Preparations for the 24 Hours of Moab are continuing, with the start of the grueling race just five days away. My team is comprised of myself and three season-long rivals who will become one lean-mean-fightin' machine for the duration of the team-relay (read 'bloody war'). This is what I live for, and one of the many reasons that I ride and race my mountain bike: the adventure, the battle, the adrenaline, and the endorphins.

This race adds a whole new dimension (some may prefer the term dementia) to the sport. Daytime offers many challenges in this extended drama, but racing at night is an incredible thrill, and suddenly there are whole new aspects to consider. Teammates must ride hard enough to gain a tactical advantage going into night, but not so hard as to blow up when the sun comes around for another shot at baking us to a crisp. During the night one must maintain the bike, cook/prepare food, refuel the body, rehydrate, stretch, change clothes, tend to light systems, wake the on-deck rider, and then try to get some shut-eye yourself before your turn comes 'round again. And those duties don't even account for the added demands of riding at high speeds through technical desert singletrack, with new and intriguing shadows casting doubt on your chosen line.

Though your field of vision is conveniently limited to the task at hand, normally docile objects can unwittingly become silent demons and goblins stealing through the night around you if you let your creative mind get the best of you. Medium-sized drops become black voids ready to swallow your front wheel whole (pun). Mis-aiming or mis-operating your chosen light system can also cause your adrenal gland to start producing mass-quantities of the good stuff. Few things compare to the panic I felt during last year's unexplained power outage whilst spinning out the 44-12 in the pitch-black Moab desert (think of those generic, 'cute' flat black postcards that read "Anytown, USA at night"). These images and more await our team this year.

Alas, I will not be rejoined for 1997 by my perennial teammates and defending co-champions Jeremy Nobis and Mike Donahue, but our new incarnation is a killer team and we'll be very hard to beat. Brian Hludzinski (Moots) is the 1997 Semi-pro National Champ, Alex Candelaria rides for the CU cycling team, and Jeff Bicknell (Nautilus-Barracuda) is a top-25 national-class pro rider out of Vail. We are Motley Abdul and the Flamin' Subarus (Go figure). I have yet to secure a light sponsor, and though Niterider has come to our rescue the past two years, we may be juggling batteries come nightfall on the 11th. Thankfully, Powergel will be providing on-bike fuel, and hopefully 'Mom' Nobis will make her saintly presence known again.

----Jason Webster