Putting it all on the line

October 16th was the Knickerbocker 8 hour race held in Cool, Ca and was the end of the Global Biorythm Events series. This is a 4 race series which consist of some greuling races and some heavy hitting racers. Race #1 is the Coolest 24/8 in the spring follwed by the Boggs 24/8, then the Tahoe Sierra 100 and ending up with the Knickerbocker 8hr.
Going into this event I was leading the pro/expert 8 hr class. I had only done races #2 and #3, but had amassed enough miles to be in front of my team-mate Hyland. Hyland's focus had been on a different race series and I just sorta fell into the lead since most of the 8 hour racers didn't compete or finish the Tahoe Sierra 100.
Nonetheless, I had to defend my lead so I did a proper taper leading into the race and actually ate like an athlete leading up to the event. I had never ridden in Cool so the terrain was all new to me as was the course.
Lap #1 went well. It was mostly recon work, trying to figure out which gears to use, when to drink, when to stand, etc. Each lap was 10.5 miles with a little over 1,000 feet of climbing. My first lap was 47 minutes and I knew I was going WAY too fast. Laps 2 and 3 were more realistic. I bent my chain and had to straighten it with the screwdriver part of my multi-tool. I rode laps 4,5,6 with another team member, Chris. I felt like I was riding strong, but I was in 5th or 6th place, but no one was close to lapping me so I knew my lead was safe. I gutted out lap 7 and put myself in position to complete an 8th lap. I only left myself exactly 1 hour to finish the last lap. It was faster than my average lap, but I'd been in that position before. I rode a 56 minute lap which was my 2nd fastest lap of the day and finished in 7 hour and 57 minutes and in 6th place. I rode 85 miles with 10,200 feet of climbing.
Awards came and went with many classes for the Knickerbocker. Then they did the awards for the series totals with male and female classes. Unfortunately for me, they only did total miles for the whole year in all classes combined-including the 24 hour racers at races #1 and #2. Obviously an 8 hour racer can't match miles with guys riding 3 times as long. So Hyland(who vomited on himself on the last lap) and myself were standing there, completely spent, thinking WTF?!!?
Sometimes, as racers and mountain bikers, we put it all on the line when there is no line at all.