Eszter sports her new National Champion jersey (photo by: Chris Miller)
Yeti Beti team director Amy Thomas spoke with the new U.S. National Champion, the week after her win, to talk about Moab and the race that proved she’s one of the best female endurance racers in the country.
Amy Thomas- It’s been a little over a week since Moab. Did you have any idea 8 days ago that you would be the 2009 US 24-hour National Champion?
Eszter Horanyi- I knew that I had a chance but that I would have to have the ride of my life and a good bit of luck on my side. The beauty of endurance races is that anything can happen, and it will happen. I knew that I was sitting on good fitness and riding well, but having never having done a 24-hour solo before or a 24 hour race period, I didn’t really know what to expect. I had no clue how my body was going to react to more than 13 hours of racing or how my head was going to react to doing laps on the same course over and over and over. I thought that a win could be possible, but I didn’t believe it completely.
A month out, I’d nixed the idea of racing Moab. It had been a long season and I was ready to kick back and drink some beer. But I’m the type of person who can be talked into anything, so I signed up for the experience if nothing else.
Eszter Horanyi (photo by: Chris Miller)
Amy Thomas- Compared to other courses, how did Moab suit your ability, both from the technical aspect and the power sections?
Eszter Horanyi- I really, really liked the technical aspects of the course but at times it really made me really wish I had a full suspension bike. Mentally, it was really nice that it was split up between the first half being super technical and the last ½ being fairly flat and pedally. Generally, the flat sections are where I lose a lot of time but I was loving them as the race went on. I generally prefer just straight up and straight down courses but you could get on some good dude trains and draft, especially earlier in the race when I still had some energy.
AT- If you broke up the race into thirds, 1st 8 hours, 2nd 8 hours, and the last 8 hours, which 8 hour segment was the hardest for you?
EH- That’s actually how I broke it up in my head because I knew I had to get a meal in every 8 hours. I couldn’t wrap my head around riding for a full 24 hours, so this was my way of mentally dealing with the race. The first 8 hours were pretty rough and that first lap was just chaos. I was riding way too hard, far beyond what was sustainable. I knew that but I didn’t really pay attention to it, I got way to caught up riding with Jari Kirkland and Sarah Kaufmann. Jari crashed on the 2nd lap and cut her knee open but I didn’t find out about it until after I was done and was asking my crew how far behind me she was. She was in the back of my head the whole race, wondering how far back she was.
The first eight hours were hot. It’s been cold and rainy in Colorado, so it ended up damage control for a couple of laps with severe digestive issues, wanting to poop and vomit all at the same time. I kept telling myself ‘You have 20 more hours of this and so do not blow up yourself up like you did at the Firecracker 50’. I kept reminding myself, “Remember Firecracker, remember Firecracker. Remember what it feels like to crack. Remember how horrible that felt”.
Horanyi enjoyed the night laps but not her hardtail on the Moab course (photo by: Mike Cubison)
My first night lap was my favorite lap of the whole race. I was borrowing a set of lights from a friend and I ended up being about to ride a lot of the technical sections when other people were walking. They would cheer every time I cleared something and I fed off of that energy. That pushed me. The second night lap was the same. The third night lap around midnight was heinous. Some switch went off in my head and I keep thinking this is stupid, you have 8 more hours of darkness and then 6 hours with Sarah still only minutes behind me and Pua 40 minutes ahead, why did you sign up for this again? I couldn’t mentally deal with it. Then the gap to Pua started to come down and the gap to Sarah started to go up and I rallied. Goes to show how mental 24-hour racing really is.
After Pua dropped out, the adrenaline kicked in. My crew gave me the sage advice of ‘Don’t panic and just keep pedaling’. They just kept encouraging me to keep moving as the gaps were opening up.
Sarah and I called a truce after 13 laps. When my crew told me I was done, I couldn’t believe them. I’d spent my last lap mentally preparing for two more laps and feeling miserable about the prospect, so to be able to be done was the best feeling in the world.
AT- Describe how it felt to stand on the top podium in Moab?
EH- It was really cool. I wish I could take all the emotion, bottle it up, and save it for later. I always say it’s just bike racing- we’re not saving puppies from burning buildings - and I try not to take it too seriously, but to have something like this come together was beyond my wildest dreams. I had a 9 person crew taking care of me and cheering for me, the entire Colorado community cheering for me, all the people I had met racing over the summer, the CU Cycling community (who I had completely let down because I wasn’t racing Collegiate Nationals because I’d opted for Moab instead), and my parents behind me. I knew my mom was probably up all night hitting refresh on the live updates. Everyone believed in me much more than I believed in myself so it was neat to prove them right. I didn’t want to crack and then face everyone, which was my biggest fear during the night. Winning and standing on the podium was like a big community happy event for me.
Check back next week for part two of Amy's interview with the 2009 U.S. 24-Hour National Champion Eszter Horanyi.
We would like to thank Amy Thomas and the Yeti Beti team for their on going contributions to MTBracenews.com and the entire mountain bike community. Click here to visit the Yeti Beti site and learn more about the team.
Eszter brings home the Walt Works Dream Team flag (photo by: Mike Cubison)
Horanyi downs her recovery drink after 24 hours of riding (photo by: Mike Cubison)
