Twelve Hours of Road America

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Captain Awesome said:
@us56456712

Did you decide to do this event? Rumor has it from some people that work up that way that some of the YouTube heavy hitters are coming. For sure Vegan Cyclist and possibly Phil Gaimon. Also a possibility you'll see some other sports greats that cycle a ton. Brett Favre was mentioned
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I guess I unconsciously decided. I haven’t signed up yet but I have been riding and tweeting all my vintage road bikes. I don’t know about camping or if I can switch bikes during the event. The hills there are much bigger than you might think. So far I have only ridden 1400 miles, 400 short of last year. My biggest distance was 65 miles last week.
 
us56456712 said:
I guess I unconsciously decided. I haven’t signed up yet but I have been riding and tweeting all my vintage road bikes. I don’t know about camping or if I can switch bikes during the event. The hills there are much bigger than you might think. So far I have only ridden 1400 miles, 400 short of last year. My biggest distance was 65 miles last week.
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I'm well versed in those hills 🤣
 
I rode Road America for 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday and got a very nice medal. Boy, I cherish that. I finally took it off. it started at 7 pm Saturday after a sports car race. It got down into the 50 s F and most riders were dressed like it was October. Spectators were warped in blankets. For a northern dweller the temperature was perfect, so I rode in shorts and short sleeves. By 1am the field had thinned to a few so that was great as early on it was crowded and dangerous. Even the very fast single riders and the pelotons didn’t know what they were doing, didn’t have a clue on the rules of track racing. I stuck close to the white line on the outside, except on the super fast downhill corners. The corners had some kind of rough, textured paving for grip so you could start on the outside and swoop into it tight and exit wide. A ten person peloton passed me on both sides in the apex of the highest speed corner. That was before dark so their lights gave no warning and being deaf, I didn’t hear them coming. No verbal warning from passers all night, people weaving at high speeds, passing on the inside, like I said, no one had fixed gear track riding experience. the peloton passing me came close to a massive high speed crash, real close. I started yelling and swearing at these stupid louts that passed close on the outside when there was plenty of room on the other side. They must have wondered who the cranky old buzzard was, but it was effective. No more close calls. Anyway by 1 pm the hotshot pelotoners had burned themselves out, never to be seen again. Here at home I can ride 102 miles in10 hours so my goal was 120 miles in 12 hours. I didn’t make it as the hill climbs were brutal. But there were quite a few high speed downhill corners. It took awhile to learn these in the dark but with the special corner paving I went from terrified to comfortable as time passed, what fun. So many people did over 100 miles this year that they ran out of patches. They didn’t have enough 150 and 200 mile buckles either. When the fast riders lapped me there was impressive tire noise and air noise. These guys were riding faster than I can sprint for the whole 12 hours. The best ones were extended flat over tucked in bars, even on the climbs, where I was standing. Wah! I don’t know who won or the distance because I took off after the coffee, draft beer and pancake breakfast. I didn’t have any beers but I’m always impressed with the way cyclists find an excuse to party. Coffee in one hand, beer in the other while standing in line for pancakes. I forgot to mention that I used vintage bikes, 1931 fixed gear wood wheeled track bike for 8 miles, then a 1960s Gantois for 70 miles and the rest in a 1991 Schwinn Paramount. Gotta have an excuse for going so slow.
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A759E9EC-0B62-46E3-8686-F9BA7503A8E8.jpeg

pit road at the start/finish
55C7CB0A-6C23-4153-8FBC-A2C5F5DFA651.jpeg
 
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us56456712 said:
I rode Road America for 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday and got a very nice medal. Boy, I cherish that. I finally took it off. it started at 7 pm Saturday after a sports car race. It got down into the 50 s F and most riders were dressed like it was October. Spectators were warped in blankets. For a northern dweller the temperature was perfect, so I rode in shorts and short sleeves. By 1am the field had thinned to a few so that was great as early on it was crowded and dangerous. Even the very fast single riders and the pelotons didn’t know what they were doing, didn’t have a clue on the rules of track racing. I stuck close to the white line on the outside, except on the super fast downhill corners. The corners had some kind of rough, textured paving for grip so you could start on the outside and swoop into it tight and exit wide. A ten person peloton passed me on both sides in the apex of the highest speed corner. That was before dark so their lights gave no warning and being deaf, I didn’t hear them coming. No verbal warning from passers all night, people weaving at high speeds, passing on the inside, like I said, no one had fixed gear track riding experience. the peloton passing me came close to a massive high speed crash, real close. I started yelling and swearing at these stupid louts that passed close on the outside when there was plenty of room on the other side. They must have wondered who the cranky old buzzard was, but it was effective. No more close calls. Anyway by 1 pm the hotshot pelotoners had burned themselves out, never to be seen again. Here at home I can ride 102 miles in10 hours so my goal was 120 miles in 12 hours. I didn’t make it as the hill climbs were brutal. But there were quite a few high speed downhill corners. It took awhile to learn these in the dark but with the special corner paving I went from terrified to comfortable as time passed, what fun. So many people did over 100 miles this year that they ran out of patches. They didn’t have enough 150 and 200 mile buckles either. When the fast riders lapped me there was impressive tire noise and air noise. These guys were riding faster than I can sprint for the whole 12 hours. The best ones were extended flat over tucked in bars, even on the climbs, where I was standing. Wah! I don’t know who won or the distance because I took off after the coffee, draft beer and pancake breakfast. I didn’t have any beers but I’m always impressed with the way cyclists find an excuse to party. Coffee in one hand, beer in the other while standing in line for pancakes.View attachment 168298View attachment 168299View attachment 168300
pit road at the start/finish
View attachment 168301
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Amazing!!!! Great job. High on my list for next year!
 
RustyGold said:
Super cool :113: ! Congrats... amazing accomplishment!
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The results are now posted. 10 guys in their 60s rode it, two were 68. I’m 75 and the only one in their 70s that did it. I’m pretty confident I could have done the distance these guys did if I would have used a better bike to start with. It took me an hour to do the first two laps on the 1931 wood wheeled track fixie. But what’s the sense of having old race bikes if you don’t race them. For me, using vintage race bikes is half the fun. Maybe next year I’ll see if I can borrow a modern road bike. Mine are all old race bikes and have tall gearing too manly for me to be efficient. I noticed that everyone’s bikes were much more spinney than my huge chain rings and pinecone cogs.
 
Cooking down into turn 5 is quite fun isn't it? Shame you have to make that turn 6 climb right after and spoil the party
 
Captain Awesome said:
Cooking down into turn 5 is quite fun isn't it? Shame you have to make that turn 6 climb right after and spoil the party
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Almost all the corners were fun. The second
MattiThundrrr said:
If Matti gave out "Hero" medals, they'd be named after you. Cool beyond belief, thanks for the report
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one enters downhill and exits uphill. That is fun to ride and to watch the tail lights ahead enter and use the downhill momentum to climb fast on the exit hill.
 
us56456712 said:
Almost all the corners were fun. The second


one enters downhill and exits uphill. That is fun to ride and to watch the tail lights ahead enter and use the downhill momentum to climb fast on the exit hill.
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That's the one. Downhill, hard left, uphill exit under the bridge to another left.

Also one of the longest carousels in the road game. Such a long sweeping right all the way at the back before you drop down towards the woods. I was never fast in the front half of that track, but was fearless in the back.
 
Captain Awesome said:
That's the one. Downhill, hard left, uphill exit under the bridge to another left.

Also one of the longest carousels in the road game. Such a long sweeping right all the way at the back before you drop down towards the woods. I was never fast in the front half of that track, but was fearless in the back.
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The one I’m talking about is the turn before the bridge one. It’s the second turn after the start, really turn 3 because on a bicycle you don’t notice turn two. The uphill before the bridge is too steep to climb fast. You have to go down to a low gear, I had to use granny and stand for that one. The turn before the bridge is the fastest part on a bicycle, probably the same with a motor. The following hill slows you down big time about half way up and by the bridge you are hurting. The one I’m talking about you can easily spin out in high gear approaching the corner, tuck and coast through part of the turn, pedal hard through the corner, drop one gear and fly up the hill. Things are so much different on a bicycle, whole different strategy. I must say that RA is an excellent and challenging road bike course and super fun on a bicycle. I wish I could ride there every week in the summer.
 
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Captain Awesome said:
Amazing!!!! Great job. High on my list for next year!
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You will love it, so much fun. By 3am I was getting sleepy and loosing focus and actually went off the track and into the grass three times before waking up. We’ve all been there while driving a car so you know what I’m talking about.
 
us56456712 said:
You will love it, so much fun. By 3am I was getting sleepy and loosing focus and actually went off the track and into the grass three times before waking up. We’ve all been there while driving a car so you know what I’m talking about.
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It's on the calendar for next year. Hopefully I can make it happen
 
Captain Awesome said:
It's on the calendar for next year. Hopefully I can make it happen
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I don't know the 2022 date for this yet. They announced that as soon as Road America finalized their schedule that all of the 2021 participants would be notified by email. Nothing yet from them. They are planning, for the first time, a 12 hour dirt ride on the RA off road race track for 2022 in conjunction with this. There is also a 12 hour dualathon and 12 hour run on the RA walking trails at the same time.
 

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