24 HOP - Clothing

After three consecutive years of racing solo at the 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo ("24 HOP"), I called for backup. Three other retired PCSO Officers answered the call, none of whom have witnessed, let alone raced, a 24 hour mountain bike race. In fact, two have never even raced a mountain bike, at all. Not deterred by a little headwind, we formed a four man relay team shooting to each ride a Saturday afternoon lap, an evening/night lap, and maybe a Sunday morning lap. See, 24 HOP - Old Dogs New Tricks. 

An idea hatched over coffee and donuts.
Four man relay team at 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo.
Craig Groseth, Dave Rubins, Mark Steele, Trent Fliginger, Tim Malone (L-R).
The four racers + Trent, who will be cruising elsewhere.

To help those teammates prepare for such an endeavor, I broke down some logistics. First up was my Clothing Plan, specifically targeted for my riding this event with this team. 

For a behind-the-scenes look at a relay team preparing for a 24 hour mountain bike race, I reproduced here the communication "Clothing" that I sent out to the team.

__________________________________________________________________________________

"My thoughts to help prepare for the 24 Hours In The Old Pueblo in February. I know that you guys will figure all this out, but I thought I'd kickstart the process.

The weather. In mid-February in Oracle Junction, the average daily highs are in the low 60's and the average daily lows are high 30's.

So, say 60 degree days and 35 degree nights. Average. Know that one year I experienced highs in the low 50's with cold rain/high winds and lows in the mid-20's. Another year scorched with 90 degree days and 50 degree nights. So, the averages are just that.

Also, it will be dark from about 19:00 until about 06:00. Temperatures drop quickly after the sun goes down. So, the warmer temperatures are half of any given day, at best.

First lap starts at noon Saturday and typically is warm.
(2024 24 HOP, image by SportoGraf)

That leads to clothing. As of now, I plan to be there from early Thursday morning until mid-afternoon Sunday. So, that's 4 days of camp clothes, which for me will include sweat pants, sweat shirts, a down jacket, and rain gear. FWIW, they bring in portable showers for the weekend, if you want to wash off some desert.

For riding clothes, I'm comfortable in cycling specific clothes, but you don't have to wear that dorky stuff. Wear what's comfortable. You'll see all sorts of attire at 24 HOP, including crazy costumes, but mostly baggy shorts of some kind and a short sleeved top for the warmer laps.

I plan to pack a set of riding clothes for a casual group ride on Friday. Then for the race itself, I plan to pack, in separate bags, a set of riding clothes for each lap. Finally, I'll pack in a large bag practically every other piece of cycling clothes I own. A grab bag for contingencies, from which everyone is welcome to use.

My clothing bag for the Saturday afternoon lap will be shorts, short sleeve jersey, gloves, socks, shoes, helmet, sunglasses, and a light jacket carried along, depending on race day.

After my first lap, with 3 riders each riding a lap before my next one, I plan to immediately grab my second lap bag to change into a clean, dry set and add some comfy layers overtop if the temperature drops or rains come.

Start of a night lap, closer to dawn than to midnight.
(2024 24 HOP, image by SportoGraf).

The Saturday evening/night lap will be significantly cooler, so I plan to wear tights under shorts, long sleeved top under jersey, warmer gloves, a thin stocking cap, lightweight jacket, and maybe even a warmer jacket, depending. That image on last week's blog post (10/6/26) showed me starting an early morning lap wearing a down jacket!

Again, after that night lap, I'll immediately change out of those clothes. If there's any chance of riding a third lap, I'll change directly into riding clothes. Only if there's no chance of my riding another lap, will I change into camp clothes. It's easier to stay in the game, than get back into it.

After the sun fully rises, it warms quickly. So, for Sunday morning laps, if any, I'll have another bag with the same type of clothing as the Saturday afternoon lap.

Last lap, closing in on noon Sunday. The clothing, at least, looks much like the first lap.
(2024 24 HOP, image by SportoGraf)

In sum, I'll have 4 sets of riding clothes, each packed separately for 1) the casual Friday ride, 2) Saturday afternoon lap, 3) night lap, 4) possible Sunday morning lap. If I want to make adjustments for any given lap, I'll go the contingencies grab bag. That way, the bag for each lap will always have a basic set from which to start.

That's my plan, anyhow."