Local racer self-supports Men’s Solo-from his front door (Sunday 10:00am) by Ron Georg
Men's solo racer Cullen Barker had help in his 24 Hour campaign-whether he liked it or not. Barker is the only Moabite (that's a person who lives in Moab, not a Biblical reference) in the race this year, and he may be the only truly self-supported rider in the event.
Barker rode out to the course the day before the start, battling gusty headwinds, pulling his camp in a BOB trailer. The 15-mile ride was more grueling than a lap on the 24 Hour course. It took him hours.
At the venue, friends set up their own camp around him, and Barker enjoyed the camaraderie, but he rejected anything but emotional support. In fact, he took time to support other racers, including his friend Pete Basinger, who was on his 10th lap at about 9 a.m. Sunday.
Barker had to drop out in the night, after he became ill. "I don’t like to make excuses," Barker said. "But you can’t do it on mental power alone. I used to believe that it's about 90 percent mental and 10 percent physical-but I'm down about 4 percent."
His power may be down at the moment, but Barker has a refined sense of power's value. He explains that his self-supported effort reflects a desire to see greater awareness of power and how we use it.
"A lot of it has to do with the major production that goes on here," Barker said, sweeping his hand around at the thousands of people and cars and hundreds of generators all out supporting a human powered sport. "Then there’s the whole international fuel production issue. Being local, I wanted to show you could support yourself and do it under your own power."
