Playing in the Pines - Mont 24hr October 27/28 2007
Brendan Stewart's account of our club team's experience and a candid insight into endurance racing and how physically attractive he finds his bike.
Our Club team, in order of appearance:
AWCC riders loaded up and rolled out to another big enduro under the tag AWCC Crew. Winning was not a realistic goal as the super fast SCOTT winning team Chalkers were there with our Ferret (Fez, now Le Fez) replaced by a Pro, Dylan Cooper! We still had hopes of a podium place however after a fairly relaxed 8th/74 in the mixed 6’s last year and after poaching the rabbit chaser from the Chalkers.
Ahhh Majura Pines ACT. It was a lovely start to the weekend because the sun was shining, the breeze was whistling through the pines, grapevines stretched up the hill to Mount Majura winery and all the dead Kangaroos had just been removed from the camp grounds. Our campsite was well situated up hill from transition and looked like a neatly set out traveling buffet/bike shop with the big club banner proudly displayed and breaking the wind (or was that Bass?). We had parts and tools and mechanical aptitude, if your bike required it we had it covered. Dave even moonlighted as mechanic for the Pro Team Kona. Food, oh there is lots of food. If your taste buds desired it, you could eat it. Though finding it usually looked like a scene from a kids game show – all the eskies and boxes lined up – nope, nope, nope, nope, bingo! hummingbird muffins. We had supplements everywhere. 2 types of energy gel in about 12 different flavours, 3 types of energy bars in at least 8 different flavours, electrolyte tablets, electrolyte drinks, electrolyte capsules, No-Doz and the enduro staples – Coke and snakes. We had all conceivable food and drink options on hand, except Dutch Pancakes, but we knew they would be available on site huh Pete. We were over equipped and it looked like we may be over fed by the end of it all but we were definitely prepped and ready to race well before the midday start.
Midday, we sent Big Dave Schilg out first. The boy is big, fast and scary on a MTB so he was our best shot at fighting through the congested 300 rider opening lap. The plan was a double straight up as the first lap was short and supposed to be 'easy' with clogged single track providing ample recovery time. We had Schilg number 2 ready at transition just in case a double was not on....... and it was not on. Big D came in green and gasping, it was not 'easy', it was 26min of rocket riding up front with the elite and he gave it all. He looked straight at Geoff in front of about 400 people at transition, pointed and said "YOU GO". Like I said Dave is big and scary, so Geoff went. So did about 17 other riders at transition who were so intimidated they thought they best do as Dave said. The first laps are the hardest. We'd all done practice laps but at race pace everything changes. Trees come up faster, corners are sketchy at speed, you don’t recover in the easier sections because you are pushing so hard – so the hard sections are harder. We all go too hard in the first 5km of our first lap, but we don’t realise this until the 6km sign, just before the crazy climb out of a loose gully with pine roots like varicose veins. Ouch, shall pace myself better next time. I think we all busted to some degree in our first lap but we got a great start and at first results after 3 hours we were already in 5th position.
Riders came and went, and came and went, and came and went and by dark it was obvious that the top 20 or so teams were actually having a serious go and we would have to be serious to stay up in the standings. We were confident that we could hold our spot over night as other teams over sleep or under estimate their riders and stuff up at transition. I hate seeing riders at transition waiting for their team mate. I always say how much that sucks, you’ve busted your nut to get every second you can out on the course, you come screaming in to be replaced by a pumped up and fresh team mate, and you are left there alone in transition, screaming, "Bob, where's ?*&%# Bob, anybody from my team….. c'mon I did my bit!!!!!!" It's demoralizing and a bit embarrassing as everybody else at transition knows your team is either disorganised or they gave you no chance of actually doing your laps in that time. We had a good schedule, it was printed in A3 and laminated, it had a clock and pen stuck to it, we couldn’t stuff it up.
The plan was doubles over night to get longer breaks and hopefully some sleep. Le Fez had the first double(?) and I the second. We'd all done a couple of laps by dark so some of the crew are napping but not me, I want to be well ready for my double. It’s just 11 and I am already pumped to go out but Fez won’t be in for ages so I sit back down and injest a little more electrolyte, in 2 different forms. It’s 11:15, no, not yet. OK its 11:20pm and I can’t wait any longer so I go down to transition in the cold and the dark to relieve Le Fez. Kelly (Bass' squeeze and an excellent support crew member) and I waited. Le Fez has already done more than his share earlier taking a lap for Peta so we wouldn't lose time with her doing a dark one. He would be in at 11:26 at best and I was there before 11:26. Kelly and I were still there at 11:36. By 11:46 Dave and Anne Schilg had come down to see what the hold up was. I was tossing up whether I should be cursing him for going so slow or really worried that he may be out there hurt because he was more than 30min overdue. I secretly decided I would curse him because he is a hard core little ferret and even if he were hurt he wouldn't lose time. Just before midnight Le Fez appears out of the dusty darkness, he slaps me on the shoulder and says "That was 3 laps, with a flat"…………………….OMG, I had done that thing I hate people doing. He had done his bit, and very fast. I was not there as he finished his 2nd so he went out for another rather than have our team lose minutes and to add insult to it had a flat on the 3rd. I felt bad, very very bad. I owe you Fez.
My dark double went incident free, I rode clean and consistent and posted laps only 3 or 4 minutes slower than my best day lap so I was happy. When I finished my replacement, Dave was ready and waiting at transition, like all good team mates should be, so I was very happy. I gave the Epic (that’s my sexy MTB, yes it is sexy, ask my team mates or the mechanics at The Full Cycle, it is described as sexy black on my service documents) a quick clean and set off to the shower truck looking forward to cleaning my crusty self before bed. The showers weren’t working, now I am not happy, I am tired and cranky and very, very smelly. I shuffled back to the tent but I could not get into a sleeping bag in the state I was in so I did the next best thing to a shower with about 37 large baby wipes. I put the skins on, the ear plugs in and just before I would have fallen asleep it happened, as it often does in these things. I rolled over in the sleeping bag and SNAP! Instantaneous and full lower body crampage. Quads, hams, hip flexors, adductors calves and feet all at once said let's get him back. I lay there with legs straight, head back, fists clenched trying not to scream, you know how it is, oh you don't! you should try it. Lock out is great on suspension forks but it sucks in your legs. Lock out faded to spasm and I faded to semi-sleep.
Over night we drifted between 5th and 6th position. Most of our riders and support crew drifted off to sleep at some point. One of our support crew, Anne Schilg, drifted in and out of consciousness I'm sure. She paced between campsite and transition, disappearing into the darkness and reappearing in other team's campsites. She often carried the race schedule mumbling stuff like "what time is Bass due in, who's out next, do I have to wake Geoff up now?" until she lost it completely and fell asleep in a camp chair about 3:30am, luckily at our camp site, still holding the race schedule. We all got up, did our bit and went back to bed like HID lit, tubeless equipped ships in the night. The dark laps came with 3 1/2 flats and a time sucking chain sucking incident but no serious mechanicals. We had no biologicals to speak of either so most were feeling pretty good to get up and go again. Le Fez got up early and did a double so Peta could sleep in and ride in the light again, heroic? perhaps, demented? probably. There’s no stopping the little rabbit chaser. If he were on another team I'd demand he was drug tested. Because he was on our team I demanded some of his drugs, he claims he had none.
Day break laps are the sweetest. It's cool, the light is soft which makes it easier to see in the Forest, the dew betters traction on the dusty single track and there is much less traffic as all the less serious riders are still in bed. A lot of the contenders for hot laps come out now, the hottest male and female laps are worth $500. The hottest male lap is just over 27min, the hottest female lap is 5min behind that (Tory Thomas), my best is 2 minutes behind that again.
We had consolidated a top 6 spot and 4th was still a possibility so we kept going hard. Geoff was still doing laps at sponsored rider speed (you wanna sponsor him, give him a call!) and Fez was a minute or 2 back but he had done a lot more work than any of us so that is still awesome riding (you wanna sponsor him give him a call, please, have you seen his Camira!) The rest of us did well too, consistently riding laps just minutes behind the Pro's for the entire 24hrs. At the end of 24hrs however these minutes add up and we were happy to finish 5th/47, a lap down on 4th and 19min ahead of 6th. We did 40 laps, that’s 420km including over 300km of very tight single track in 24hrs! An excellent result for a club team and a result that could only be achieved with 6 keen riders and the tireless support of Martin, Anne, Heather, Kelley, and Shez, thanks heaps guys.
Podium next year perhaps? Viva Le Fez!