Dirtfest 2012 - QLD SS Champs

After last years mudfest at the same venue and after an extremely muddy race just 7 days before, the prospect of a dry race and strong SS field should have had me a little more excited than I was feeling going in to this years event. Getting my gear ready on Saturday afternoon, I realised that the bottom bracket on my Superfly SS was on its last legs, but I really wanted run the gearing(34/20) and tyres I had setup on it.  After some cleaning and extra TLC, I was fairly confident it would get through the 50K of Dirtfest.  I'd also had to recover a saddle from my "spares" pile after breaking the seat rail on my much loved Fizik Gobi in the previous week's race.

I had everything ready the night before, and was on the road by 6am to get a good park fairly close to the event and save lugging my stuff too far.  The traffic on leisurely drive up the coast was fairly light, but somehow there still managed to be an accident that closed the highway and we were forced to take a diversion.  I realised at this point that I was about 5 cars behind my mate and sometimes pit crew Andy.  Luckily the traffic in general seemed to know where they were headed as my phone GPS was playing up.  In the end we arrived only a little after 7am and were able to park about 200m from the track.  Andy and I found a good spot right on the track.

One of the peculiarities of this event was deep down in the rules(as found by Andy), it stated that changing bikes excluded a rider from the placings.  I still decided to take my back up bike in case I changed my mind about things before the race.  I decided however, to leave it on the car.

An announcement was made that the race start was to be delayed by at least 30mins due to the accident on the highway.  Potentially a problem as I only had pretty much the amount of fluid I thought I'd need before and during the race.  My plan was to be well hydrated at the start of the race and go with 2 bidons on the bike and if necessary stop for one bottle at the 5 or 6 lap mark.  This was another reason I wanted to race the Superfly, it had 2 bottle cages where my Ti Inbred had only 1...even though it would turn out I would notice pre-race that one of the mounting bolts was loose, and I used duct tape to make sure the cage would not come loose.

Race start finally came around, and it was wave starts with Elites off first, then Open and then single speed.  Including the SS girls, there were nearly 20 riders, a sizeable field.  I started on the 2nd row, but with the first row being about 7 or 8 riders wide, I found myself around 10th after getting through the start/finish chute and on to the fire trail.  I settled in behind FTR riders(Tim and Isaac), who were going just fast enough to make passing difficult.  On the first bumpy descent, I lost both of my drink bottles as they bounced out of the cages(Oh the irony).  I decide to push on and hopefully pick them up on the 2nd lap. With the tallish gear I was running, I managed to get past on the flatter fire trail.  Memories came flooding back of the circuit last year all muddy.  It was so much fun in the dry.  I started to catch and pass the open riders who had set off ahead of us.

When I got back to transition, I had to stop and get my one and only spare bottle, and got passed by Tim and Isaac.  I sat just behind them again so that I could get my dropped bottles which were still lying in the middle of the track.  With only one cage available, I drank as much of the 3rd bottle as I could and threw it off to the side of the track.  I eventually caught up to Tim and Isaac and rode with them for a while.  Then again  1 bottle bounced out of its cage!  This was somewhat bewildering as I have done many hundreds of ks with these cages and bottles and never had this kind of issue.  In lap 3 I was able to run my own pace and hit the climbs fast. On one of the descents nearly halfway round the track I hear a crack and the saddle disappeared beneath me.  I figured the stand-in saddle had suffered a broke rail like its predecessor, but when I looked down the seatpost is gone.  I rode on, trying to decide what to do.  Riding with no seat is way tougher than I thought, especially on flat ground with the low gearing of SS.  I decided that I would probably hurt myself if I pushed on in the single track without a saddle and turned around.  There was still a substantial amount of single track before the I got back to the start/finish, but I still make OK time and even found my lost bottle.  On the way back I changed my mind on pulling out of the race and got my spare bike and turned a disastrous race in to a fun training session on a fun track that I can't ride at any other time.

When I got back to my gear, I couldn't find the car keys only to discover I had them in my pocket.  I eventually changed bikes.  I stupidly decided to reset my bike computer, and headed back out on track.  The Ti On*One rides beautifully as always.  I found the bottle that I threw beside the track and stopped to pick it up.  With no spare cages I had to carry it in my pocket.  The rest of the race was fairly uneventful except that I was never really sure what lap I was on.  I also had to stop to fix my down tube mounted pump that had come loose and started rubbing on my crank.  I also had to stop on the last lap to re-mount my chain which was derailed by a stick when I passed a rider by going a bit off track.

In the end I did 7(+3/4) laps in 2:52 and finish well down in my category.   Its funny how the short races seem to be the most exciting and have the most drama.  As always, the event was well run, and it was a an awesome track in the dry, and no bike clean-up afterwards is always a good thing. Hat off to all the DirtMasters and DirtMistresses on a tough weekend.

2012 Super Series Race 2 - 4hrs of Mud(just for something different)

This must be first lap because I am so clean.

Race 2 of the Tailwind Promotions Super was to be my first race in the series this year after missing race 1 for a number of reasons.  The outlook for the race was good.  There had been some light rain during the week, but nothing to worry about.  Having ridden LunarC 8hr only a few weeks before using many of the same tracks, I figured that I would go with the same gearing, and basically the same bike setup in general.

My wife, Ali and friends were racing in various teams, and we went out on Saturday afternoon to get a good spot in transition.  Ali went out for a test ride and found that the track was bone dry other than a few puddles. Excellent news.   I knew it rained over night, but still expected the track to be OK and stuck with my Gary Fisher Superfly SS.


At race start, I lined up 15 or so riders back.  There was only about 30m or so of wide trail before a massive bottle neck as it went to single trail.  I managed to merge in with fellow single speeders Nick and Peter, but I knew "Matt Dog" was ahead somewhere.  The first part of the lap was the same as the 6hr last year, and while it was a bit wet, it was OK until the first climb.  It was at this point I realised my rear tyre choice(Maxxis Crossmark) was not the best and combined with my tallish gearing resulted in wheel spin.

I managed to get ahead of Nick and Peter somewhere early in the lap and caught Matt about midway.  The crossover point was a bit confusing, and I think in wee hours of a 24hr race might cause problems.  The descent through the new single track (which was unrideable uphill at LunarC) was very technical, but fun.  I pushed on the fire trail and had a small gap when a poorly marked turn had me go the wrong way for a few seconds.  Second lap Matt came back past me up the first hill running where I initially tried to ride but got too much wheel spin and had to walk too.  I sat behind Matt, but had a shocking series of corners where I got wheel slip on some roots then had to give track to some geared bikes which then held me up, and I didn't see him again.

It started to rain and some parts of the track became very tacky.  The new single track was particularly so with the top layer coming up and turning tyres in to slicks.  Steering was incredibly unpredictable and I drifted off into the trees a couple of times.

At some point Peter caught me back up on the first mud climb as I walked and he rode.  He got away from me for a while, but I pushed to catch up and followed him until he got a puncture.  With my bike sliding all over the place, I managed to break the rail on my seat when I went in to a G-Out awkwardly.  It didn't really slow me down too much, but was thankful that this happened on the lap that the single track was closed, and when I got back to transition I changed to my On-One Inbred Ti.   Which cost a few minutes changing over race number etc.  Mostly it turned out to be a good thing because I had lower gearing and Maxxis Ignitor rear and was able to ride parts of the track I could not previously.  The mud clearance on the front was not great though, and I had to stop on some laps to scrap mud away.

As the track dried it became a lot faster and more fun, and I realised with a lap to go that I was going to be close to squeezing in an extra lap and pushed hard.  By my clock(which I started on the gun), I crossed the line with just over 10s to spare(results have me in with 20s to spare) and expected to head out for 1 more lap, but was told the course was closed.  I was bummed to say the least, as I felt that I was starting to feel quite strong punching out a sub 28min final lap.

In the end I managed 8 laps, 62k and 2nd in SS and 10th solo(if I read the results correctly). Congrats to Matt and Nick, tough luck to Peter(punctures suck).  I always wish these races were a bit longer.  I just can't seem to pull these short races together and seem to be coming on strong as the race ends.  Well, maybe next time.  Good result nonetheless, and had fun, catching up with heaps of riders and it was not nearly as lonely a race as LunarC.



Thanks to helpers, Darien, Caeli, Flynn, Ben, Lee, Andi and Ali.  Also props to Shannon Duggan and his daughter who rode for 2.5 hours on a tandem bike, you guys looked like you were working hard, but having fun.





View full results here

Picture credits go to Alan Uthmann(heaps of great shots here), Imagewerks, Tailwind and Riley Taylor

8hrs of LunarC III

Time again for what has been 1st race of the season for me for the last 3 years, LunarC 8hr.  The unique thing about this race is that it starts at Midnight.  Perfect for its scheduled time of late summer.  This years event was scheduled for 24th/25th of February but was cancelled due to high rainfall.  The race was eventually held on 30th/31st of March after a week of almost perfect weather.  With the rescheduled dates, it was almost 5 months since my last MTB race.

This was my 3rd LunarC event, with the first one in 2010 at Slickers my first ever Single Speed event, and I was entered in the SS category again.  Last year's event was moved to Murrenbong and great for me and I loved the track.  This year was a slightly modified version of last years track, so I decided to go with similar gearing of 34/20 on my Superfly SS.  With my back up On-One Inbred setup with lower gearing of 33/21.

This year I decided not to get to the event too early' learning from the last 2 years that midnight seems to take a long time to roll around.  Leaving home, I was not very keen at all to go race, and wondered why I do these enduro events.  I got to Murrenbong about 8:30, and the dirt road in to HQ was like a little adventure in itself, but I eventually dropped off my gear at the gear drop and parked the car.  I'd also learnt from last years event to pack light, and this year all I had was my food, a box of tricks and my bikes and no Gazebo.  At sign in, the SS entry list looked pretty slim and as it turned out of that list a number had changed to teams or age group category, leaving only 5 riders in SS make category.  By about 9:15 I'd found a place to set up.  I made my way around the transition area catching up with everyone I've come to know over the last couple of years racing.

Race briefing rolled around and we were told to line up with solo riders on the left and team riders to the right.  Cue, dramatic music as a devil masked character rolled down the hill with a burning torch befitting the Darkside LunarC theme.  The race eventually started and with a slight uphill, it suits strong SS riders, because the fast geared bike get out of the way leaving a bit of space when we get to single track.  I knew most of the track from last year, then we hit the new stuff, which was too steep for me to ride, even on lap 1....I knew I was up for a looong night.  I briefly considered changing to my spare bike with lower gearing, but think I may even have struggle to ride it on a geared bike, so slightly lower gearing would not have helped.  The course as a whole was in great shape, but was muddier in placed than I would have expected. Most notably in 2 spots.  One, a soft muddy climb that deteriorated through out the night so that I sunk deeper and deeper each lap and it just sapped the energy.  The second was first grassy climb under the power lines which last year was my favourite climb, but this year was a wheel spinning affair that actually found me heading in the grass to get traction.

In some ways the first 3 hours of the race were the hardest.  I hated not being able to ride the whole track, I had some knee pain and I realised my pre-race meal which included some beautiful salmon was not ideal.  Once my stomach got settled again and the pain in my knee went away, I got in to a nice rhythm and the laps just kept on ticking over.  I even knew when was the best place to unclip on the bit I had to walk, when to get back on the bike.  All in all I had quite an uneventful race, I had one soft fall at the top of the afore mentioned soft muddy climb when my mud clogged tyre slipped on a diagonal log. I almost had an OTB in a muddy G-out that had developed a deep groove that gobbled the front tyre.  I had a couple of closed calls when slower riders in front had moments in various tricky parts, but I managed to sneak past.  I had to stop and tighten my rear quick release at about the 6hr mark.  Through out the race, I had no idea where I was, I didn't see many SS riders or anyone really, so it really was a matter of ride for 8 hours and see where I was.  I finished the race in 8hr16mins and according to my GPS I was only stopped for 3mins.  I really think these 8 and 12 hour races are the right length for me.  My last lap was only 30s slower than my first and fastest lap.  That was partly due to me pushing hard and the fact that it was day light and the track was much clearer than on all other laps.  When I check the result listing at the end of the race I still had no idea where I had finished, because the results were from 6am(This was my only complaint of the whole event, I'm not sure what has happened to the electronic timing that I2A usually have), and riders I expected to see were not even listed.  So I was not sure of the final result until the presentations.  In the end I managed 14laps(117K) which was enough for 1st in SS and 2nd overall, and according to posted results, only 1m28s down on first over all.

All in all passing was not a problem and the track is quite good because there are regular fire trail sections that allow for passing.  The track was definitely tougher and therefore slower than last year, I did 2 less laps, mainly due to amount I had to walk.

Thanks again In2Adventure, the Marshals, to everyone that rocked up to support, to all the riders first timers and veterans alike.

My Superfly SS was flawless and AyUps lights were fantastic as always.

Detailed results here.


Hopefully I'll get some pics to post soon.

Everyone Wanted a Dry Race...

..and that is exactly what we got, a dry hot race.  After last years Karingal Mudfest, and a number of other muddy events at Karingal, I was looking forward to hitting this awesome track in dry conditions.  Looking at the weather forecast, it was destined to be the warmest ride I'd done this year.  Just before race start, there was some cloud cover that looked promising to keep things a little cooler than they may have been, in fact, I was kind of hoping for a little shower or two.

The Karingal 4hr is run by the Southside Rats MTB Club, and is a great event and I was entered in the Single Speed category.  There was an alternate fire road start in order to allow the riders to get sorted before the single track.  I did not get as far to the front as I would have liked, and had to pretty much track stand at one point due to congestion.  Part way through the lap, putting the power down to get past some slower rides, I had my chain jump off in what seems to have become standard fare for me on first laps.  My legs were feeling a little heavy, after having done a road crit on Saturday and as usual doing way too much work.

On the second lap, we hit some sections of trail for the first time, with a couple of interesting features.  A little bridge which we hit an angle, followed immediately by a pinch climb, followed shortly there after with a little G-Out that was just horrible if you hit it hard.

Not being able to remember what gearing I had run last year, I settled on 34/20. I think with fresh legs, this might have been the ideal gearing...maybe it still was, as I did not have to walk any sections, and there were some flat bits that still caused me to run out of legs.  I was also running my Gary Fisher Superfly (which is designed for the much hyped G2 fork), with standard forks.  It was handling beautifully, and confirms my suspicion that the whole G2 thing is marketing BS.

One minor annoyance was that my race number kept curling backward, and I had to try push my number forward so the marshals could  read my number, and even then I had to call it out.  By mid race it was getting hot, but I felt like I was keeping up the fluids, and getting the food in.  On about lap 4 I heard that I was in 3rd, but it was not like I could push any harder. The bike was going great, apart from the horrible creaks coming from the crank/BB area, but that was nothing new.  But then I dropped the chain again twice with 2 laps to go, and stopped to retention the chain.

I went through to start my last lap with 24mins left on the clock.  I had that burst of energy you get from knowing it is the last lap.  About 1/3 of the way around, my crank stops spinning, and I look down to see my chain ring all bent and twisted. I pushed the bike up the hills and rolled down the hills, but the chain was rubbing on the tyre or banging on the frame, so I stopped to remove the chain.  This was much better, but due to the bent chain ring I could not position my pedals in the best position for cornering.  With no idea of how close the riders behind were, I hustled as best I could, but MTB shoes are not meant for running, and there are some flatish bits that fast riding that were really slow on foot. By this stage in the race, the track was quite empty, but I still had to keep getting off the track to let riders through.

I was passed by at least one SS rider and  assumed I had dropped at least one spot.  I was so glad to see the finish line. In the end, some how I had  hung on  to 2nd  in SS(by about 15 mins), but dropped a lot of  spots in combined solo. It looks like I was  about 8 minutes slower on the last lap. All things considered I was  happy with my ride, although a little disappointed by the dropped chains and damaged chain ring.



The race organisation was great, the volunteers were awesome and the prizes for general participation were great.  I even managed a little sympathy pack of lube, chamois cream and other stuff for my damaged bike.  This was my final MTB event for the year.  Most likely LunarC will be my first race of next year.  Hopefully by then I'll have my Superfly ready to rock and roll.

Oh so close.

The TWP Matrix 6hr Enduro at Canungra was a hot one.  After finishing 2nd at Dusk to Dawn riding SS at this track just 1 month ago I was hoping for a good result at this one.  Admittedly, 6hrs are typically a bit short for me, but I was riding geared, for only the 2nd race in over a year and hoping to get closer to the front runners.

The race was to start at 9am, which allowed me a fairly leisurely morning.  It was quite overcast and rain looked possible, but at least would keep things a bit cooler.  I arrived at Canungra about 7:30 and setup in roughly the same spot as Dusk to Dawn and just backed the car up to the race track and opened the rear door.  It was the easiest race setup ever.  It turned out that I had setup next to "Zepinator" and "Squirrel", so I had someone to chat to once I finished bike setup.  I was to ride my On One Inbred titanium 29er which was setup geared, but had my Gary Fisher Superfly SS as a spare.

Race start was right next to my pit area, and I lined up in the 2nd row behind really fast guys. There was an extended section of track for the first lap only to prevent a bottle neck at the single track entry that occurred at the 12hr.  By the time the race started, the front row was about 15 riders wide, so by the time everyone got in line at race start, I was deep in the pack.  I lost sight of the Andy Mallet who I expected to be somewhere on the podium.  The only issue I had on the first lap was bouncing my chain off, causing me to loose a few spots.  The pace was quick, and I felt horrible at the end of the 1st lap, but being able to run my own pace on lap 2 I was starting to feel better.

Again the shortness of the laps at this venue starts to weigh on you when look at the time on your 4th lap and see that it is less than 1.5 hours.  It was at the end of the 4th lap that I my front tyre burst off with an loud bang.  There was still heaps of sealant in the tyre, so I tried to re-inflate it with a CO2 Canister.  That didn't work, so I put in a tube and struggled to get it to correct pressure because I my hands were slippery with sealant.  Being so close to the pit I decided to go with the pressure I had and use my track pump.  Once I got rolling, I realised the wheel was buckled, which may have caused the tyre to blow.  I got back to the pit and snails pace, and with the buckled wheel, I decided to swap the front wheel from the Superfly(which was sporting one of my favourite tyres - Kenda Small Block 8).  All in all I the whole tyre problem cost me just over 20 mins, and while I was changing wheels, I saw the race leaders fly past.

It was starting to warm up, but I managed to unlap myself after a couple of laps and I was feeling a bit more positive.  I seemed to be pass 1 million riders per lap, but it takes some extra effort for each person you have to pass off the racing line.  The track was getting loose in a number of sandy descents and full attention was required.  On one lap I forgot I was on the big ring at the front, and changed all the way the big ring at the back which causes the drive train to lock up.  Another minute lost while I released it.  Through out the race I had a number of mechanicals.  Twice I had to stop to realign my rear wheel, once to fix the quick release on my front wheel and once for the dropped chain.  Nearly every time I had to stop for a mechanical I was re-passed by 3 or so riders I'd just passed, usually in placed that it was difficult for me to pass them back.

With about 3 laps to go Andy Mallet caught me again, and I followed  him for 2 full laps.  The 2nd last lap was probably the hardes, and I was really feeling the heat and was probably under hydrated.  I downed a gel, and that seemed to do the job.  On the start of the last lap "Zepinator" told me I was down 4 or 5 mins on 3rd.  I couldn't really respond to this information, and basically that's how things finished.  I was 4th Solo and only about a lap and 10mins down on 1st and 6mins down on 3rd.

In the end I did 87k with over 2000m climbing.  Again the track was fun, but too short.  My next MTB event will probably be the Karingal 4hr which has a SS category :)





Photos courtesy of Michael Phipps

Sleep is for...

I've done every Dusk to Dawn since 2008. With the first one at Kooralbyn my first ever night race as part of a 2 person team. There is just something about night riding that I love. It forces you to focus and really look to where you are riding, especially in corners. My lead in to this event was mainly on the road bike, with only a couple of MTB rides since the Epic with practically zero night riding.  Despite this, on top of  last years unexpected success, I went in to this years event with some expectation and a full 3 x 9 geared bike (compared to 1x9 setup last year).    My other secret weapon this year would be support in the form of Andy.


The good thing about a race that starts at 7pm, is that you get the morning to take your time packing. I started by getting my On One Inbred 29er ready by checking the tyre sealant, cleaning and lubing the chain.  I also prepared my Superfly SS as a spare bike or just in case I felt the urge to do some single speeding for kicks.  I got the rest of the car packed and despite some reptile distractions, and were ready to go about 1:30pm.  We arrived at Canungra just after 3pm to a nearly empty camping/transition area.  The timing area was somewhat different from previous events, which caused us some confusion in trying to select a spot to setup camp.  We found a spot right on the race track about 500m past the finish line which turned out to be a great spot.

With camp setup and registration done and bike setup, I went for a walk to say "Hi" to a few friends.   I stopped to talk to Matt Dog and saw he was running single speed and after some talk, Matt suggest since there were 3 single speeders plus me we could see if TWP would create a single speed category. Not quite sure if I really wanted to, but always up for a challenge, we spoke to Libby and 'Hey Presto" there was a single speed category at D2D.  Libby did say there would be no prizes.  Cool I don't do it for the prizes...they're nice, but not the reason to race.

I got about changing over my race number and front wheel from my geared bike to my SS and I wasn't sure if I'd done the right thing by changing to the SS category.  I really haven't ridden much SS since the 8hr in June. Fortunately I put on some nice low gearing 34/22 when I prepared my bikes, which turned out to be about perfect.

I've attended most events at Canungra and seen it develop race after race.  Apparently TWP had made some recent changes adding some new trails and making some changes to the iconic switchbacks.  I was a little concerned that they may have dumbed them down ...I needn't have been.  Relaxing in our camp, I heard a few riders coming back from test laps raving about the new single track and how most of the grass sections had been removed. I went out for a test ride and while I'd been cold minutes before, I quickly warmed up on the new pinch climbs.  All felt good, except that some of the new track was still quite loose and my Maxxis Crossmark was not the best tyre.  I considered changing to a Ignitor like I had on my geared bike, but that seemed like too much trouble and hoped that what I lost on loose stuff, I'd make up on the hard pack.

Night time eventually came and it time to roll.  Starting towards the front with Sean Bekers, Dog and Al, we were off.  I pushed fairly hard and settled in to about 10th and watched the geared bike disappear in the AyUp dust trails.  I was a few spots be Matt for a while and then he too disappeared in the distance. The new sections were run, but a little raw and in a few spots traction was nearly non existent.  The first 3 laps felt terrible, and I was cursing my decision to ride SS.  On lap 4 I caught Dog and settled in behind him assess how I was feeling.  I followed Matt for the remainder of the lap,  'chatting' as best one can, and Matt didn't seem too happy, mainly I don't think he was enjoying the short laps.  When a lap takes less than half an hour, you do suffer from a bad case of 'Deja Vu"..I was feeling it too.  In any case Matt pulled over at the end of the lap, and think that was it for him.  It was about lap 10 when Andy told me that I had some time on Josh and that Matt had probably packed it in.  That took the pressure off a little, but really I had the goal of riding 150k and riding for 12hrs, which meant there was about 9hrs to go, but I was starting to feel good in the legs.  The contact points on the other hand were starting to suffer.


I had an interesting lap when I caught Josh. Firstly I went OTB on a little tree stump that I've never seen before in the 50+ laps I've done over the years.  Then having got past him, I suffered a case of "target fixation"  and drifted off in to ditch. Josh stopped to get the bike off me and decide to let things settle for a bit a just settle in behind him. Then towards the end of the lap, I tried a different line in a series of corners  I was struggling with only to clip a pedal or something and go sliding across the dirt.  That was the most eventful lap of the race. There were a couple of laps where I saw snakes, and couple of Brush Tailed Possums, a blue legged frog and a Bandicoot.

About 2:30 there was a shower of rain, which turned the top layer of dust in to sticky mud that instantly fill the tyre tread, making them slick.  Where I had little traction before, I had none.  The rain continued for a lap or two, so that on some of the older track there were little rivers running down the trail.  A couple of laps after the rain stopped, the standing water soaked in and the loose areas bedded down, making the track awesome.  The Kookaburras started laughing about 4:30 and the sky started to lighten just after 5am.  The morning laps are always awesome as the end approaches and the track starts to fill with riders again.  Andy told me I had first in SS secured, but I was also interested in overall position solo.  I was sitting in second behind enduro legend Clint Pierce. In the end, I crossed the line in 12hrs9mins, 23 Laps, 145k, 3662m of climbing.  1st place in SS, 2nd Solo and 10th overall(including teams).

The only disappointment in the whole thing was the way they treated the SS category as a "social" category, actually worse. It was the only category that wasn't called to the podium, but just read out names.  I can assure everyone that SS is as completive as any other, and to be honest had more entries than some that got prizes...and for once the prizes looked pretty good.

Big thanks to Andy for the support.  It can't be understated the extra something that having dedicated support makes.

Photos courtesy of Michael Phipps Outdoor Images

My 1st Epic

While this was a totally different format to previous Epics, it was a course deserving the name Epic.  This was both my first Epic, and my first race that wasn't doing multiple laps on the same course.  I was entered in the 75k version, the longest of various races over the weekend, and after much deliberation I decided not to race single speed for the first time in about a year.  The race started and finished at Spices Old Hidden Vale with some serious climbs, some flat bitumen sections and some fantastic single track.  With $5000 up for grabs, the starters list saw a number of high profile racers lining up with 1100 or so riders across the weekend.  The race was started in waves based on expected ride time. I figured I could get the 75k done in 5hrs which meant I was in the last group along with the elites.

I started mid pack and the elites at the front got away at a smashing pace. The rest of us were still riding pretty hard along the dirt road. I was feeling OK as the pace started to settle and we hit the grassy and bumpy double track climb, and we had already started to catch the wave that had left 15mins before us. So far the gears were working for me, but on the first of the bumpy descents my chain dropped off on the inside.  I managed to recover it without stopping, but some time on the next descent, I thought I had dropped the chain again.  I tried to recover it in the same manner, and when I couldn't I realise that I had lost my chain altogether.  Most likely 1 of the speed links had come undone.  I walked the up hills, "scootered" the flats and rolled the downhills wondering how I was going to get back to the car.  Fortunately we exited the bush on to a road section where one of the SES volunteers was stationed to control traffic.  At this point I thought my race was over and asked the SES volunteer how to get back.  There was also another rider waiting with his rear derailleur snapped.  He saw my predicament and started to fiddle with his chain.  I asked if he had a quick link on his chain and he said he did, but he couldn't get it to release, but if I could get it off I could use his chain. I borrowed a leatherman with pliers from the SES and put the chain on my bike and I was off.  Thanks Andrew(#221).

I'd barely travelled 20m and there was "Hubcap" repairing a flat.  He needed a pump to put a bit more air in his tyre as the CO2 canister just didn't quite do it.  I stopped to lend a hand.  We had no end of problems with getting air in to the tyre, but eventually we were off.  Hubcap got a head start(cursing all the way;) while I put the pump back on my bike, and he took some catching. We rode together for nearly 20km and worked the bitumen like the pros on TV :)  Then the MASSIVE climbs started.  This is where we really started to catch big bunches of riders.  The descents were almost as demanding as the ups, and my brakes were squealing horrendously, which actually worked quite well to let people know I was coming through.  At some point I managed to get a stick through my wheel, bringing me to a quick stop, but thankfully not doing any damage.

At some point I lost my bottle with my electrolyte mix.  This left me with just 2l of water, and I was a little concerned how I was going to manage the rest of the race.  At least it wasn't too hot, and I did have some  gels to help with electrolytes.

I caught a bunch of about 20 or 30 riders in the single track at about the 40k mark and there was a lot of stop/start riding/walking with a lot of riders hopping off on anything that looked slightly technical.  This section of track should have been fairly fast and not that much of a challenge.  The second bit of outback single trail was much more fun as I hit that pretty much solo.

With about 25k to go I came across "Matt Dog" repairing his 5th flat and showing the signs of having been down hard.  I lent him a tube and suggested that I ride the rest of the race with him, and I knew he'd do it for others. Back on the bike I let Matt set the pace since he was riding single speed rigid.  He was moving OK but I heard the odd comment on the real bumpy stuff due to his wrist.  Back to OHV proper we hit Rock Bottom and Escalator, trails I have ridden so many times in the last year.  Then it was Snake and the resurrected Gully trails for an awesome way to finish an epic ride.  With the finish in sight, Matt urged me to power on, which I did with a heap of energy left. Even with the various stops, I finished under 5hrs and wonder what might have been.

Thanks Tailwind for another great event and to all the volunteers for making these events possible. To top it off, the boys up front managed a dead heat for 1st.