2016 Summer Solstice

Gonna need that chip.

24hrs of Summer Solstice 2015

The Black Fly's participated in the 18th annual Summer Solstice this weekend along with nearly 2000 other racers.  They were calling for rain at least on Sunday morning but that luckily didn't happen.  A little sprinkle is all we got!

Cam, ChrissyB, Mitch and Marty stayed over Friday night to do some reconnaissance on the course and basically update everyone: "It's a good course, quick, with a minimal amount of climbing.  Only towards the end do the hills come.  A little longer than usual at 18k's but it goes by pretty fast.  You'll like it."

There was 1 mechanical when Adam burped his tubeless tire off on his 1st night lap and 1 physical as Marty came down with a stomach issue and was able to do only one lap.  Bad timing. 
Pyzer and Lamey were as consistent as ever and new Black Fly JonH completed his first actual MTB race and produced some very quick times.  Next upgrade: clipless pedals, Jon!  Brenda used her new bike and seemed to enjoy herself as she had a rather large smile on her face after both laps. :)

As far as results go, the team finished in a very strong 23rd place out of over 100 teams in the 10 person category!  What else is new? 
 

Adam starting us off

Chip exchange between Lamey & Brenda

Off she goes!

The Lost Boys

24hrs of Summer Solstice

Camp life

Gonna have to think back as I'm posting this at the end of September as the race was in June.

What happened?
I remember doing the pre-ride on the Friday night, hanging out around the campfire with Cam, ChrissyB, Tyson, Drew and a pretty cool night of sleeping considering it was the start of summer and the longest day of the year.

In the morning, the rest of the crew joined us:  Adam, Will, Mitch, Lamey, Hazer, and Pyzer.
We even had family support this year with Brenda, Justin, Nathan, Jet & Caelen camping out with the team.

It got really hot during the daytime with little to no breeze.

As far as the race went, everyone performed amazing (what else is new?) and the team flirted with a top 10 finish before eventually settling on 11th place out of 116 teams.  By far the best 24hrs result we've ever had for the club!

Proof that I attempted Chico's Mud Bog! (@ 0:20)  Almost made it through: Click here

More team pics courtesy of Apex Race Photograph.  Click here 

 

24 hours of Summer Solstice

  

24hrs of Summer Solstice

So, back in the winter we heard the disappointing news that there would be no Hot August Nights 24hr race this year. Our premier event of the season was cancelled!  Making lemonade from lemons is our specialty though and we decided to enter a team in the 24hrs of Summer Solstice.  Great decision!

The weekend was a great success.  Although our numbers were down (missing key riders like Stitt, Marty, Muller, Ian and Adam “the turn coat” Herring) and we weren’t able to secure a site with power or water, we all had a great time.  The course was VERY fast (but longer at 18km) and VERY dusty making the night laps a lot like driving in thick fog.

The icing on the cake was that we had perfect weather.  We dodged the extreme heat of earlier in the week and it didn’t even threaten rain until we were packing up to leave.  The only rain we had was chocolate ;) 

Next year we’ll be sure to be quick enough to get a powered site so that we can have those Xmas lights we keep yearning for!

Let’s make it a new ritual fellas!                

Hot August Nights Team Photo

Great job everyone! Sorry about the delay getting this posted.

24 Hours 2011

We must remember to bring those Christmas lights next year!  Now that's outta the way, another great weekend I would assume?  Of course.  We had a fast, flowing course with none of those lung-busting killer climbs that Chico is known to include - which in turn made for some pretty quick lap times.  The 10 person team completed 25 laps, finished 16th out of 53 teams while our 4 person No-Nite laps (one might say they`re afraid of the dark!) came in 3rd place.  Another podium for the club!

Night time.

Tent City!

The Drewman starting us off.

Success for the club!

Check out more pics from the 10 person team, here and the 4 person No Night Laps team, here.

Lonely Black Fly

Ian's number plate from the Summer Solstice 24hrs.

Blackfly B-Boyz

Presenting the Blackfly B-Boyz (missing Ian unfortunately).

2010 Hot August Nights was certainly hot this year....but not as hot as this crew! Unfortunately Ian had already headed home by the time we got our act together to take this photo. Next year, team phot before the race starts! 13th place in the Corporate Team category is not too shabby either. With a plate number of 169 I think it was "mathed" out for us ahead of time!

2010 Hot August Nights

The Always Smiling Drew-Man

Transition area.

Hazer after riding the plank.  Didn't go quite as planned.

Heavenly.

 Albion Hills.  Some memories from this years edition would have to be:  Releasing of the the Beast, 1980's Power Ballads, No lights for Stitt, The BlackFly Auction, me being under the weather and Hazer's muddy return from the his last lap.  

Some more pics can be found here. 

A little hot, Mr. Muller?

24hrs of Hot August Nights

Albion Hills. Even though the title says Hot August Nights, it would be more appropriate to call this event "Rather Wet & Cool August Overcast Days and Nights". This so-called summer has been one of the wettest I can remember and for a mountain bike race team like ours it makes for some very sketchy riding. Everything is different in the wet. Your control, cornering and braking skills all need to be re-dialed. Then you throw in some night laps where the whole Point and Shoot theory becomes Point and - oh shit, I'm heading straight for that tree! For sure I was dreading my night lap but, in the end you take it a bit easier and focus on 'git r done!'

Our campsite, #162 was pretty sweet for sure. We practically had the whole site tarped and tented (or vanned), with a microwave, tunes, flood lights, bike stand to make camp life a little easier. All in all I can't imagine doing this stuff, even when the weather turns crappy, with a better bunch of friends. Thanks Jackf?&%s!!!


Dean and Ian at the start of the 1st lap. I'm assuming the Hurricane is strategically drafting here.


Marty going down the switchback so fast you can barely tell it's him. But it is.


I'm gonna eat you McChico. Mmmmmmm.


Jon was a little muddy after his 1st lap.


Damn!


Relay exchange between the Wild Thang and the Hurricane.

For more pictures, click here.

24 Hours Hot August Nights 2008

Clockwise from top left:

1. Denis
2. John L.
3. Dean
4. Muller
5. Jon
6. Tony
7. Marty
8. Pete

August 23-24, 2008. Albion Hills. First, sorry guys about the blurry images, we're working on that. So, we had another successful 24 hours spent racing the trails of Albion. This year we missed Mr. Stitt who was out with an injury, but he'll hopefully be back racing with us in 2009. As a sub for the squad we had JohnL. and not only did he smoke the course but kept all our bikes working great. As a whole, we had 9 riders doing laps until Sunday morning when our faithful ringer Denis came in and helped finish off the event. We improved for the second year in a row by coming in 11th out of the 75 teams. Dare I say top 10 next year? For more pictures, click here.

24hrs Hot August Nights 2007

August 25-26, 2007. Albion Hills. It's safe to say by this time we're getting pretty good at these events - not only in terms of our results but also with the set-up and the organization. Most of us are experienced campers so that definitely helps. The past three 24hrs we've done it's rained at some point of the weekend. Remember the rain storm on the Friday night when Fox & Muller were trying to keep that tent up? Customer service, can I help you? I only caught the mayhem between the lightning strikes. During the race it didn't rain too much and once again we were as tough as nails out there. Tony dealt with a broken chain at the start of his lap (watch you're language in the transition area, young man!) and also crashed bad enough that Dean had to take him to the hospital. In the end, the Tonic was alright and we improved from last year by 4 spots, finishing 12th out of 89 teams. Awesome!

24 hrs Hot August Nights 2006

August 19-20, 2006. Albion Hills. Our first 10 person 24hr team was a success. We had a 8 rider rotation until early Sunday morning when Muller and Brenda tagged in for a couple of laps before the rest of the guys finished off the weekend. In the end, I think we surprised ourselves by finishing 16th out of 85 teams in the race's largest category. Our campsite was pretty sweet, even though it looked like tent city and we vowed to bring some more comforts in the following years - coffee maker and a microwave were just 2 of the suggestions made. Can't wait.
Clockwise from the top left:

1. Jon blasting through the course.
2. Tony being Tony.
3. Shirtless Dean hanging out while Keith gives Ryan M some mechanical advice.
4. Chico's Gator Pit.
5. Brenda & Sandy .
6. Marty?
7. Foxy's red bucket.
8. Stitt after a lap. A messy lap by the looks of it.
   
9. The team. (L-R) Fox,Bradley,Evan,Tony,Keith,Muller,Stitt,Denis,Marty,Dean,Brenda,Sandy
   

24hrs Hot August Nights 2005

August 20-21, 2005. Albion Hills. Our first team event. I remember being a little nervous before the start, especially for the upcoming night laps. I also didn't think it was gonna be as tough as it was. And nothing but respect to the solo riders. Craziness! It was also a good wake-up call that when you do the events we do, it's most important to have fun riding and to enjoy the camp life. In the end we battled through the pain and ended up finishing a very kick ass 10th of 46 teams.

Clockwise from top left:

1. Sierra & her dad.
2. Post race: (l-r) Derrick, Dean, Mike, Marty & Stitt.
3. Mike on our 1st lap.
4. Marty in the forest.
   
5. Timing chip hand off between Marty & Dean.
6. Mike getting some help from Julie, our team physio.
7. Our mechanic Drew.
8. Evan, the Champ of the kids race!
9. Brenda enjoying camp life with Stitt, Derrick & Mike.