It was truly an epic adventure, one that I will remember for a long
time to come…Most of us, except for Pauli had never done a 24 hour
race, so we did not know what to expect. Set up Itself was quite an adventure and luckily we did have awesome conditions for the race.

It was actually warmer than we had all anticipated… at least during the day. The Keg of RIO SALADO BREW made it out there safely along with ,Uncle Fester, and "Random Guy; and
Dog,Holiday.

After a rough night of sleep… and me waking up with a soar throat, It was time to get ready for the riders meeting where we all saw some old friends and talked some smack.

After that it was time for the mass
start at noon. We thought we were all prepared and had our rotation order set up. It would go Scott, Chris-me Scooby, Zach, Kimmie then Pauli. Scott-Nuke, would get the pleasure of running the 400 yards or so to the bikes for the Le Mans start, luckily we were set up with a flag that marked our riders bike thanks to some of Kimmies friends who have done these races before. I did not get to see the start because I was staging to go out next. Nuke had a strong 1 hour 9 minute lap with little problem except for a slight breeze on the climbs.

Next up it was my turn. After the nervousness of figuring out the baton switch it was off to the trail where I picked up a hitchhiker in my shoulder, lets call him cholla cactus, It was the only thing keeping my mind off the pain in my throat. I felt him digging his claws in on every bump. I put in a decent time of 1 hour 11 minutes, and there was a surprise visit from my Mother and dogs, Chance and Brandi.

Next it was Zach’s time to fly and that he did putting out our fastest lap of 1 hour and 3 minutes.

It was now up to Kimmie to keep us strong and that she did even though she had some chain trouble she still pounded out a 1 hour 21 minute lap, that’s unclipped I might add.

Pauli was our anchor man and finished strong with a 1 hour 18 minute lap time.

Finishing that rotation we were ranked fifth. Nuke was out again on the sunset lap and had a run in with some traffic who politely directed him into a cactus so it was time for him to pull out the tweezers, luckily it did not slow him down much with a time of 1 hour 21 minutes.

Time for my first night lap, all that training at night really paid off, I
put out a 1 hour 14 minute lap, it could of been even faster If there was not so much slow traffic. Zach had another impressive lap with a 1 hour 15 minute time.

It was Kimmies turn to turn out a night lap which she was nervous about. I had trained with her at night and knew that she could do it. A very sloshed Uncle Fester and Random Guy, along with me were patiently waiting to see her lights come around the mountain
with our worst fears coming true. She was practically out of light. She still made it around in 1 hour 34 minutes, very impressive.

It was
mister consistencies turn to bring this rotation to a close, Pauli put
out a 1 hour 24 minute lap time.

Now we were 3rd. Josh and Kelly, our Life Savers, were starting to feel the stress of supporting us and a surprise visit from Josh’s Mom and Dad with Lasagna and Crispy Cream Donuts made us all happy. This is when things got crazy at camp and weird and fuzzy out on the trail. starting to see things in the trail, actually there were a ton of smashed rodents on the trail now. They were worse than possums on the turnpike!

Nuke had a problem free smoking fast lap of 1 hour 15 minutes. Me on the other hand had some dilemmas with a group of slow riders in a tight section not getting out of the way and accidentally crashed into some dude when I was looking down at a cactus in my leg, I said excuse me and went on. After that on the second to last climb my crank flew off, yes, my crank, it actually flew off, luckily I found the crank and bolt, but I did not have a crank bolt allen key, dumb ass. I ran with the bike up the hill hoping to find someone with a tool. finally someone had one and I finished it off with a 1 hour 30 minute time. dropping us back to fifth unfortunately.

Zach was out next and had no problems with a 1 hour 15 minute lap. We switched rotation and bumped Pauli up next so Kimmie would have the sunrise lap. Pauli was up for the challenge and put in a 1 hour 24 minute lap. Kimmie went out into the sunrise and gave it all she had left with a 1 hour 34 minute time.

The team was still in 5th at this point and it was time to turn and burn our last laps. This is when we amped up on caffeine. Mocha Frappachino and Mountain Dew, along with Mocha Cliff Shots. We were in fast motion. Nuke finished his race with a trouble free 1 hour 16 minute lap. I went out strong but pinch flatted right away and went as far as I could through the cactus filled singletrack. fixed it and rode on having problems with my crank again doing a 1 hour 20 minute lap. Zach who does not regularly have caffeine was reved up to say the least and came in with a 1 hour 10 minute lap! 13 minutes to spare so Pauli would get
to do our Final lap, consistent again with a 1 hour and 22 minute time almost stopping to have a beer at the keg which was on the course at this point.

We finished 4th and did 19 laps. Its too bad the awards were only 3 deep that year. We all deserved to be on the podium along with our support staff and fans!!!

as remembered by Scooby

MISSING LINK RACING 2002 5-person-4th place finish with 19 laps