Desiree Bates Racing Recaps

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At 10am in the morning of October 28th we started the race as a two woman team.  I started the race and my teammate April did an hour and a half of laps thereafter.  We switched off a couple times before the sun set that evening when  my teammate started feeling sick and could not continue.  I rode several more laps until midnight when my pit crew head mom told me that I should get off the bike and rest.  They fed me dinner, I tried to take a nap and got back on the bike an hour later.  I stopped by my pit crew every two laps so that they could change out my Milwaukee battery and so that I could get a little mental break from my racing solitude.  I was getting tired, making mistakes, crashing more often and I needed a friendly pit crew cheer to let me know that they were proud of me.  Around 6am in the morning I started to see a glimpse of a sunrise and I have never been so happy to see a sunrise in my life.  Only 4 more hours to go.  I crossed the finish line at 10:30ish am at the final lap and rode 20 hours of Glen Helen solo.  

I can't thank my pit crew enough.  Some of them stayed up all night with me and some of them took a moment to cat nap.  Regardless, I couldn't have done it without them.