Mountain bikers conquer 24-Hour course mostly unscathed

BICYCLING — Riverside State Park was bustling with bicycles over the holiday weekend for the annual 24 Hours Round the Clock Mountain Bike Race. The event attracted 720 riders including 123 teams and 34 solos, plus a big crowd of supporters camped out for the Saturday-Sunday event.

Most of the more than riders survived fairly unscathed.

S-R photographer Jesse Tinsley has this nice, short video that offers a flavor of the event.

But he didn’t include one key ingredient:  blood

Frank Johnson bit the dust, literally, on his first lap in the team event.   He wasn’t the only one that’s sporting some scabs and raspberries today. But like most of them, Johnson kept riding.

“Our six-man team took third in the 10-man team category,” he said. “I got a medal, a bottle of wine and a black eye!”

He gets a big high five for courage.

Say’s his daughter, Megan, on Facebook:

” Go dad! Now when people ask how you got that black eye you can simply say ‘by being a bad ass.’”