Photo du Jour 516
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Tiger Woods In "Serious" Condition After Car Crash
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Photos from Black Friday
Builder of Oakland's Fox Theater Once Imprisoned For 'White Slavery'
It's about 3:30 a.m. and some dude you just met a couple of days ago on Craig's List is shaking you awake. Crawling out of your thin, damp sleeping bag in the dark, you knock over a mug of watery, long-cold cocoa left over from earlier in the evening. The dank marine air cuts to the bone. You grimace mightily while pulling on your clothes, which are soaking wet. Your crotch still hurts from the last time, but you agreed to do this so there's nothing to do but bite the bullet and take your pull.
A bonus scene from the recently released interactive Brokeback Mountain DVD? Nah, it's just a glimpse into what about 600 lost and tortured souls will be experiencing this weekend during the 24 Hours of Laguna Seca. Part of the 24 Hours of Adrenaline nationwide series of 24-hour endurance cycling events, the 24 Hours of Laguna Seca mountain bike endurance relay race runs this weekend on the Fort Ord trails surrounding the Laguna Seca racetrack outside Monterey from 10:00 a.m. Saturday to 10 a.m. Sunday. Twenty-four hour events typically run from noon to noon, but the start time for this race was moved up in deference to Mama Hallmark's retail guilt trip.
In endurance racing, teams of racers complete laps on a circuit course. The team with the most amount of completed laps wins. In addition to the teams, many racers choose to solo, or ride the entire race by themselves. Yeah, that sounds like fun.
Cheeseball mountain bike clock from Bar-Decorations.com. Sorry.
In contrast to the technically tougher, competing Granny Gear courses, 24 Hours of Adrenaline events generally favor speed over technical skill, which is exactly how the 10.4-mile European-style Laguna Seca course sets up. Essentially unchanged since 2003, the course features a couple of modest hills, some screaming ridgeline doubletrack, and just enough tasty singletrack to keep racers honest.
In 1998, Laguna Seca was the site of the very first 24 Hours of Adrenaline race in the United States, and it is the only 24-hour mountain bike race scheduled for Northern California this year.
Far from the brutal death march that its name implies, for most participants, 24-hour racing is actually more fun and less stressful than traditional mountain bike races. Some maniacs will be throwing down 40-minute laps and soloing 24 laps in 24 hours this weekend, but the real fun of 24-hour racing is hanging out in the pits. In fact, 24-hour mountain bike races are the most fun when they are treated like a party. Teams that bring lots of friends and family generally have the most fun, and the Adrenaline crew usually does a pretty good job of providing round-the-clock musical and visual stimulation for racers and partyers alike. From the running LeMans start to the nonstop activity in the pits to the thrill of night riding, 24-hour races are a unique slice of mountain biking life.
If there's nothing worse than getting up for that 3:30 a.m. lap, there's nothing better than finishing it off and handing the relay baton to the next poor stiff while you sidle over to the cooler for a beer and a Slim Jim.
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I really enjoy your new mountain bike coverage. Keep it up.
Startling possible realization:
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Inquiring mind wants to know!