12/11/06
12hrs of Exhaustion
I've just got home from racing in the Gravity 12hr.
What's the Gravity 12hr i hear you ask. Well, it's a 12 hour mountain bike
race.
Rusty and I drove, the 4 hour car trip, up to Rosewhite, in north east
Victoria on Friday afternoon and arrived at about 9:30pm. Ian and Carli had
arrived earlier that day and set up camp. We were entered as a 4 Mixed team,
under the name of "6 Nuts and a Beaver". The categories were Solo,
pairs, teams of 3, teams of 4 and teams of 6.
We rode the Gravity 12hr last year and were sort of aware of how it was run,
and also what we were getting ourselves into. We came 3rd last year, which was
a huge surprise, so we had no idea how we were gunna go this year. We are all
just a bunch of hacks, that enjoy our riding.
Saturday 6am: I was sleeping in the back of the Gran Prix van, and i
hadn't thought about the fact that there were windows all around me, so i was
woken up by the sun blaring in at 6am........booooo for early morning sun!!
9am: Race start. The beginning of the race was a Lemon start. This meant that
all the starting rider had to run 300 meters to their bike, which another
team member was holding for them. Just before the race Ian, Carli, Rusty and i
had a Rock-off (scissors/paper/rock) to see who was going first, second, third
and last rider. Rusty got first, then Carli, then Gilles and then me. When the
riders arrived to pick up their bikes, it was total chaos. There were people
and bikes going everywhere. Rusty managed to get his bike in the top 3rd, so
that was good, and off he went.
11am: Time to suit up!!! Being the total loser that i am, i never miss
the opportunity to make an even more loser out of myself. There are 3
different types of people that ride enduro races. You get the guys who are
sponsored and ride the race like the Boogie Man is chasing them, you get the
riders who are your "Weekend Warriors", that ride most weekends, for
fitness, and ride these races for something different. Then you get the
guys who just love to ride their bike and have a bloody good time at the same
time, without giving a shit how they go. I, unfortunately, am the third type
of rider. I just love to ride my bike, and I'll do ALMOST anything to make
sure that the people around me have a laugh at the same time. So staying
with tradition, of me involved in bike races, i dressed-up for the occasion. I
got a set of scrubs from my bro, who works in a hospital, I had my trusty mascot (which i got one for each of us) with me, a rather loud and annoying Megaphone,
which had a hideous Ambulance siren built in, Spoky Dokes on the front wheel and
i was riding my trusty single speed bike!! So, Gilles rode into the transition
area, then the Doctor was off to save the world (and possibly himself!!)!!!
Ready to operate!!!
A "doctor" never forgets his tools. (note the Stethoscope around my
neck!!)
36mins later: I'd finished my first lap. My body was melting beneath my
clothes. I tell you now, riding a bike in a set of scrubs, on a 28deg day is
not recommended. I had Goose Bumps, cause my body didn't really know what to
do to cool down. I was feeling pretty weird. Pretty funny really.
1:50pm: Rusty, Carli and Gilles had all had their second lap. Our times were
all pretty good, but the heat was getting to us all. For my second lap i
decided that I didn't want to die, so i ditched the scrubs and headed out in
'normal' cycling garb. Boy, that was far cooler. My lap times were getting
slower. This lap was about 37mins, but i felt much better when i got back to
the transition area, my skin wasn't melting!!
There were about 500 riders and about 200 teams racing this year at the
Gravity. It's a pretty massive even. It turned out that one of the guys that
had set up camp next to us, my sister had gone to school with, and my family
had gone to the same church as them back in the Dong!! Pretty funny eh!!
4pm: Third lap time. I was pretty happy with the way i was riding. The tyres
on my bike were performing really well. The trail was super sketchy and lose.
There was Bull Dust everywhere and at times was hard to see the trail. I had
to push my bike up pretty much every clime that everyone else had to, so
riding a bike with one gear wasn't that much harder then having a bike with 27
gears!! My bike was performing pretty well, apart from my forks shatting
themselves. Oil was pissing out of the right leg and running down the
fork.....not cool. My third lap was again about 37mins.
6pm: It was getting to the business end of the day. We were pretty much just
taking in turns riding, but it was getting dark soon, so we had to decide who
was gunna ride the last few laps. The decision was made, that cause I was
doing the fastest laps, that i was gunna ride the last lap and do one more
that the others...............this is the price I pay for being a
nuffty!!! So i started my second last lap at 6pm. After i finished it, i said
to Gilles that i wasn't sure if i has another lap in me.
I did a food shop, 2 nights before the race. Last year we had way too
little food, and the food that was for sale there was bad and gave us all diarrhoea.
So i bought up big on food to eat. However, during the day i wasn't really
hungry. Infact, the last thing i wanted to do was eat. I managed to get down a
few apples, bottles of Powerade and water, and a few Gus (which unfortunately
have something in them which act like a diarrhoeic....not cool). I was very
hydrated all day, i just wasn't hungry.
8:30pm: The last lap. It was dark now, VERY DARK!! So, to lighten up the
night I attached about 10 glow sticks to myself and had bright flashing wheel
reflectors on my rear wheel. Hey, if i was gunna ride the last lap, in total
darkness, i was at least gunna make it easy for the rescue team to find
me, if i crashed my brains out in the middle of the bush!! I told the
others that i wasn't gunna be breaking any records and that i hoped that i
could get back to the finish safe and sound. As it turns out, just
before i was due to start my last lap, a guy had stacked and given himself a
pretty nasty "puncture wound", from a protruding tree stump no
doubt. He was stretchered out.
My last lap was pretty fun, but tough at the same time. The glow sticks worked
a treat. As i passed people i could hear them laughing. I was finding it hard
to concentrate and I knew i was riding pretty slow. The dust was WAY bad.
At times i couldn't even see in front of me. It was like driving a car
at night in the fog with high beams on!! The last 3rd of the lap was
pretty painful. My legs were cramping pretty bad. I had to
stop at one stage cause my legs had cramped soo much. I've never been in soo
much pain on a bike. If you've had leg cramps before, you know what i
mean!! As i came up to the finish, there were people everywhere cheering
and clapping and shouting. It was pretty cool. The atmosphere was buzzing,
which just made me ride harder (which was a bad idea). I crossed the
line, then pretty much collapsed into a cramping heap of sweat, dust and glow
sticks!! I had a massive cramp in my right leg and i couldn't move for like 2
mins. Rusty, Carli and Gilles were there, beer in hand and offering me
help (God bless their cotton socks!!) I'd done a 40 min lap, which
totally surprised me. I could have sworn that i had ridden WAY slower.
Can anyone say shagged???
So, how did we go?? Well, we ended up doing quite well. Infact,
really well. We won!! Yeah, i know!! How the hell did we win?? There must have
been a problem with the official timing!!! As it turns out, we won by 15
mins!! Not bad for a bunch of hacks, who pretty much only ride off road about 4
times a month!!!
The race was really cool. Carli has improved her riding heaps over the last
year. So much so, that she rode a lap faster than Gilles!!! She is NEVER gunna
let him forget that, and neither will i!!! Hahaha!!!
Good one "6 Nuts and a Beaver"!!!
I'll post a link to the results soon.
Just some things i learnt this weekend:
HID lights are the poo!!! Don't waste your money on Halogen globe lightsets. Fork out the extra bling and get a set of HID lights
Hutchinson Python tyres are also the poo!!! I've been a big fan of them for years now, and the way they rode at the 12hr was the beat grip i think i have ever gotten from a set of tyres!! You can't beat these for summer riding tyres.
Single Speeds are just as fast as multi geared bikes. I've you've never tried a SS, you should!!
Don't take too many energy supplements. They give you the shits!! There are things in those energy products that act like a laxative. Nothing is as good as fruit, veg, natural sugars and water.
Don't focus on being strong at grinding, focus at being technically good. If you are a mountain biker, work on your technical skills and the fitness will follow. I overtook plenty of people that were super strong at riding the straight fire trails, but as soon as they got into the technical stuff, they bombed.
Eat lots of food with Magnesium in it. Magnesium helps reduce cramps. Foods like whole grains, nuts, beans, seeds, fish, avocados, and leafy green vegetables. Pizza Shapes will NOT do!!!!
Wear something that stands out. Give people a laugh. It'll make you feel better as well as them!!
Lastly, don't take yourself too seriously, cause there are always plenty of people out there that faster than you!!!! Haha!!
Cheers
D