Two things were very different this year from last at the 24 hour Norba Solo Championships.
First, the course was longer and the temperature stayed in the 101 to 105 range all day. Monique
went out fast on the first lap and then settled into a groove for the rest of the race, following
her plan to the tee. She quickly took the lead and lap by lap put 5 to 10 minutes on Christina
Begy. All the while, the Pro men were going out way too hard and battling back and forth in the
heat! The Trek and Gary Fisher camps came up to us and asked "who in the world is that and who
does she ride for?" It was fun to let them know! Only one of their pro men would end up
beating Monique in the end.
By 12 midnight Monique lapped Begy. Begy went out after her for one
more lap and quit after that. At this point, we turned Monique's focus on the men. Tinker had
already left due to the heat and Chris Eatough had already moved into second place. Monique
stayed steady as a rock through the night but the male field had some major changes! Somewhere
in the night Monique came up on Chris walking his bike up a hill and shortly after that he
dropped out. A lot of the men had battled so hard in the heat that they had no power left by the
late hours.
Monique finished with 19 laps and over 270 miles (not sure yet on the exact
distance), She was 4-5 laps ahead of the closest female and she placed 5th in the overall! We
will be going to the Worlds, but we don't know how. We'll find a way.
Two things were very different this year from last at the 24 hour Norba Solo Championships.
First, the course was longer and the temperature stayed in the 101 to 105 range all day. Monique
went out fast on the first lap and then settled into a groove for the rest of the race, following
her plan to the tee. She quickly took the lead and lap by lap put 5 to 10 minutes on Christina
Begy. All the while, the Pro men were going out way too hard and battling back and forth in the
heat! The Trek and Gary Fisher camps came up to us and asked "who in the world is that and who
does she ride for?" It was fun to let them know! Only one of their pro men would end up
beating Monique in the end.