In spite of my newly married friends being on their honeymoon, I was still invited to re-unite the team from last years Gravity, to contest the mixed 3s category. Nice people! And there could not be a better place to spend part of your honeymoon than at Rosewhite and the awesome Gravity 12 Hour enduro. The sun was out and the sunsets on both nights were pretty special.
Some substantial rain in the previous week had led to some very wet and muddy sections of the course, so even though 90% of the course was in great nick, there were some very tricky sections to navigate, which only got worse over the 12 hours.
Like an F1 team, we changed race strategy for this year in the hope of making the top 3 (5th last year). It was my turn for the run start this year. Unfortunately, the slowest people to get to the start of the run, became the front runners for the race, so starting 50 plus people back was not ideal. But once on the bike, it was time to make up some ground on the first lap and get off to a good start.
This was my first look at the track this year and when we first hit the mud, it was instantly detrimental to the drive train. The extra drag was noticeable, so for all the next mud sections, there was a lot of trying to find the cleanest line, or path of least resistance!
After the first few laps we found ourselves 3rd in the category, travelling along pretty nicely. There was a lot of bike maintenance between laps, cleaning the drivetrain being the priority. While this helped for the first half of all the subsequent laps, the first mud section soon undid all that work.
Part of this maintenance meant a front brake pad replacement. I had brought some spare pads knowing my current ones were on their way out, but after lap 1, they needed immediate replacing. Now here comes the strange part. I ran out of time to give the pads some working in before I started my second lap, so off I went down the first hill towards the dam. Just as I was about to cross the dam wall, something weird happened, my front wheel jarred to the left because of a bump in the trail and I accidentally touched the front brake. Next thing I know I feel myself flying through the air towards the dam water. There is this moment of slow motion where you know the inevitable is going to happen, and sure enough, I was dumped into the dam!
Fully submerged, I stand up, pick my bike up (which came with me), lift it onto the dam wall, climb out and get ready to get on. A sole spectator next to the dam asked if I was OK, I said I thought so, and I asked her 'how the hell did that happen?' I didn't wait for the answer, but climbed on my bike and continued on. While riding up the first long climb on the course I noticed a few things. My sunglasses were not on my face anymore, I was bleeding just above the knee and I was fully drenched. There was no time to worry about any of that though, it was just finish the lap and tell someone about it! I completed the rest of the lap unscathed.
As the day progressed, a timing update had us in 1st position! My dip in the dam didn't cost a lot of time, in fact that lap turned out to be my fastest for the day. So we kept to the plan, 1 lap stints each, try and get through unscathed and we should do OK.
The helmet mounted lights came out for the last couple of laps and I ended up doing the last lap. I was unaware we were trailing by about 5 mins going into the last lap, but I tried tried to keep it upright, even lifting the bike through some of the bog holes, just making sure I got home without incident. Crossing the line, Burkey comes up to me and I ask how did we go? He says we had won!
The results showed we must have just passed the 2nd placed team in the final k or so, the margin was 22 seconds.
It was a great consistent effort from all 3 of us. Great work Burkey and Su!
Now I have to thank Jo for her support throughout the day, even cleaning the drive train between laps for me and Burkey for his help sorting out my brake pads.
Dinner at Camp
Friday sunset
Su happy after 1 of her laps
The kids having fun
Rosewhite
