The first of the 4 race Enduro series run by Full Gas Promotions at Lysterfield was held on Sunday. In the lead up to the race, the long range forecast got worse each day. The day before predicted strong winds (including BOM wind warnings), rain showers and possible hail and thunder. This was going to be interesting, especially 8 hours solo.
On the Thursday prior, Jo, Ian, Tim and I did a lap of the course. It was a pretty good layout, using most of the main trails but in the reverse direction, and linked up with some fire trail sections so you can eat and drink.
Sunday morning was cold, windy and cloudy, but it was dry. We just got into the car park 1 hour before the start which showed it was a great turnout, even though the forecast was bleak. I hadn't done a lot of k's in the lead up due to the BMC last sunday, I think it was 2 MTB rides and a 50k roll on the saturday, but I was hoping, good knowledge of the trails and some form? from the BMC would help me get through. For this enduro, I had all the drink and food ready to roll, so I was better prepared than at Mt Beauty.
The start was a mass start, with a prologue lap before hitting the main course. I went hard early to keep ahead of the slower riders, and because of that, found lap 1 to be quite clear of riders. The guns were up the front, out of the way, and I had a nice comfortable spot probably about 10-20 back. I probably kept the initial speed a bit too high considering I had a long day ahead, but I also wanted to stay ahead of any riders whether they were solo or not!
Lap 2 saw a couple of fresh riders from the teams categories charge past, but that was cool, I tried to settle into a tempo, and to keep improving on the lines I was taking to be as smooth as possible. Towards the end of each lap, the course loops right back on itself and you can see the riders behind. I noticed one was a solo rider. He became my challenge. I knew I wasn't going to catch the gun solo guys up front, however many there were, but I was going to keep this guy at bay. Lap 3 was similar, with the solo guy still not far behind.
At the start of lap 4, down the first descent, someone came flying up behind me. At this point there is a tree in the middle of the trail with a tack either side. Stupidly, because of the pressure from behind, I took the dodgy, rooty trail to the left and tried to bunny hop the roots, I thought the other guy could go right. I ended up landing the rear wheel on a root and instantly felt the tyre deflate, with rim running on the ground. So while changing the tube, I kept looking up at the numbers riding past to see how many places I was going backwards. There was plenty of team riders going past, then the solo guy went past who I had been keeping an eye on. Damn. But by the time I was up and running again, he was the only solo rider to pass me, so it wasn't too bad really.
I took most of the lap pretty cautiously, as the mini pump did the job, but it still felt a bit soft in the rear. In the pits I put the proper pressure in with the track pump. At this pause I noticed the wind seemed stronger. Ian was out on his first lap, and Jo was getting ready for her first lap. I took the opportunity to grab a sandwich, then started lap 5.
The rain started falling at this point so things started getting a bit sketchy, when I came past our pits, Ian was there trying to hold together the crumpled marquee. I found out later Jo and the marquee were nearly blown away by some big gusts and Jo had other people grab her so she didn't fly off! The marquee was bent in a useless shape and was no good. Ian said to keep going, not much could have been done about it now. So lap 6 started.
Some trails had mini streams flowing down the middle of them now, the flat corners were very slippery, and the speed had to be knocked back a few k's to get through unscathed. I was wet through and was wavering in my resolve to continue, but approaching the end of the lap, the rain had stopped (the wind was still crazy strong though) and I was ready to keep on going. I stopped at the pits to check on the shelter and Ian and Jo. They said the organisers have called the race complete at 5 hours, so I rolled down to transition to complete my lap.
The reason given to call the race was to look after the trails and for safety with the wind. Running an enduro on wet trails soon destroys them, and for the future of the series at Lysterfield, it was probably a wise decision to do that. Reports of some fallen limbs, also would have swayed their decision.
I had no idea where I was placed on the day, but after we packed up, we went to the presentations and I was surprised to find I was 3rd in the Male Solo category! Cool. I scored some new tyres ($180), some museli and a medallion.
Jo, Ian and Tim's team came 10th. Tim had to leave early, so he did the first 3 laps before Ian and Jo took over for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, because of the shortened race, they only got to do 1 lap each. The good thing about Ian and Jo's lap was that even though they rode in the worst of the conditions, they want to come back for more!
2009 Chase the Sun Series Results
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
BMC Classic
The BMC Classic is a 100km MTB Marathon held on the cool trails of the Wombat State Forest near Woodend. This was the 2nd running of the event, and the friends that did it last year said the trails are not too technical, but there is a lot more singletrack than the Otway Odyssey. So with this in mind, I had a more relaxed approach in the lead up to the event and did no where near enough training. That said, I still attempted to prepare well for the race in the lead up, and tried to implement some changes to my race plan from lessons learnt in the Odyssey.
There is bugger all accommodation in Woodend, and the venue for the start/finish of the race 'Cammeray Waters' had long sold out of its cabins. Camping on site was an option, but I was looking for a good and warm nights sleep prior to the race, and with Jo and the kids in tow, we found a place in Lancefield 30mins drive from the course.
Although 30mins from the start, this still meant getting up at 5:15am, consuming half a tonne of Sustain cereal, packing bike, bags, sleepy kids and whatever else into the car to leave to get to the start by 6:30. The queue into the start was long and slow, and leaving the extra 10mins earlier, was a good idea. I was just ready to go by 7am, race start 7:05, but due to the backlog of people running late and caught in the queue, the start was delayed 30mins. After 30mins of shivering in the cold Macedon Ranges air, with only arm warmers on top of the standard summer kit, we took off at 7:35. I was about 5 rows back from the front, which meant a fair bit of getting around people once the race started. This was hard, heart rate going through the roof and cold everything, it wasn't ideal. We then hit the first bit of singletrack which was through the pine forest. This wasn't enjoyable at all, the trails here were quite narrow, very rooty, and the dust under the pines was very fine and slippery, but that was soon the least of my problems.
My lower back started aching badly, and the pain became nearly unbearable. I thought it must have been because I was riding with the Hydration Pack. This was only the second time I had ridden with it, but it just seemed to be crippling me. I kept riding through this hoping it would go away. The acute pain eventually did go, but I had lower back pain pretty much for most of the race from that point on.
During this first section of trail, as soon as I started shifting gears for some of the pinches, the gears were not shifting or they were trying to shift out of gear. WTF! I had just had it serviced, this can't be happening, not this early in the race! The mis-gearing was affecting my ability to stay on the wheel in front up the short climbs, once over the top, I would catch up again, but then it was a bit sketchy because of the terrain. I had to stop at one point when I had a total drive train lock up. Seeing bikes fly past this early and losing position was not ideal. Back on the bike and back riding again, I was unsettled and not riding very smoothly.
Shortly after, in my half panic state, I veered to the edge of the trail at one point, hit an unseen tree root, and launched myself over the bars, hitting my head in the process. Damn, I quickly jumped back on and kept going, noting only one rider passing me at this point, but plenty more coming up putting the pressure on as my confidence had dipped badly. I kept persisting.
With the gear shifts not working for me, I thought I would settle for a gear that was working OK and ride single speed for a while. This was loading up the quads on the climbs, but I wasn't losing position, and started enjoying the trails a bit more because I didn't have gears clattering around. By this point, one of the guys that had passed me earlier, was riding at a tempo that I was comfortable with, so I sat on him. I was quicker up the hills, but he was quicker on the descents, which suited me, as I could watch his lines and take the descents quicker than if I was on the front. Eventually a 3rd guy joined us and we settled into a bit of a rhythm together, chatting about the course and various things.
Eventually, after about 20ks into the race, I decided I would assess the gears a bit better, as the racing had settled somewhat, and I was at a comfortable pace. I realized I did have a climbing gear that would work, plus some other bigger gears for the flats - all good, mostly!
We all rode through the 32km drink station, I was conscious of drinking from my hydration pack as much as possible this race, and drinking from my bottle on the fire trails. I knew I didn't have to stop for drink at this point but also had to down a power bar to keep the fuel up.
It was great to leave the crappy pine forest section and ride on more normal bush trails. Most of the trails were quite good to ride, I was still a bit slow on some of the tricky descents, and extra cautious when approaching the professional photographers on course. Not the time to stuff up when the camera and flash are going off!
As the race went on, the 50km mark was passed and I was feeling a lot better than the first 30km. I still had some lower back soreness, but could see light at the end of the tunnel. At the 62km drink stop, I pulled over to get more electrolite drink in my bottle. Someone asked if I wanted chain lube, I didn't hesitate in answering yes to that. I scoffed down some watermelon and half a banana and was off again.
The lead guy in our trio took off and was well up the road, so then it was me and the other guy for a while. He also descended well, so I let him lead the way until he eventually noticed a slow leak and had to stop and change. From this point on I was on my Pat Malone and looking at the speedo to start counting off the k's in 10k increments. I popped a couple of gels during this period and tried to ride as efficiently as possible to maintain a decent speed and not blow up.
The 80km mark eventually came by. I stopped quickly for more electrolite drink and shoved a handful of jelly beans in my mouth. I wanted to keep going as I had recently past 3 or 4 people and didn't want to lose any more positions. Now with 20km to the end, I was pretty pumped and keen to chase down anyone else up the trail.
The 50km race used the last 20km of the 100km course so catching more people at this point was hard to do. The riders still completing the 50 were at the tail end of that race, (not very quick) so even though most people let you through pretty quickly, it's not as quick as an open trail. Shortly after, the 90k drink station came up, I was still feeling OK at this point so I kept going. Shortly after, I spotted the guy we were riding with earlier about half a k up a fire trail. This spurred me on even more, there was probably 5k to go at this point and I got to within about 10m of him when we hit more singletrack, and then more 50k race riders. He got away from me again, but soon it didn't matter, as the venue entrance came into sight.
I crossed the line in 5h 31min. This was 51st overall (of about 700 riders) and 14th in my age category. I was pretty happy with the result. I knew it could have been better without the hassles early in the race, but overall a good result.
Now I know what the trails look like, I should expect a better result next year.
There is bugger all accommodation in Woodend, and the venue for the start/finish of the race 'Cammeray Waters' had long sold out of its cabins. Camping on site was an option, but I was looking for a good and warm nights sleep prior to the race, and with Jo and the kids in tow, we found a place in Lancefield 30mins drive from the course.
Although 30mins from the start, this still meant getting up at 5:15am, consuming half a tonne of Sustain cereal, packing bike, bags, sleepy kids and whatever else into the car to leave to get to the start by 6:30. The queue into the start was long and slow, and leaving the extra 10mins earlier, was a good idea. I was just ready to go by 7am, race start 7:05, but due to the backlog of people running late and caught in the queue, the start was delayed 30mins. After 30mins of shivering in the cold Macedon Ranges air, with only arm warmers on top of the standard summer kit, we took off at 7:35. I was about 5 rows back from the front, which meant a fair bit of getting around people once the race started. This was hard, heart rate going through the roof and cold everything, it wasn't ideal. We then hit the first bit of singletrack which was through the pine forest. This wasn't enjoyable at all, the trails here were quite narrow, very rooty, and the dust under the pines was very fine and slippery, but that was soon the least of my problems.
My lower back started aching badly, and the pain became nearly unbearable. I thought it must have been because I was riding with the Hydration Pack. This was only the second time I had ridden with it, but it just seemed to be crippling me. I kept riding through this hoping it would go away. The acute pain eventually did go, but I had lower back pain pretty much for most of the race from that point on.
During this first section of trail, as soon as I started shifting gears for some of the pinches, the gears were not shifting or they were trying to shift out of gear. WTF! I had just had it serviced, this can't be happening, not this early in the race! The mis-gearing was affecting my ability to stay on the wheel in front up the short climbs, once over the top, I would catch up again, but then it was a bit sketchy because of the terrain. I had to stop at one point when I had a total drive train lock up. Seeing bikes fly past this early and losing position was not ideal. Back on the bike and back riding again, I was unsettled and not riding very smoothly.
Shortly after, in my half panic state, I veered to the edge of the trail at one point, hit an unseen tree root, and launched myself over the bars, hitting my head in the process. Damn, I quickly jumped back on and kept going, noting only one rider passing me at this point, but plenty more coming up putting the pressure on as my confidence had dipped badly. I kept persisting.
With the gear shifts not working for me, I thought I would settle for a gear that was working OK and ride single speed for a while. This was loading up the quads on the climbs, but I wasn't losing position, and started enjoying the trails a bit more because I didn't have gears clattering around. By this point, one of the guys that had passed me earlier, was riding at a tempo that I was comfortable with, so I sat on him. I was quicker up the hills, but he was quicker on the descents, which suited me, as I could watch his lines and take the descents quicker than if I was on the front. Eventually a 3rd guy joined us and we settled into a bit of a rhythm together, chatting about the course and various things.
Eventually, after about 20ks into the race, I decided I would assess the gears a bit better, as the racing had settled somewhat, and I was at a comfortable pace. I realized I did have a climbing gear that would work, plus some other bigger gears for the flats - all good, mostly!
We all rode through the 32km drink station, I was conscious of drinking from my hydration pack as much as possible this race, and drinking from my bottle on the fire trails. I knew I didn't have to stop for drink at this point but also had to down a power bar to keep the fuel up.
It was great to leave the crappy pine forest section and ride on more normal bush trails. Most of the trails were quite good to ride, I was still a bit slow on some of the tricky descents, and extra cautious when approaching the professional photographers on course. Not the time to stuff up when the camera and flash are going off!
As the race went on, the 50km mark was passed and I was feeling a lot better than the first 30km. I still had some lower back soreness, but could see light at the end of the tunnel. At the 62km drink stop, I pulled over to get more electrolite drink in my bottle. Someone asked if I wanted chain lube, I didn't hesitate in answering yes to that. I scoffed down some watermelon and half a banana and was off again.
The lead guy in our trio took off and was well up the road, so then it was me and the other guy for a while. He also descended well, so I let him lead the way until he eventually noticed a slow leak and had to stop and change. From this point on I was on my Pat Malone and looking at the speedo to start counting off the k's in 10k increments. I popped a couple of gels during this period and tried to ride as efficiently as possible to maintain a decent speed and not blow up.
The 80km mark eventually came by. I stopped quickly for more electrolite drink and shoved a handful of jelly beans in my mouth. I wanted to keep going as I had recently past 3 or 4 people and didn't want to lose any more positions. Now with 20km to the end, I was pretty pumped and keen to chase down anyone else up the trail.
The 50km race used the last 20km of the 100km course so catching more people at this point was hard to do. The riders still completing the 50 were at the tail end of that race, (not very quick) so even though most people let you through pretty quickly, it's not as quick as an open trail. Shortly after, the 90k drink station came up, I was still feeling OK at this point so I kept going. Shortly after, I spotted the guy we were riding with earlier about half a k up a fire trail. This spurred me on even more, there was probably 5k to go at this point and I got to within about 10m of him when we hit more singletrack, and then more 50k race riders. He got away from me again, but soon it didn't matter, as the venue entrance came into sight.
I crossed the line in 5h 31min. This was 51st overall (of about 700 riders) and 14th in my age category. I was pretty happy with the result. I knew it could have been better without the hassles early in the race, but overall a good result.
Now I know what the trails look like, I should expect a better result next year.
Friday, April 17, 2009
Mt Beauty 6hr Enduro (22/03/09)
I entered the Mt Beauty 6 Hr MTB Enduro as a solo entrant. This was my first enduro as a solo. I didn't prepare too specifically for this, but thought I would have enough base in the system to get through OK. After staying in Beechworth the night before at the Newtown Park Motel, Jo and I arrived pretty early at 'Big Hill' in Mt Beauty. I rode the first couple of k's of the course to see what it was like and thought it wasn't too bad.
Back at transition, the BOM radar was showing storms coming our way, this wasn't adding to my motivation, and when the rain started before the race start, I wasn't keen at all! But by the time the call went out to assemble for briefing, the rain had stopped and the weather wasn't too bad.
I had already decided to burn some bikkies at the start of the race to avoid the slower riders, so I started near the front and tried to stay there as the gun went. This wasn't too bad, but as always, once the trail starts heading upwards, there are people going backwards, and I had to be patient. I was sitting behind Andrew Olle for a bit on lap one and occaisonally had some issues cornering to the left and on one corner, came to a stop. Putting this down to a brain fade, I kept going so as to not shit the people coming up behind.
As we got to the highest part of the course, the track headed back down over some easy obstacles, before climbing back up again, this repeated a couple of times before the course starting heading back down to the start/finish. It was on this last downhill section that the guy in front of me crashed on a rocky descent. I was cautious after seeing this, but somehow followed his (bad) line off the course and crashed, landing hard on my hip. We both collected ourselves and our bits and pieces, and stood there waiting for a gap in the line of riders that were streaming past. We saw 2 more crashes in front of us. This was posing to be a section to watch. The rest of the course consisted of a basically downhill corners, berms and off camber trail. Descending on the MTB is not my strong point, and post crash, I was very cautious over this last part, letting quicker riders past.
Through transition, and onto lap 2. Lap 2 was interesting as the rain started to come down, in conjunction with lightning. Riding along behind another rider I was thinking, 'should we be riding with all this lightning going off above our heads'. The rider in front kept hammering along, so I did too. The rain was making some of the timber obstacles quite treacherous, so the pace was slower. I think the fall, the wet conditions, and still a tendency to have issues turning left on berms/bends was killing my motivation to continue. I had a step off/close call through the rocky descent I crashed on lap 1 as well. Back in the pits, I stepped off the bike and wondered what I was doing there. I was hurting from the crash, wishing it wasn't raining and looking for motivation to continue. Jo helped with that and I was off again.
The rain didn't last too long, and eventually the course started drying out, and I started feeling a bit more comfortable on the bike. I was getting used to the course now, overcoming this left turn issue, and letting go of the brakes a bit more on the descents. Eventually, after 3 hrs, the halfway mark, I pulled the pin. I certainly improved as the day went on, but the lap one crash and I think eventually, not drinking/eating enough to ride solo, meant I had had enough.
It was not all to no avail though. Watching some of the other solo riders and what they do with drinks/nutrition has given me ideas for future races, and I still raced 3 hrs on a MTB which is still a fairly good workout.
The Mt Beauty course is certainly not an easy enduro course, you are either climbing or descending, this means there is no real quiet parts to cruise for a bit to grab a drink/down a gel. One fire trail section about halfway was the best option, but this was a climb as well.
Well, with an early day, and a long drive home, it was good to be back before dark and we got to see the kids before they were down for the night. Thanks Syd and Katie/Ben for looking after them.
Back at transition, the BOM radar was showing storms coming our way, this wasn't adding to my motivation, and when the rain started before the race start, I wasn't keen at all! But by the time the call went out to assemble for briefing, the rain had stopped and the weather wasn't too bad.
I had already decided to burn some bikkies at the start of the race to avoid the slower riders, so I started near the front and tried to stay there as the gun went. This wasn't too bad, but as always, once the trail starts heading upwards, there are people going backwards, and I had to be patient. I was sitting behind Andrew Olle for a bit on lap one and occaisonally had some issues cornering to the left and on one corner, came to a stop. Putting this down to a brain fade, I kept going so as to not shit the people coming up behind.
As we got to the highest part of the course, the track headed back down over some easy obstacles, before climbing back up again, this repeated a couple of times before the course starting heading back down to the start/finish. It was on this last downhill section that the guy in front of me crashed on a rocky descent. I was cautious after seeing this, but somehow followed his (bad) line off the course and crashed, landing hard on my hip. We both collected ourselves and our bits and pieces, and stood there waiting for a gap in the line of riders that were streaming past. We saw 2 more crashes in front of us. This was posing to be a section to watch. The rest of the course consisted of a basically downhill corners, berms and off camber trail. Descending on the MTB is not my strong point, and post crash, I was very cautious over this last part, letting quicker riders past.
Through transition, and onto lap 2. Lap 2 was interesting as the rain started to come down, in conjunction with lightning. Riding along behind another rider I was thinking, 'should we be riding with all this lightning going off above our heads'. The rider in front kept hammering along, so I did too. The rain was making some of the timber obstacles quite treacherous, so the pace was slower. I think the fall, the wet conditions, and still a tendency to have issues turning left on berms/bends was killing my motivation to continue. I had a step off/close call through the rocky descent I crashed on lap 1 as well. Back in the pits, I stepped off the bike and wondered what I was doing there. I was hurting from the crash, wishing it wasn't raining and looking for motivation to continue. Jo helped with that and I was off again.
The rain didn't last too long, and eventually the course started drying out, and I started feeling a bit more comfortable on the bike. I was getting used to the course now, overcoming this left turn issue, and letting go of the brakes a bit more on the descents. Eventually, after 3 hrs, the halfway mark, I pulled the pin. I certainly improved as the day went on, but the lap one crash and I think eventually, not drinking/eating enough to ride solo, meant I had had enough.
It was not all to no avail though. Watching some of the other solo riders and what they do with drinks/nutrition has given me ideas for future races, and I still raced 3 hrs on a MTB which is still a fairly good workout.
The Mt Beauty course is certainly not an easy enduro course, you are either climbing or descending, this means there is no real quiet parts to cruise for a bit to grab a drink/down a gel. One fire trail section about halfway was the best option, but this was a climb as well.
Well, with an early day, and a long drive home, it was good to be back before dark and we got to see the kids before they were down for the night. Thanks Syd and Katie/Ben for looking after them.
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