Rotorua 24 Hour. He was confident, having been in Canada for nearly a month beforehand and finishing third in the solo division at the 7-day, 300-mile BC Bike Race.
Also off the radar was Cary Smith, a dentist from Jackson Hole, Wyoming who rides mountain and road and does adventure racing, cyclocross, and ski randonneuring. Not only was he 40 — maybe not the big deal it once might have been, considering the Solo success of oldies like Rusch and Tinker Juarez— but he’d only done one previous 24-hour race, an easy win at the Grand Targhee Resort over 24 people. Two weeks before the Worlds, he wasn’t planning on doing it, only changing his mind when a friend called him up at the last minute and offered to be his support crew. When he heard that Juarez wouldn’t be here this year, he set his sights on the podium.
English, in far better shape than in 2008, when he entered the race after a two-month recovery from a broken back, was caught by surprise by his no-name competitors. “When Hogg went out at that fast pace — well, I don’t think he knew that it was a 24-hour race. I had to drop back for a while. As it was, my heart rate didn’t go below 170 for a long time.” The lead seesawed back and forth as the weather turned from hot at mid-day to overcast and briefly rainy in the afternoon, then to clear from the evening forward.
By 6 pm, the crowd was abuzz; this was a neck-and-neck-and-neck race, getting closer by the lap. English stretched the lead to 3 and 6 minutes over Hogg and Smith after 8 laps, but by lap nine the top two were 3 seconds apart, with Smith down just 2-1/2 minutes. By midnight, the riders were separated by just two minutes, with Hogg in the lead and Smith in second. By 2 a.m., they were closer.
By 3:40 a.m., using superior climbing skills to repeatedly vault past English, Hogg led by 6 minutes. In only his second 24-hour race, he was the story of the race.
Then the X-factor stepped in: Hogg’s back.
"After a bike race, he's like a bent-over old woman," his crew had admitted to this reporter earlier in the race. "He can climb all day and, but the bouncing on the technical singletrack gets him." Hogg's back gets so wracked with pain, they said, that he must take a prescription anti-inflammatory pain medicine and rubs in a heat -generating ointment. That only worked so long on the bouncy, freshly-cut singletrack, relentlessly embedded with rocks and roots. By 4 a.m., his back destroyed, Hogg plummeted to 15th place. He dropped out after 14 laps.
By 7 a.m., English had put 11 minutes on Smith and never looked back, eventually winning comfortably with 22 laps. Actually, maybe not so comfortably, “It was a tough course — those bumps took a toll on my body,” said English at the finish line. “ I normally don’t have triceps, but I definitely feel them now. The guys who had the 29ers seemed to handle it best, rolling over them a lot easier.”
Runner-up Smith, who was close enough to force winner English out for a late final lap, had to concur, as the course pulverized him. "The bumps slammed my lower back and pecs so much that I felt like I doing all-body 'push-ups,'” he said. “At times, I couldn't hold my torso up, and had to start walking the hills occasionally just for the relief." He was pleased with his unexpected second-place finish and the major lessons the day left him with: Get more upper-body fitness, eliminate excess food from the pits, and nourish the talent he didn't realize he had.
"I didn't know I was this good,” he said. “It was a surprise. But I'm not going to stop." He was thrilled to have his free ticket to the 2010 Worlds. He’s never been to Australia.
He’ll be stepping into the lion’s den, according to English. “Aussies will all podium next year,” he said. “I’ll have to train more to keep up with them.”