12 Hours of Cranky Monkey

The Twelve Hours of Cranky Monkey at Quantico, VA was one of the big races I wanted to do well at this year.  I was not able to race it last year because of my back, so this year I wanted to get a good result.  The team that I came up with was Mike K. (who I always seem to race with) and Alex who I raced with at Lodi.  We made the age cut-off and raced the Open Men’s division. I wanted us to do well, and I had hopes for us to battle against DCMTB’s Vet team of Marc, Raul, and Chris.

I started us off and after much debate we agreed to do single laps (which was the best call given the physical nature of the course).  I did the run and got to pretty good position with Matty D right around me.  I then kicked it on the gravel doubletrack and was off. I was sitting in like 5th place or so then we hit the powerline climb and I had some gnarly chainsuck.  I lost 3 spots there, and would then be babying my drivetrain for the rest of the race.  I ended up riding with Raul for like 2 miles at the end which was a great way to end the lap because it meant we were tied with the Vet team.  Mike and Alex put in some really fast laps which then gave us the lead over the Vet team and the fast DCMTB Co-Ed team of Matty, Tom, Lynne.

On my second lap, I was afraid that Matty would catch me.   Sure enough, after a couple of miles I heard someone gaining on me, and I said “hey Matty that you?” Yep.  So I rode with Matty for a bit, but, at one point, he took a hairy turn really fast and I knew that I had to let him go and ride at my own pace. I finished the lap a couple of minutes down on them.  After that I don’t think we ever saw the front of the race again.  My third lap was ok, but, yet again, I saw the lead go away and this was where I lost first place in the 3 man open division when I saw a Luv rider go in front of me.  I wanted to stay with him but I knew that I was going too far into the red so I stayed at my own tempo.  I was starting to get some cramps.

Alex and Mike did some fast laps again.  Meanwhile, the first place 3-man open team was losing gas and we had retaken the lead from them.   With my last lap coming, I knew that I had to keep on the gas and not get caught by the Luv team.  I was going my hardest out on the course. I had a fast single speed rider playing cat and mouse with me.  He would catch up and then fall away only to catch up again.  He never went in front of me and we rode like that for about four miles until around mile eight where I finally left him.  I was totally determined to leave it all on the trail compared to Big Bear where I still had energy in the tank.  Giving it everything meant riding through several bouts of cramps that wanted to take hold but I fended them off.  I came back with a two minute faster lap time then any of my other laps.

Alex went next since he needed to get home, and Mike K. finished us off with another wicked fast lap.  We won the open 3-man Division and ended up 2nd place over-all.   Super big thanks for Sara coming out and she also helped out and did scoring at the end of the even.

The whole DCMTB team really shined out there with:

1st Overall and 1st Co-Ed (by 2 laps) 3 -person
Matty, Tom, Lynn

2nd Overall and 1st 3-Man Open
Darren, Alex, Mike

5th Overall and 2nd 3-Man Vet
Raul, Marc, Chris

4th 3-Man Open
Vince, Leland, Kevin

3rd Co-Ed Duo (with a PVC rider)
Samantha and Chris

6th Co-Ed 3-Person
Mike S., Jonathan, Tris