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Roller Le Mans 24h 2014 Behind the scene

09. julij 2014

First-hand experience post of roller Le Mans 24 hours 2014 by Crt Mori:
I was the whole support team for a solo competitor Peter Korez, who represented our club Rolerski klub Ljubljana on 24 hour roller Le Mans race. It rained almost entire race, so my tasks in pits really increased. I will more focus on my work during the 24 hours race in this post, but Peter did great job as he ended 23rd in Solo Category with amazing 72 laps and 301 km made. He was first Slovenian ever to finish 24h Solo Le Mans and first Slovenian ever to go over 200 km on inline skates, which are both achievements that will stand for some time (although they were achieved in rain). 

Before the race I was confident that Peter could do 400 km but pouring rain prevented our plans.
The primary plan was to take a short rest every 2 hours, with a bit longer rest on every 4 hours. Peter does not require sleep, so we did not plan on it, but the rain proved quite hard on morale, so we made some adjustments on fly. Peter had three pairs of skates:

The 3rd pair was more of a backup, as we also had spare set of 2pt EO Carbon Frame and Bont ABEC7 bearings with other smaller things in case of bad crash (like Buckles, laces, straps...). We were fully prepared with 6 pairs of socks, Ezeefit booties and of course the never needed blister pads.

Peter decided that he will start with Bont Vaypor set. The rain was pouring heavily and skates soaked a lot of water while he waited for start on other side of race track. This is normal start procedure for every 24 hour Le Mans race and roller skating is no different. The Bont Vaypor pad technology enabled skates to stay as light as if it would have been dry which helped in such wet conditions. Peter had a slow start, but he dropped me the flip-flops which he used to get over the track dry and I have waited for his first pass, just to see how he`s doing. Right after that I went to take the Bont Mayhem wheels out of Powerslide Phusion4 boots in case he would want to continue skating on Bont Vaypor after a 2 hour break. He decided he would swap boots as well, so during the pit stop there was quite some work to be done. Beside skate change he also took some Vitargo drink and isotonic fluids with some gels and Oh Yeah! bars. 
As soon as he left the pit area I was cleaning the Matter G13 wheels with water, dry cloth, fast spinning and oiled them with M-Pro 7 Gun Oil LPX , which was prefect for such and any other conditions. After Bont JESA bearings were oiled, with 3 drops of M-Pro 7 Gun Oil LPX they spinned WERE SPINNING silently and without any resistance. The M-Pro 7 Gun Oil sure made my job easier and I would like to especially thank the guys who made it - with all the water and dirt, bearings just kept on spinning. After that I have assembled the Matter G13 wheels with Bont JESA bearings and put them back on Bont Vaypor boot with Powerslide VI Carbon frame. I knew that next time in pits he will also swap skates for lighter Bont Vaypor setup. The cleaning took around 45 minutes and after that I skated 1.5 km long path (which included of 60m of mud and puddles) back to the camp to prepare tortellini with chicken in cream and cheese sauce. It was time for Peter`s first warm meal of the race and because of rain and wind he should had eat it warm. Morale is especially important in such races and warm meal provides you additional boost. So when he called, that he will be coming into the pits, I took the hot pot, mixed everything together and covered it so that it remained hot. I skated back to pit and arrived few minutes before Peter. When he sat down, I have put the meal in his lap and took the skates off to dry his feet. After the meal he was still cold and he started to shiver. So he dressed up a bit more to keep him warmed up during the resting period. After that he took Bont Vaypor boots setup on and off he went for another 2 hour trip. Some pasta was still in pot and I decided that it will be a good food for second fast stop. So this time all I needed was to clean bearings and dry everything else, as well as mix new bottles of Vitargo and isotonic drinks. 
The dusk dropped fast, but the weather remained grim and it kept raining harder and harder. By now, Peter was on his way to change back to Powerside Phusion4 boots and for a quick meal. By now he was holding on strong 12th spot, and the pit stop was just for few minutes. But the rain was slowly getting to him, so after midnight he took a bit longer stop, where he started shivering hard. I put all our clothes on him to keep him warm and he eventually did warm up. He ate the warm remainder of pasta and went back to track. But he was back after few laps, to get some more rest. I tried to keep his feet as dry as possible and on air when he was resting. Also during his pit stop I took care of anything he would need, so he did not make any unnecessary movements. We were tracking his progress with Endomondo Pro Android application so his cellphone needed recharging via fast portable battery. That worked really great and battery level never went under 60%. This time I swapped back to Bont Mayhem wheels, cleaned the remaining wheels, gave him food and let him walk around. He was dropping places down to 30th spot, but we figured all others will go to sleep soon anyway. We did not worry much as he did not have cramps and was still doing great lap times, when he was on track. 
After the longer night rest he went back to track. It was a dark night but skating under strong track reflectors made him feel a lot better. We had a short stop planned just as morning came and he was gaining places with every lap he made. I had a bit more time during the morning hours as I knew he would only eat cottage cheese with peanuts and marmalade during his short rest. It went great and fast wheel change put him back on track in less than 20 minutes. I knew next morning stop at 10 am will be longer as it included warm pasta meal again. I needed to go back to camping site to prepare the meal. Just to spice it up, I have decided to surprise him with on-track meal of Pleskavica in local bread. I have also added ketchup and mayonnaise, as I knew he liked them both. This boosted the morale and he made two additional laps before the planned rest. It stopped raining and some sun was shining through clouds, so this stop was really pleasant. I have put a chair outside of pit area for him to rest. Although the sun was out, it was far from dry track, so cleaning bearings was not really optional. I have swapped his wheels back to clean Matter G13, I had prepared and he decided to hit the track for few dry laps. As soon as he got to track the rain started pouring again. It was 11 am with just 5 more hours of racing left. Peter made few laps but energy gel did not really help his cause , so he came back to pits at noon to take a longer rest again. To our surprise competition was also resting, so we were watching his placement and he was around 21st place. 
At around 2 pm it started to dry and sun was shining strong, so Peter decided to jump the gun and make some fast dry laps. I have prepared him the freshly cleaned Bont Mayhem wheels on his skates. As before the rain was pouring heavily just few laps after, but there was no stopping until end for most. Peter made really fast laps on end and he was on 20th spot, but at 3.10 pm he decided to make a last lap. He was really tired and the hill after starting line was steeper by every push. He was stopping on it for few seconds almost every lap. I was feeding him bananas for this last effort after the energy gel was such A disaster. At 3.20 pm Peter stopped and rushed to warm shower next to pits. 

After the shower we checked the award ceremony, went back to camp site to pack the tent and drove in to Le Mans directly into hotel we knew from Thursday. Few minutes after this we were sleeping until very early next morning when we drove back towards Slovenia. 

For the end I would like to share a photo of Peter eating during the last part of the race. Thank you Josselin (https://www.flickr.com/photos/josselin94/) for this photo: