2008 Burn Wrap-Up
Hard charging Jim Horton of the Middle Ring Mafia team
(Photo courtesy of Steve Clark)
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Member of the Boone Biking Betties team barrels by.
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Rascals/SCV team member guts it out.
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BMCC's Steve Clark checks off a Team GUS rider.
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Stephen Janes gives an alien a lift to the finish line.
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Charles Clarkson speeds through a turn.
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Solo men's winner Chris Johns
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Renee Pickard of the Dam Daisies team
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Solo rider Peter Rajcani hoofs it up a steep section of the Fish Dam Creek trail Sunday morning.
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A member of Asheville's BioWheels team grinds up a hill.
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Joseph Grimes grabs a bite of breakfast Sunday.
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Third place solo rider Javaun Moradi (left) with a member of the Blackwater Singletrack Sisters team
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Middle Ring Mafia member checks his line.
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Solo rider Eric Flowe
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Stacy Vick heads out on the Dam Daisies' final lap.
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One Sweet World team member heads for the hills.
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A Plain Janes team member cruises through a new section of the Burn course.
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55-year-old solo rider Shuichi Komaba still rolling strong on his last lap Sunday. Komaba finished 16th.
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Solo rider Anthony Moll took a pounding
on his unsuspended rig
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Solo rider Zane Ray pushes hard.
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Kip Clyburn (right) scales a tough climb
with a rider in hot pursuit.
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In the woods
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Dusty David Harris rolls past the lake to finish another lap.
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Keith Koontz wraps up another lap Sunday.
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Solo rider Shawn Tevendale leads the way past the twin hemlocks on the Fish Dam Creek trail.
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This little fella jumped the gun in the kids' race.
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Team Y member gets a refreshing beverage
at the finish line Sunday afternoon.
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BMCC president Jason Bumgarner bums a donation for the club's Ditch Witch fund. About $800 was raised.
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Inland Construction was the top co-ed team.
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Boone Biking Betties were the #1 female team.
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Middle Ring Mafia members pose with the bling. They won the men's team division for the second year in a row.
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More than 250 adrenalin stoked, sleep deprived mountain bikers scorched the trails at Dark Mountain recreation area May 24-25, 2008 during the Burn 24-Hour Challenge.
Racers vied for cash, merchandise and the right to compete in the world mountain bike endurance championships at Canmore, Alberta in late July.
The race, sponsored by Burn energy drink, drew top riders from across the eastern U.S. The event also attracted weekend warriors eager to test their physical and mental toughness against an expanded 7.5-mile course through the hills above W. Kerr Scott Reservoir.
Chris Johns (upper left) finished first in the solo men's category, racking up about 210 miles in his first 24-hour race. Johns bested Mark Hendershot, last year's winner, by one lap.
Denelle Grant (lower left) was the fastest female solo rider in a small field, logging about 105 miles over the 24-hour period.
The event's most determined rider may have been Dave Nice (right), 27, of Denver, Colorado. Nice spent two days on a Greyhound bus heading to North Carolina, then pedaled his gear-laden bike over 50 miles from Winston-Salem to Wilkes. Making things even tougher, Nice rode a fixed gear bike to Wilkes and throughout the 24-hour event. Nice finished thirty-fifth, riding about 82 miles.
Local riders excelled against tough competition.
Jim Horton of North Wilkesboro helped pace the Middle Ring Mafia Team to a second-consecutive first place finish in the male team category.
Wilkes natives Charlie Pendry and Michael Lockhart helped the Inland Construction team attain victory in the co-ed team division. Inland also boasted the fastest lap around the tougher-than-ever course.
Round the clock event demands endurance
The format of the Burn 24-Hour Challenge guaranteed fatigue. Racers ran to their bikes at noon Saturday in a furious mass start. Fifty riders in the men's and women's solo categories kept at it around the clock, taking only brief breaks, until noon Sunday. The rest competed in teams of two to five, alternating riding with rest. The top teams logged more than 285 miles of riding over the course of the 24-hour race.
The tough terrain took its toll. Wilkes Rescue Squad reported two riders were treated at Wilkes Regional Medical Center, one with a dislocated jaw and another with a possible wrist fracture from separate spills Saturday.
'08 Burn boasts expanded course, one expensive victim
BMCC volunteers added a mile to the Burn course during the off-season, adding a tough, scenic climb on the Fish Dam Creek Trail.
The expansion project claimed a victim, one of the club's Ditch Witch mini-bulldozers. The rig flipped during a trail building session earlier this month and burst into flames. Racers and spectators contributed more than $800 toward the $17,000 cost of a new Ditch Witch, BMCC president Jason Bumgarner said.
