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13th 24 Hours of Moab - NE
Moab, Utah, October 13-14, 2007
Eatough & Kirkland triumph in Moab
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Chris Eatough (Trek/VW), and Jari Kirkland (Boulder Performance Network) won the men's and women's solo races at the 24 hours of Moab in Utah. 388 teams, 1396 racers and 2,500 spectators joined them for the weekend. Unlike in 2006, the weather co-operated "The weather was probably the best it has ever been for this race," said event director Laird Knight.
Long-time king of the endurance scene, Eatough of Ellicott City, Maryland, made his first-ever appearance in the solo class at Moab. Coming out of the LeMans-style start, Eatough sat in roughly 40th position. But after the first lap, he had worked himself into the top ten.
Josh Tostado (Giant-Smith) led the first lap before Eatough stepped it up on lap two to take over the lead. No one could follow, and Eatough was never challenged for the rest of his race, which consisted of 14 laps, 208 miles and 19,000 feet of climbing in 22 hours and 59 minutes. Eatough's strong pace and super-efficient, disciplined approach to racing saw him putting time on his rivals at a rate of five to ten minutes per lap.
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During the early morning hours, two of Eatough's main challengers, perennial contender Ernesto Marenchin and the hard-charging Josh Tostado, abandoned the race. Although Eatough backed off a bit to combat fatigue during the 40 degree night-time temperatures, he still lapped the second placed rider by daybreak.
"I was surprised he went so early, normally he doesn't like to get into the really serious racing until about two laps in," said Eatough's crew chief, Zach Vestal.
"It always feels good to win a 24-hour race, because it's such a long time to be on the bike, and it takes so much preparation," said Eatough after his win. He was drawn to the race by the size of the event, in particular the men's field, which attracted over 60 racers.
Behind Eatough finished Travis Macy, a multi-sport athlete, and endurance mountain biker Rob Lichtenwalner, who also sealed his 24 Hour National Series leader overall win.
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On the women's side, Jari Kirkland, who hails from Boulder, Colorado, found herself much better off this year. She was leading last year when the race was cancelled due to extreme weather and course conditinos. She came back this year in the best condition of her life and a firm intention to win. Rebecca Rusch gave her a good challenge through the first eight hours before succumbing to the effects of a long season.
"I had to stop and nap for a couple of hours," said Rusch after finishing second. "It's fun to race here. That was the main reason I came."
Kirkland never gave up. "I didn't want to go that hard, but with all those girls chasing I felt I had to," she said after finishing 14 laps in 24 hours and two minutes, which notably was the same number of laps as Eatough and more than Macy.
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Lisse Daugard-Gordon took third, moving up from seventh place after nine hours of racing. "It's all new to me. I'm just excited to be here racing against these guys. It's quite a deal to race with Riva (Rusch) and Jari," said Daugard-Gordon, a racer with collegiate experience who was competing in her third 24 hour race.
One pre-race favorite, Italian 24 hour national champion Lorenza Menapace (Trentino/Salomon) was not prepared for her Moab experience. "What does this mean: Gudjob? I hear this a lot. It is not like Italy where the riders shove you with their elbows," she said. She was content with her experience at Moab and found the crowds and other racers to be supportive.
Nat Ross and Mike Janelle (Gary Fisher / Tokyo Joes) finished 18 laps in 22:55 to win the duo pro class. "We could have ridden longer, but we figured our first place was secure, so we decided to stop there and have a beer," said Ross.
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Second place went to Chris Peters and Julian Gasiewski, who were delighted with their result. "We've raced here several times before, but this was our first duo. We were hoping for 16 laps and a top five result, but we rode 17 laps and got second place," said Peters. Only ten minutes behind Team Ambiguous was the Bikers Edge/TFMB team of Jake Pantone and Jonny Hintze.
The MonaVie/Cannondale Co-ed Pro/Am team completed the most overall laps, with 20 in 24:29. Team Captain Bart Gillespie broke a chain close to the halfway point, but was able to fix it without compromising the team's position. The Desert Mud Team never looked like challenging for first place, but maintained an even pace to take second place with a time of 23:58 for 18 laps, 14 minutes ahead of Feedback Sports who completed their 18 laps in 24:12.
The "king" and "queen" awards, for the fastest laps for individual riders went to Bart Gillespie of the MonaVie/Cannondale Pro team, with a time of 1:02:13, and Willow Koerber of the Sid Vicious team, with a time of 1:14:04.
Racers negotiated a 14.5 mile course located at Behind the Rocks, about 12 miles from Moab.
Photography
For a thumbnail gallery of these images, click here
Images by Garrett Geer
- Mike Janelle teamed up with 24 hour legend Nat Ross to win the Duo Pro division.
- The desert sunset in Moab, The course runs just under the rocks.
- Junior women's winner in the middle of her night lap.
- Mike Janelle was still riding fast laps after 20 hours across the slick rock of Moab
- Above all, the 24 Hours of Moab is a bit of fun.
- The 24 Hours of Moab field heading out into the sand.
- Josh Tostado leads eventual winner Chris Eatough on lap one of the 24 hours of Moab.
Results
Solo Men Pos Name Laps Finish Time 1 Chris Eatough 14 10:59:29 2 Travis Macy 14 12:41:28 3 Rob Lichtenwalner 13 11:57:39 4 Charles Wheeler 13 12:13:33 5 Wade Newsom 13 13:07:39 6 Jason Amrich 13 13:16:40 7 Matt Woodruff 12 10:47:20 8 Dereck Fish 12 10:48:55 9 Christopher Plesko 12 11:34:15 10 Steven Yore 12 12:36:06 11 Dean Miller 12 12:52:47 12 Wyatt Martz 12 13:31:58 13 Geoffrey Lane 12 13:52:32 14 Derrick Batley 12 13:56:47 15 Anthony Benham 12 14:09:51 16 Sampson Bruesewitz 12 14:55:14 17 Peter Kenyon 11 6:27:49 18 Taylor Lideen 11 11:55:20 19 Edward Turkaly 11 12:55:46 20 Ryan Huth 10 4:28:39 21 Shannon Boffeli 10 4:57:15 22 Chris Gagnon 10 11:07:03 23 Nick Thelen 10 11:43:44 24 Jimmy McMillan 10 11:53:38 25 Dan Schrank 10 12:40:17 26 Reed Melton 10 13:24:19 27 Dennis Potter 10 13:32:53 28 CulLeN BarKeR 10 13:48:05 29 David Harris 9 1:27:09 30 Daniel Roper 9 7:53:22 31 Jeff Clapp 9 10:46:48 32 Michael Schmalandt 9 11:00:25 33 Christopher Beebe 9 12:08:58 34 Peter Rajcani 9 12:20:10 35 Samuel Johnson 8 3:19:19 36 Rob Robson 8 8:03:12 37 Fred Wilkinson 8 11:03:06 38 Greg Martin 8 11:46:25 39 Brad Billingsley 8 12:12:38 40 Dan Joseph 8 12:25:23 41 Sam Carlson 8 13:55:31 42 Travis Williams 8 14:23:28 43 Ernesto Marenchin 7 22:25:27 44 Joe Alligood 7 11:17:50 45 Matthew Lynch 7 11:20:11 46 Will Button 7 11:34:35 47 David Bach 7 12:25:33 48 Ricardo Moreno-Contro 7 12:55:01 49 Josh Tostado 6 20:09:59 50 Shayne Methvin 6 22:53:19 51 Tom Barnum 6 23:20:02 52 Max Dangerfield 6 3:48:03 53 Shawne Camp 6 11:07:22 54 Dan Vasily 6 13:16:16 55 Jan Koles 5 19:38:34 56 Paul Lugar 5 22:08:16 57 Scott Burgoz 5 13:33:03 58 Scott Strode 5 13:56:53 59 Charlie Catchpole 4 0:10:42 60 Jim Simons 4 10:14:18 61 Marco Copelli 4 13:58:00 62 Will Baker 3 16:32:07 Solo Women Pos Name Laps Finish Time 1 Jari Kirkland 14 12:02:03 2 Rebecca Rusch 12 11:46:20 3 Lisse Daugaard-Gordon 11 11:43:37 4 Erika Tieszen 11 11:47:49 5 Lorenza Menapace 11 13:38:38 6 Lyn Simon 10 11:58:04 7 Roxanne Hall 8 11:47:16 8 Kelley Cullen 6 22:12:20 9 Mary Collier 6 22:30:38 10 Liz Baumgardt-Kays 6 12:07:33 11 Holly Harvin 5 21:14:19 12 Sally Marchand Collins 4 20:05:39 More results coming!
