Fort Huachuca, Arizona -- Evan Boone, Nash Dory, Collin DiMattio and Avery Baltunis, members of the racing team, Stan's No Lube, from Sierra Vista, Fort Huachuca and Hereford, Arizona, took second place in the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo mountain bike race held Feb. 17-18 at Willow Springs Ranch in Tucson, Arizona, beating the WEDU team, which includes world-renowned racers Lance Armstrong, George Hincapie, Dylan Casey and Christian Vande Velde, all previous members of the U.S. Postal Service Pro Cycling Team.
Collin DiMattio, a high school junior at Buena High School, started mountain biking in the eighth grade. He has been racing for over three and half years and this is his third time participating in the 24 Hours in the Old Pueblo race which consists of a "16 mile course, about a 1,000, maybe 1,500 feet of climbing in it." Collin said he's been "training for the last three or four months."
Collin explained that during the race, "I would do a lap, then the next guy, which was Avery, would do a lap. And then Evan would do a lap, and then Nash would do a lap." It's a relay race for the team so "in between the laps you would come in, you would recover, you would eat and you would sleep, especially during the night laps because those were just awful." Collin said the weather conditions made racing more challenging "because of all the rain and how cold it was."
The hardest lap was "my last lap," he said. "[The goal] was (to) try to get as far away as [I could] from the person on the third place team, which was Dylan Casey. See the gap that I could make up for from him. And the person behind me tried to close the gap, he was racing Christian Vande Velde, and then the last lap was Nash Dory and George Hincapie and they were neck and neck. And came through the finish, Nash came in before George," Collin said explaining how close the times were for the two teams. He said that the first place team Nine Inch Males had 24 laps and "we had 22 laps and three seconds behind us was Lance Armstrong's team."
Collin attributes his success to being raised in an Army Family.
"The way I was brought up, it's changed my whole outlook on life," he said. "With training, being brought up in a military Family has given me more drive. More motivation to ride and do the kind of stuff I need to do."
Collin said that the "hardest part of the race was getting up at 3 a.m. and going out in the dark and the cold" to race his lap. Perseverance is what got him through knowing that "my lap will be over and I can eat, and I can sleep," he said.
His favorite part of their win was when "we were called up to the podium. There were crazy cheers for at least a minute. It was the most humbling experience. Something I'll remember for the rest of my life." Collin said he's going to "take a little bit of break and then it's back to training. Looking to try and take a state championship for next year's racing seasons."
Master Sgt. David DiMattio, Bravo Company, 111th Military Intelligence Brigade, is Collin's father and coach and said the role he played was "supporting my son. Get the boys up and make sure they are fed and their bikes are clean. Everything was muddy. That was a challenge. The sand out there is really gritty and fine and gets into everything."
DiMattio said that he was "so proud of him. So proud of the entire team. Being a coach on the Buena Mountain Bike team and to come out here and see them last weekend was phenomenal. I'm super proud of them." The boys' strength was "overcoming the weather and the hours on the bike. They persevered like champs," DiMattio said. Three of the riders are coached and ride with Dimattio for Buena High School. Nash Dory rides for Fort Lewis College.
Evan Boone is proud the team took second place overall and second place in the four-man division. Evan is a high school junior at Buena High School and said "one of the more famous teams we beat was the WEDU team, Lance Armstrong's team. We saw an article that they were going to be racing and that kind of got us excited to train harder and ride."
Evan said they train by putting in "long hours on the bike. Do some group rides. [I] tried to hydrate around a week out so I didn't lose too much water" in preparation for the 24 Hour race. Evan said he's "been racing bikes for about nine years, six of those were BMX racing, and I've been racing mountain bikes for three years." This win is one of many Evan hoped for. "I hope to have bigger wins out in the future," he said with a smile.
"Being an Army Family member has definitely made me open to new things," Evan said noting it has helped his training and personal courage. "It's made me kind of tough, I feel like. Moving around, it all helps," Evan said. The race was a Le Mans-style start so the riders had to run a quarter of a mile to their bike before they could start mountain biking. Boone said "an average lap was around an hour and five [minutes]" which was around a 17-mile course.
Col. Tony Boone, G-3/5/7, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, is Evan's father and assisted the team during the race. As a "parent supporter, we got the boys there, get their food, up, down, in and out of bed," he said. "We cleaned bikes at all hours of the evening. They got dressed on their own, and they slept, and they rode the bikes, but we took care of everything else." Boone said the win was "surreal. Quite amazing that they ran the race, to see how competitive they were, and where they finished. Sandwiched between two professional teams for 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds is amazing.
"You talk about living the Army Values," Boone said. "Two riders are from the local area, and two are military kids that transplant. That ability to just move into the community itself. Those Army Values play a role of tenacity and grit, the loyalty to their teammates. All of that plays into their ability to pull together as a team and pull out an amazing win."
Boone said "the weather conditions were terrible" and became one of their biggest challenges.
"These kids finish the second overall fastest team over 300 teams from around the world," Boone said with pride. "I'm happy to be here, and I'm way tired after that weekend."
Avery Baltunis, a junior at Buena High School and a member of the Buena Mountain Bike Team, said "it rained quite a bit through our laps. My first lap had quite a burst of rain."
While racing at night, they "had a bar light and a helmet light that lit up the trail," Avery said. "The trail had a dark line and you could follow that pretty well." This was Avery's third time participating in this race.
"The most challenging part of the terrain was the last part of the trail," Avery explained. "It was a big climb, like a four-mile climb. And you had to keep your pattern, keep your consistency and the wet, the mud kept flinging up into your face."
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