Moab Report

It's been a month since the 8 Hours of Moab...yes, that's right the Eight Hours of Moab. As usual, the race started at noon, but was stopped at 8 pm because of torrential rain, flash flooding, hypothermia and the unavailability of ambulances. The course was a mess. When it rains hard in the desert, the rain runs fast down the rocks and quickly digs deep trenches across the desert floor, washing out roads and making a general mess of things. There wasn't much the organizers could do. Once all the ambulances left the venue (they apparently had 5 on hand) none could return, people were becoming hypothermic and the injuries were stacking up.

The race was scheduled to re-start in the morning, but without a plan for how to do this there was a lot of debate throughout the night. A system was decided on, but it didn't work and all results from Sunday were tossed out.

I can't say I didn't have fun. It was great to see my friends. Riding in Moab is always great, even if I only had one race lap. But, it was disappointing to not get any night laps and I missed having the satisfaction of completing a 24 hour race.

I almost forgot...we won our class, 5-Person Men's and got 23rd overall. The overall win went to the singlespeed team that beat us last year--very impressive.

There's always next year!

Photos: http://new.photos.yahoo.com/pereiracycles/album/576460762340705013