Adventures from Brazil Danny Aliperti from Pedal Power, a local bike shop and distributor in Sao Paulo Brazil, contacted me about a month ago to invite me to compete in a solo the 12-hour of Sao Paulo mountain bike race. I thought, “I just won the 24 hours of Moab solo, (setting a new women’s course record in my first try), so a 12 hour solo shouldn’t be that hard.” Right? Well, I could not have been more wrong. I pre-road the course the day before the event and loved the terrain. The trails were tight windy and fun. I knew the race was going to be tough if it rained and there was a good possibility that just might happen. But, many of the local people told me it is not going to rain. “It’s summer. Besides it’s never rained at this event. Even if it does rain it won’t last long.” They continued to repeat this as the afternoon skies became dark with clouds. The race was scheduled to start at midnight on Saturday and continue until 12:00pm Sunday afternoon. They chose this time for the race because it is much cooler and they could make a huge party out of the event. Beauty pageants and Elvis impersonators were just a few hot pre race shows. Danny arranged for two mechanics and an assistant from Pedal Power, to work on my bikes and help with feeding me during the race. Before the start we needed to discuss my race strategy and organize everything from setting up my Specialized Epic to feeds and clothing changes. It was a bit of a challenge for me since I didn’t speak a word of Portuguese and the Pedal power support crew spoke only a few words in English. After a lot of broken English and hand gestures we seemed to have it all taken care of. At 11 pm on Saturday night, one hour before the start, the skies opened up and it started to rain. The weather reports said it was suppose to continue through the night and into the next day. 499 other competitors lined up around me waiting to start. I spotted Tinker and thought he would be a good person to follow since he has done this race before. The two of us started in the dead middle of the group. When the gun went off it was mayhem. The Le Mans start was 1 km run over tabletop jumps and through a grassy field. A perfect way for 500 people to wipeout in the mud, piling on top of each other. I was doing everything I could to stay upright. People were pushing me from behind; I was running into the people in front of me. Others were slipping and falling in the mud. Head lamps and lights were pointing in every direction adding to the chaos. It was insane!! I made it through without hitting the ground and found my bike at the station without too much trouble. During my pre-ride each lap only took 20 minutes. In the dark quagmire that was beautiful single track my lap times jumped to 45 minutes. The goal of each lap was not speed, but staying on the bike and not stopping. If I did stop it was almost impossible to either start again or pick up my mud laden bike. The crew from Pedal Power was amazing. They would clean my drive train after every 2 laps so that I would not lose my shifting to the caking mud. At times they would have 4 people cleaning my bike so I could get back on the course as fast as possible. My bike worked incredibly well considering the horrible conditions. There was no way I could ever think about dropping out of a race with people supporting me like this. I could not have finished without them. However, I do have to get them back for making me do the last lap even though it wasn’t necessary to win the race. I slogged around the course that night, wet and cold. By the time the sun had come up the rain had started to clear. While you might think that was a good thing, it wasn’t. The mud got really sticky. My bike got even heavier than it was at night. Mother Nature was working against me. As the hours wore on and my fatigue increased, my bike was getting heavier and the course was getting harder to ride. Totally exhausted, I pulled into the finish at 11:55 Sunday morning knowing that second place could not make up 40 minutes on me in the last five minutes of the race. The crew told me that I was in second place and said I had to do one more lap. I knew I couldn’t let my crew down after how hard they worked, so I pushed off for one last lap. Not a funny joke after riding 12 hours. My race at the 24 hours of Moab was hard, in fact one of the hardest race I had done. Now looking back on it, Moab was a cake walk compared to The 12 Hours of Sao Paulo. While I’m not sure I can say the race was fun, I did have a great time in Brazil. Everyone I met at the event was incredibly friendly and passionate about Mountain biking. I’d especially like to thank Danny and the Pedal Power crew for all their wonderful support. I’d also like to thank my sponsors: Specialized, Hillenbrand Racing, SRAM, SPY Optics and Crank Bros.
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