the wilcox family cyclists - Spokes Magazine

COLUMNS
SINGLETRACK by MATTHEW BUTTERMAN
Big Bear, Big Deal
The Suzuki 24 Hours of Big Bear is the real deal. Tons
of exhibitors, a massive Suzuki mobile stage display,
hundreds of riders, campers and tents everywhere, and
little sons and daughters of the racers on the shoulders
of their grandparents, watching the start. Coming
from a background almost exclusively in road and
cyclocross racing, I didn’t know what to expect from
mountain biking when I came to the 24 Hours of Big
Bear to get the story. I’ve come away a believer in the
popularity- and the potential - of this style of racing.
It’s a format that saw its genesis and development in
the mind of Laird Knight, founder and president of
Granny Gear Productions, the Davis, W. Va.-based
event promotion company that currently produces the
Suzuki 24 Hour National Mountain Bike Points Series.
Seventeen years ago, Knight came up with the idea
for the inaugural 24 Hours of Canaan – a way to
concentrate the challenge and fun of cross-country
mountain biking into a 24-hour period, centered at a
single venue and overflowing with spirit and enthusiasm,
sort of like a Woodstock on wheels. The venue
moved twice during the years, first to Snowshoe resort
and later to its current location at Big Bear Lake
campground, outside Hazelton in the far north of the
state near the Maryland and Pennsylvania borders,
and a mere four miles off Interstate 68. The same
course used for the 24 Hours of Big Bear is open season-long
to the general public for a $5 fee to enter
the campgrounds.
The classic, technically-challenging course at Big Bear
is the hallmark of the second most popular stop of
Granny Gear’s 24 hour race series. This six-race series
has spread beyond its West Virginia base to such iconic
mountain bike venues as Killington, Vt., and Moab,
Utah, as well as the 1996 Olympics Games course in
Conyers, Ga., near Atlanta. The nationwide scope of
the series – as well as its popularity and cult-like following
– attracted the corporate support this year
of Suzuki Automotive, and of industry stalwarts like
Ellsworth bicycles, Infinit Nutrition and NiteRider.
But, as far-flung as the impact of 24 hour racing has
spread, it’s important to remember that this is at its
core a mid-Atlantic phenomenon.
That fact is not lost on Granny Gear Productions’
home state. “Outdoor recreation is the second largest
tourism-related activity in the state, and part of a
$77 billion market nationwide,” Justin Gaull of the
West Virginia Department of Tourism, told SPOKES.
Mountain biking is an important boost to the state’s
economy that was once dominated by “king coal,” and
Knight was named West Virginia Tourism Person of
the Year in 2001.
“Granny Gear’s events, with their focus on providing
fun and memorable experiences, exemplify why West
Virginia is, and shall remain wild and wonderful,”
concludes Gaull.
So, if West Virginia shares a long and symbiotic relationship
with the sport of mountain biking, and if the
course at Big Bear Lake represents a classic venue, it
was only fitting that one of the sport’s legends dominated
this year’s 24 Hours of Big Bear. David “Tinker’
Juarez was one of the trailblazers in the early years of
mountain biking, and he became one of its biggest
stars as it blossomed into an internationally popular
sport. But, it took more than a decade after his ride
for the U.S. team at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 for
Juarez to find time in his busy schedule to make an
appearance at the mid-Atlantic’s biggest 24 hour race:
“I’d always wanted to ride the 24 Hours of Canaan or
Snowshoe, but never got the opportunity during my
international pro career. I’d heard wonderful things
about the courses, and Laird is known for producing
quality events worth traveling for,” said Juarez.
More recently, the 47-year old Juarez is making a
name for himself as an ultra-endurance mountain
biker. The southern California native came to Big
Bear for the first time this year as part of this second
coming. In addition to 24-hour mountain bike racing,
he’s also challenged himself on the road in the Race
Across America (RAAM), and he secured a victory in
southern California’s Furnace Creek 508 endurance
road race.
The Big Bear 24 provided all the challenge Juarez had
hoped for: a great course and a surprisingly strong
field of competitors. This combination made his victory
all the more sweet. Spectators were treated to one
of the closest battles seen in the sport for a long while.
“This was one of the only 24-hour races I’ve ever had
to race for the entire time in order to win,” Juarez
said in an interview on the awards podium.
The Men’s Expert and Men’s Masters classes also
produced riveting struggles in which the leaders were
separated by only a few minutes until the very end.
Heavy rains during the week before the race left conditions
wet and in places, slick. But intense heat before
the weekend helped to dry the well-drained course.
This same heat, in the high 80s to low 90s, changed
the normal expectation of cooler conditions in the
Appalachian highlands of West Virginia. This factor,
added to several new faces - and returning racers riding
under aliases, made it difficult to predict a winner.
Juarez had his own doubts about his ability to win
the Men’s Solo division at Big Bear. The dreadlocked
rider from Downey, Calif., is a bit out of his element
on technical, muddy East Coast courses, but in the
end his experience with endurance events mitigated
any unfamiliarity with regional course conditions.
Juarez even used a familiar race strategy from his days
on the international XC scene: a fast start to open
up a sustainable gap on his competitors. His first lap
came third-placed overall, even on time with team riders
from Custom Contracting Cancer Awareness and
Just4Brothers, at 1 hour, 16 minutes. For the next 5
laps, Juarez stayed in the top ten places in the overall
standings, before stepping off the gas slightly.
Meanwhile, Ernesto Marenchin of Stow, Ohio, followed
the reverse plan, holding back slightly in the
opening three laps.
Going into the night, Marenchin started turning faster
lap times than Juarez, and shortly after daybreak he
went past the Californian to take the race lead. Juarez
kept his cool in the sweltering heat, however, and
kept the pressure on Marenchin, who discovered that
riding ahead of a competitor of Juarez’s caliber is not
16 July 2008