12 hours of Cranky Monkey 2009

This was one of the big races I wanted to do well at this year. I was not able to race it last year, cause of my back, so this year I wanted to do well. The team I had come up with was Mike K.(who I seem to keep racing 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 squad of Marc, Raul, and Chris.
I started us off and after much debate we agreed to do single laps(which was the best call) I did the run and got to pretty good position with Matty 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 chainsuck. I lost 3 spots there, and would then be babing my drivetrain for the rest of the race. I ended up riding with Raul for like 2 miles at the end and was a great way to end the lap meaning 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 Co-Ed team of Matty, Tom, Lynne) For my 2nd lap I was fearful of Matty catching me, and after a couple of miles I heard someone gainning 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 and sped up again I knew I had to let him go and go 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 again. My 3rd lap was ok, but yet again I saw the lead go away and this was that I lost 1st place in the 3 man open division when I saw the Luv team go in front of me. I wanted to stay with him which I did for a bit, but I knew that I was going too much into the red. So I stayed my own tempo. I was starting to get some cramps. Alex and Mike did some fast laps again, meanwhile the 1st place 3-man open team was losing gas and we had taken the lead from them. With my last lap coming I knew I needed 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 SS playing cat and mouse with me. he would catch up and then fall away then catch up again. He never went in front of me, but we rode like that for about 4 miles until around mile 8 I left him. I was also determined to leave it on the trail compared to Big Bear where I still had energy in the tank, that meant riding through several bouts of cramps that wanted to take hold but I fended them off. I came back with a 2 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 a wicked fast lap. We won the open 3-man Division and ended up 2nd place over-all. Another thanks for Sara coming out and she also helped out and did scoring at the end of the even. Check out the pics if you can't see the slide show http://picasaweb.google.com/lovedabikes/12HoursOfCrankyMonkey2009#
The whole DCMTB team really shined out there with:

1st over-all 1st co-ed(by 2 laps) 3 -person
Matty, Tom, Lynn

2nd over-all 1st 3-man open
Darren, Alex, Mike

5th over-all 2nd 3-man vet
Raul, Marc, Chris

3rd 3-man open
Vince, Leland, Kevin

3rd Co-Ed Du0 (with PVC)
Samantha and Chris

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

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