Ever wonder how people get into doing those 24-hour mountain bike races? I mean, plenty of people participate in 24-hour races as a part of a team but you gotta be made of steel to tackle the race solo. Only a few people in the world can actually do this and one of them is Sean McDevitt.
McDevitt is a designer for Mountain Hard Wear and there is a good story over on the blog about how he got into 24-hour solo racing. My favorite quote from the article:
“When asked to describe the experience of such a race, Sean uses the word ‘horrific.’ He quotes a biking adage stating that in a 24-hour race ‘you come face-to-face with your soul.'”
If you want to see just what it’s like to compete in such a race I highly recommend watching 24 Solo, the documentary about Chris Eatough and his quest for a 7th straight 24-solo world title. In the film you actually get the sense that on more than one occasion Chris and his competitors come face-to-face with their souls as they slog it out on the 1996 Olympic MTB course in Conyers, GA. Riding one lap at Conyers is tough, it’s hard to imagine riding more than a dozen laps without stopping.
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