19 days to go...

With under 3 weeks to go, things are coming together for our trip stateside for the 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest.

Flights - check
Hotels - check
Car rental - check
Swag - check
Dollars - still to do
Bicycles - er, therein lies a story...

At the start of 2011, my choice of bike was clear - I would be using my Scott Scale Contessa, Mary, my carbon hardtail. This was thrown into disarray following a trip to Bedgebury for a demo day where I tried 3 different 29er bikes. I found the 29er suited my style of riiding and gave me added confidence when riding over rough terrain. Although I had tried the Giant XTC 29er, a bit of research revealed that Scott made a similar spec'd bike, they even had a carbon version. The hunt was on. Scott had vastly underestimated the demand for their Scale 29er Pro and it was impossible to find one in the right size - more acurately, any size. I decided to go for the Elite model - decision made. Or so I thought.
@QuestAdventure tweeted and Facebooked to announce that they would be getting 2 Scale 29er Pros in. I called the shop and before I knew it, I had upgraded. The carbon bike rode like a dream. I was left with 6 weeks to get used to a new set of wheels (which I have done). And I need to think of a new name.

BeerBikers bike choice was already sorted. Last year he acquired a Giant XTC2 carbon frame (The Frame with no Name) which he built up using parts from a previous bike. It was aptly named 'the Bike with No Name' (I call it Clint). It is now sporting some new 'bling' following it's final service before the race.

MTB or MTB?

I need to point something out here - MTB for us stands for MounTain Bike and not Meet The Brewer!!

How it began...

I blame having too many frequent flyer miles combned with the possibility that  they were about to expire.
We found ourselves in this position and looked for a way to use the miles. The obvious choice were reward flights to the USA - and if we're going all that way, is there a mountain bike race that we could do while there? We set about investigating the options.
There were 2 possible races, one in Texas and the other in New Mexico. The Texas race '24 Hours in the Canyon' sounded great but the thought of the extreme heat, big bugs and that we were not allowed to take beer with us into the State Parks, helped us to decide that the race was not for us.
'24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest' in New Mexico sounded more our kind of race. The video footage of last year's inaugural race looked like fun with plenty of singletrack. The race profile showed no extreme climbs BUT it did show that the race takes place at 8000 feet.

We live at 150 feet!! - Training for this could be interesting.

47 Days until 24HITEF

Just 47 days to go until the 24 Hours in the Enchanted Forest, New Mexico and training has been going well. This weekend we managed 88 miles and just over 8000 feet of climbing in 3 days riding.
We also checked whether the Scott Scale 29er Elite would fit into the bike bag for the flight to the USA. It does so that leaves a 2 bike choice for the race for the Beerbabe.