24 hrs of N-Duro

Woulda-Shoulda-Coulda

Its been 4yrs since the last 24hrs of N-duro, 2009 there was 6 females on the line, but really only two contenders, while Jude did her best and finished  third, but back then Jude was far from where  she is today, things  that I considered simple were tripping Jude up, she was far from cleaning the course.

On Saturday 6 ladies lined up and IMHO 2 maybe 3 in with  a definite chance of the win and any of the 6 had chance of a podium,  the men’s field was a bit unknown with only Thomas Lindup  with any history  I was aware of in 24hr racing, so it was really his to lose.....Could the young Ryan  Hunt give him a hurry up ?

Back up a Week:-

Waiting for components to arrive so we could build Jude’s race bike, it didn’t help ordering  some wrong parts, Tuesday night Jude finally got to do a carpark  test on it, Wednesday it got loaded into the van ready to leave Thursday Morning. The trip was pretty uneventful, arriving at the forest to drying trails,

Jude took the race bike out for its first off road ride, luckily for me it went ok. On Friday I woke early to see a red sky dawning, not a good sign but I took advantage of it and headed  down to the local Golf Course with my camera and got (IMHO) some pretty cool pics

Later that morning we rode a full lap all of the single track on the course with Jude happily riding the whole course, this didn’t really take the pressure off me, I was churning inside, while Helen and I have supported Jude before, we haven’t actually got it right and last time I supported  Jude alone, I also got it wrong. I really didn’t want this one to go wrong at our end,  Jude and I had redesigned the laptop programme after its flaws of the previous version  but it was still untested, but what Charlotte had shown us at the Scott last year a paper backup worked well,  

For Jude we need to make sure we are giving the correct amount of food and fluids to keep her ticking correctly for the whole 24hrs,  when we get it right as at the Scott Jude’s lap times are not much different at the end from the start.......the pressure was on

We had put up our ezi-ups on Friday arvo so we had a good spot in Solo alley. Friday night it rained and rained hard, by the time we headed down to the venue Saturday morning the rain had stopped but it was forecast to come back around Mid-night, just before noon the small field lined up for the start. Jude was pleased with no le Mans start, the early laps went ok for Jude, swapping places with Charlotte who was having a crack at single speeding the 24hr.

Thomas was smashing out laps like any good team rider, someone really needed to remind him he was a team of one! Erin Greene was  also setting a cracking pace with Megan D doing her best to hang on.  Kim Hurst was sitting third riding what seemed to be her own race, not a place we are used to seeing her, especially in the longer races she has done to date, but then this was her first crack at a 24hr

We in the tent had our side under control....or more so Helen did, we still had some hiccups with laptop programme, but with Helen running the manual system and the lappy running a lot better than it had in the past for me, we had a good grasp on Jude’s food situ.

With it being an overcast day we put the lights on early, also with the long laps we didn’t want Jude to get caught out in the dark parts of the forest. Then at about 9pm the heavens opened, the next lap Jude came in asked if it was ok to walk lots..... what could I say...what she does out on the track is up to her....she came in the end of the next lap for a battery change and some mash, a lot more upbeat as she had ridden everything that had worried her the lap before, I also sent her out on her spare bike as I had decided a bigger front tyre might help on the race bike

A lap later she came in and said it was getting dangerous out there with branches & debris falling onto the trails, she said she had crashed twice and her confidence was taking a hit and really didn’t see the point of continuing, (bear in mind Jude hadn’t done a dry multi lap (including about  9 x  4, 5, 6, 12, 24hr) event since 2010

At  this point about 1am  I agreed,  I couldn’t see any point in continuing to race in such atrocious weather after Jude had done how many laps/hours knee deep in mud destroying gear, Not long after that Erin came in also complaining about the debris and mini slips, Jen Reilly also pulled the pin at about 1:30am

About 3am I had noticed Megan was taking a really long stop and had trouble going out again, I guess the wheels had fallen off her  bid for the win, also both Thomas’s bikes were parked up,
I  guess it was taking its toll

Figuring that when daylight arrived the rain should have stopped and Jude could go out again. She was grabbing some kip in the van, I woke her up just as it was dawning about 6am, telling her it was time to get some food in as it had stopped raining,  

Just as she was about to put her riding kit on it chucked it down again well that put an end to that.

So I grabbed the bacon and eggs headed over to the BBQ and cooked up some breakfast. I also txt’d Dean to find out if he was bringing his bike down, the answer was yes. When he arrived I kitted up and headed out with him to see how much damage the overnight rain had done?

But at the end of the first lap, the lack of sleep and 14 hrs of standing showed in my calves as they tried to cramp.  A couple of magnesium tablets and we were off or the second loop, although the track had stood up well to the rain, we could see where at 1 in the morning and pouring with rain it would have been very easy to put it on the ground, some of the downs had got very rutted, corners at the bottoms had got poggy, some of the bigger roots had got more exposed, and defiantly more debris laying on the trails

Over the next few days both Jude and I did some soul searching and questioned what we had done? As I have said in the past and will say it again, solo racing is team racing at its best, and at the end of the day I blame myself for this result, while we learned a lot, and as Jude said you can learn more from a failure the from a perfect result,  I took the easy option, I didn’t read the situation correctly, never even bothered to consider the options, letting Jude stop at the time was easy........Sorry but in the days after it wasn’t. Jude doesn’t put in hours of training ,spend large amounts of coin keeping her bikes in top condition, we don’t travel to events early to dial the course’s, the list goes on....Just to give up

At prize giving there were plenty of prizes,  even the support crews got called up, I scored a  free entry for next year....we’re going to be back   (in summer I hope)

And there ain’t going to be any "woulda-shoulda-coulda" only “Done!”

Scott 24hr Canberra Australia

This event starts long before the others do, while Jude sorts out the flights, accommodation,  rental car etc, I still have to do my part including cleaning bikes, after Gav has done the final check on the race bike, 3 bikes have to be packed in to bags and boxes, along with tools, clothes, race food etc, Now to keep baggage to a minimum all 4 bags have to be under 23kgs, we do have a little bit of extra with carry on, but still its no easy feat…..

We flew out on the 1^st flight Tues morning so it out of bed at 3am or 1am Aussie time, Caught a bit of kip on the plane, Customs at the other end was all good, having clean shiny wheels and soles of bike shoes helps with this.

 

Sydney to Canberra is almost 300km of 4 laned highway with a speed limit of 110km

It passed by pretty quickly, (this is the southbound lanes the northbound lanes are way over to right somewhere)

 Our rental car for the week was Kia Carnival, actually“Grand Carnival” no less!

 Was this a sign of the week to come?

 at the motorcamp where we had a cabin booked (behind the fugly mobile), I built my bike and Jude’s training bike up and we headed out to Stromlo Forest Park to check out the red lap…..

I just love the descent back down of the mountain on the red lap….

It was super dusty, but nice to be riding in short sleeve shirts

The tent village was also already being set up, we are somewhere in the middle of that lot.

Day 2 Wednesday, Time to check out the blue lap, this lap seemed to take for ever, it just seemed to wind and wind and wind on for ever, it also had number of tricky spots in it that would need sorting out, finally we arrived back at the field where all the Roos were

The blue lap while it didn’t climb as high as the red, I’m fairly sure it had more climbing in it as it undulated the whole way around and the trail seemed a lot narrower than the red lap, it was also 2km’s longer at 14km, so there was 26km of track in total to sort, lucky most of the red lap used the same trails as the worlds 2yrs ago.

Day 3 Thursday. Charlotte arrived, and it was raining but we headed out for another blue lap. We found was the rocks were still very grippy…good thing or so we thought

Day 4 Friday..last day before race day. We did  2/3’s of the blue lap with Jude, it had cleared up today which showed up another issue, the rocks that where clean and grippy yesterday where now covered in a fine layer of grit making them very slippery. Being the last dial in day we didn’t want to spend a long time out there tiring out Jude’s legs so she was going to have wing it from here on out,

Probably gained about 15m in height here,  the rocks where very stally

Day 5 Saturday, 1^st half of race day.  We woke up to a nice fine day, but the forecasts were for evening showers, while Charlotte opted to ride down to the venue Jude and I drove down. Like worlds 2yrs ago we had to park about 1km away from our tent. They had said they would put a shuttle on for the gear but it was nowhere to be seen, I had kind of suspected this, so had loaded most of the stuff we need into two big bags, I slung one across the top tube, I couldn’t get my feet to the pedals, so it was seat down and roll…..lucky it was down hill, while Charlotte managed the other one.

12noon race start, Lucky for Jude it was a rolling start, with there being some 120 odd solos and 340 odd teams, they split the start with aprox half on the blue and half on the red lap, with team starting with a lemans start 5mins after the solos but race timing didn’t start till the first rider was on a bike……..

We were expecting Jude to do the Red lap in about an 1hr, she arrived back at the tent in about 54mins so things were on target, the blue lap we estimated it was going to be about 1:20 1-30, but cracked the first lap out in 1:08 sweet……

As I have said in the past in 24hr racing anything can happen…..

Our the first problem, Jude’s drink/food tasted off , but it was a brand new tub, check water, yep that’s ok, check bottle, no it seems fine, both Charlotte and I think Perp tastes like crap at the best of times so how can we judge if its off or not? Hmmm….

Compared it to the other new tub and yer it tasted different, ok so it the powder, next problem, 1 tub won’t last the full event, so it off to town so find some more. Lucky we had called into the Speshy shop earlier in the week and spotted Hammer products there, but they only had a small tub of  “Caffe”, what other flavour to grab orange/vanilla, strawberry/vanilla? Basically it was “Eenie Meenie Minie Mo”, the orange won…its either that or the manky stuff at the end of the day…(and stuff I brought was the ‘Oz’ blends which tastes different to USA blends we have here…just to add to the dilemma)

The next few laps went with out issue, the rain arrived just before dusk,

 and if nothing else it meant we got an awesome sunset.

Day 6, Sunday, 2^nd half of race day. Just after midnight Jude came in saying her rear tyre had gone flat and she had to pit stop it back up, and she had had a heavy crash, hurting her ribs. We sent her out on her spare bike with arriving back at the tent 20mins later with no bike (she had left it on the side of the track – unsure of the rules about leaving the track – so took the safe option) saying her helmet light has gone out, swapped to a new battery, but we were to find out about 1:40 later the head unit was packing up…a massive time loss on that lap

The follow lap she was back on her main bike, only for the rear tyre to go flat again, and another crash, ending with nasty cut on her finger. So I fired her spare bike wheel into her main bike and put the wheel of my bike into the training bike...can anything else get thrown at us?

Sunrise, not as good as sunset but still cool never the less.
in saying that, sunrise's are always good at a 24hr!

As soon as dawn arrived I sent out on her spare bike for a lap as he main bike was looking very dirty, giving me a chance to clean it and give it a once over, At the end of the lap she came in and said hope don’t have to ride that again the rear brakes not working, quick squeeze and the lever was coming right into the bars, check pads ok,

Yep pump lever a few times and came up but wouldn’t stay up, pulled the cap off the lever and pumped heaps to try and remove as much air as I could, but I think its time to give them a full service.

All night we where hearing reports from other riders the track was packing up and becoming un-rideable in places, even that they had cut one section out ‘cos it got that bad

I don’t believe this happened, wishful thinking on someone’s behalf.

Once full daylight had arrived Judes lap times had dropped down to around the time we were expecting at the start of the event, this is a good sign and probably the first time this had happened, normally the night takes so much out of her she has nothing left to pick up the pace again in the daylight. It also meant we may have been getting something right in the tent…food levels correct.

The 21hr mark Just when we think we are home and free, 3^rd place has woken up and pulling Jude in fast, now the rules they work a little different to home.

You must finish your last lap after 23hrs and before 25hrs
You can not start your last lap after 24hrs.......confused yep the kiwi way is easier

At this point 3^rd was about ¾ of a lap down on Jude, and what we had to work out was at what point could Jude stop? She finished her 2^nd to last lap at aprrox 23:35 now if third finshed her 2^nd to last lap before the 24hr mark and could get another lap in before the 25hr mark she would pass Jude…….you try and work this out on very little to no sleep

We played it safe and against Jude’s wishes sent her out again, but as it turned out 3^rd finished her last lap just after the 24hr mark…oh well

We did it and a big thanks goes to Charlotte

It was a hard earned 2^nd place, I guess-ti-mate Jude probably lost about 1hr -1:10 with her light and tyre issues, Not enough to change the result but it may have given 1^st something to think about,  again we learned a lot……..wonder what the next one will throw at us ?

We-ow the event Mascot

About 8 am on Facebook I wrote:
 

Still in second but needs to keep moving if she going to maintain it
At the last stop she made a comment she never felt so broken, has nasty gash on one finger. She had couple of big spill last night....but spirits still seem to be ok....
Its been a tough race for her....."smashed" I think is the word


The first reply back was

smashed is exactly how she should feel. tell her that means she is putting in big time. keep smashing!!!!!!!!! 4 hrs is nothing!

Thanks Jess

2012 Jamis Day Night Thriller taupo

After 7 Jamis Day Night Thrillers  you’d think by now it would be a case of turn up, put  ezi-ups, hand a out a few bottles, put some lights on, yell at a few peeps, pack up, head home......well you would be wrong and that is what is so great about 12/24hr racing ,so much can happen 

The 2012 version didn’t let the side down, this was the second year I have had to look after Jude alone, yes I have had others in the Tent, doing duos and supporting solos, I have not had a co-dedicated support person, prior to that I have been in charge of the bike , food has been some else’s job, (they way it should be), in the early years  I was even able to race for a team, but not any more and I wouldn’t have it other way. To be able to support someone who gives it every thing is just the greatest.

Friday:  roll out of home 9am and headed north, with a cruisey  trip we arrived at the motel around 2pm then it was off the venue for  a pre ride, dialled few lines, yep the laps should be in the high 20’s (ie 28-30min), everything was looking good except for the weather forecast...”Rain Developing”, up at 7am Saturday morning to a cold very overcast day (I hadn’t slept;  the beds in the unit were the worst) down the venue to set up the Ezi-ups etc, then back to pick  Jude up just after 8am then the rest of the site set up, 10am start .....

About 25mins later the first curve ball hit, Due to the weather the organisers had decided to  cut the brand new section of the course out (too soft and most likely would have cut & pogged up real bad) the laps were going to be 20-21 mins while it stayed dry, this created something which. although small, may have been part of the big picture later in the race.   Jude runs 1 lap bottles, but because the laps were so short and our measuring system doesn’t really deal with such small amounts, what I figured out was if I was 10% /few grams out with a 20min bottle after an hour I could be 30% out, (we have now come up with 2 ways around this problem so it won’t happen again)

The next few laps went without issue, although I was hanging out for a coffee, by the time I had done my jobs in the tent ready for the next lap, I would have around 10 mins to run and get one from Ed, (hope the queue wasn’t too long) and get back and be ready for Jude’s  arrival. Done! but then lap 5 Jude comes in asking to check the front tyre pressure, yes it was down about 40%, quick inflate and off she goes again I suspect it might have been the tyre resetting  letting  a bit out, being tubeless , two laps later she comes in “can you check my rear tyre”, yep down 50%, same deal ? nope?  cause the next lap she comes in with it really flat this time, swap bikes (this includes swapping number plates as the transponder is attached to it), I fired a Geax Pit Stop into it and left it over inflated for a few minutes and large bubble of latex foam appeared on the sidewall, must have damaged it somewhere and the Stans didn’t quite fix it, oh well so next lap back onto the good bike, 

While the lap times didn’t suffer as a result it must have taken more effort to continue at the same speed. About  3:30 the first of the rain hit, the wind had got quite strong but at the point Jude  was dicing for second with Hannah Latta , and was about to lap 4^th  placed Jen Riley but the rain and the cold caught her out and she came in very cold, It’s hard enough to recover from being cold let alone possibly being down on food,  This made the next few laps pretty miserable,  and sadly lap times showed this.

With 58 mins to go I sent Jude out with Coke telling her 2 more laps, she was still doing 27min laps , unfortunately Jen rolled passed to, even though Jude gave it everything  (as she had being doing all day) for the last two laps, Jen hadn’t realise she had passed Jude and was still chasing her down hard. Jude finished her last lap with a little over 2min left on the clock, about 2mins behind Jen  

While this race for minor placings was going on Kim Hurst was once again giving 99% of the field (males included) a lesson in class endurance racing. Will be good to see her line up for 24hr. 

While the result wasn’t what we would have like and the way it looked like it might have been earlier in the day, I still feel it was Jude’s best race to date, yes we have come away going what if? So next time we will only have deal with a new set of curve balls I guess......gotta luv 12/24hr racing

Other results from our tent, Brad & Briony 3^rd 2-3 person mixed 12hr, Bex 2^nd Solo Female 6hr, Gavin 1^st Solo Male 3hr & Dean rode the best ever 12hr I have seen him do.

I’ve spent the next two days being grumpy and disappointed with myself for what in hindsight should not have happened.......but it did, we learned and now we look towards the next one

Moonride 2012

 

A couple of weeks earlier a large box of Conti tyres and Sram stuff arrived at work…

Monday Night: it was of to Gav’s to rebuild the race bike…most of the drive train had been stolen of it for the training bike, so it was to get all new kit.

 Tuesday Night: was fitting up tyres and swapping the rear cassette and chain on my bike (my wheels are Judes spares normally fitted up with muds ) and loading up the trailer

Wednesday Night: servicing, the training bike (or the spare for the weekend) new cassette, chain, brake pads, forks etc etc then loading up the van, no we don’t travel light but it is a metric shit load less gear than the first one we turned up to with!

Thursday: a casual drive up to Rotorua stopping in the Reddies for Jude to do a couple of shake down runs on the bikes…all ok, I headed into the forest latter that evening with Dean for skidz &wheelies in the pissing rain…….well actually it stopped by the time we got into the trees, good times were had.

Friday… the last minute "Stuff" and the next thing you know 3pm has rolled around. Time to head out to the venue with last minute pick ups on the way…..you know the stuff you forgot to get earlier…usual mayhem at the venue actually it seemed a bit worse as the still didn’t know the answers we had asked via email earlier..trivial stuff but still nice to know …we manage to annoy a marshal on the way to find our tent site, we were only doing as we had been told at sign in…guess it was a little different to what he had been told….I  sympathize with the poor guy and felt a bit sorry for him

It all worked out ok in the end and we found a good site not down hill from the tap where every munter decided it was a good idea to wash their bikes during the event soaking about 30meters of  up hill track

While Charlotte (my partner in crime for this 24hrs) and I set up camp, Jude and Timmy went and pre rode the track. It took them about 35mins-ish and one look at Jude's bike told me quickly it was going to be muddy at  least for the night anyway so time to swap out the tires on the race wheels as it was not raining and it seemed it prolly wouldn’t, the cup & cone XTR’s were still going to be the way to roll.

The front tyre didn’t want  play ball and was losing air after about 30mins or so it was in with some more Stans pump it up and ride it around the grass doing figure 8’s for about 15mins……hard work when you normally ride a 19” frame (Jude rides a 13”) lucky it was dark

Like always for me the start creeps up and before I know it Jude is off on her bike in that direction….First mistake I had forgotten to let the tires down…..I remembered about ½ through her second lap…So did Jude when normal first lap flurry had settled down

The first lap was about a 36min lap, I did a quick mental calc and I said to Charlotte "right we are in for about 40 laps"…….little did I know

For us the night went pretty well other than a battery failure 1.5hrs sooner than the planned stop, Jude had about a 20-25min lead at this point so it was not  worry but then after that  2^nd place started putting in a few good lap and closing the gap  to about 15mins. Time to wake Jude up but how without worrying her…..I cant remember how we did it but it worked Jude picked up her lap times

Charlotte and I took turns getting some shut-eye during the next few hours

With about 2 laps to daylight I worked out Jude was about 12mins off lapping  2^nd, lap times for everyone had blown out Jude was doing 40-45min laps the track has clearly blown out

It went through my mind how cool would it be for Jude to have lapped second place before light but quickly thought the gap was far to big….but little was I to know….the next lap Jude rolled into the tents right behind second…..who then promptly headed for the showers.

Right now it was time to keep Jude ticking along and not get complacent…..

Jude rolled into the tent about 9:55am exactly the wrong time, I gave her the option of a break now as she would end up amongst the 12/6 hr start mayhem but she opted to carry on it ended up being a long lap as muppets blasted past and promptly fell off or stopped and walked in front of her, all rhythm out the window
 

About 3pm Jude came in saying she couldn't shift gears, one look at where the rear mech was supposed to be explained why…15 second with the hose and I found it again. Blasted it out with some degreaser, applied some lube and she was on her way again.

It was about now I needed my 3^rd caffeine fix for the day and I couldn’t be bothered to make it for myself, so I wandered over to Ed’s, while he doesn’t make my Caffeinated Caramel Drink he does make something I can easily alter to my tastes..on the way back to the tent I stopped in the Jamis tents for a yak when I spotted Dean walking towards me with seemed to be a Venti sized "Good Coffee" (sorry private joke..but Dean will not drink this brand of coffee) odd I thought but then I spotted the C…  What a guy! He had brought me out a Venti Caffeinated Caramel drink……..it hit the spot perfectly, thank-you

By about 4pm 2^nd  had pick up the pace again and even though Jude had a 3 lap lead  I didn’t wont a mechanical or crash or anything stupid to cost Jude the race. I decided to ask Jude to pick it up again…but how…. As track got worse Jude was coming back to the tent with more and more left in her bottle so the stops were getting longer, I suggested it would be a good idea if she could try and finish her bottle out on the track…….

The next lap Jude caught us napping she not only had finished her bottle but rode faster too, 'Nice'. Quickly giving her a new bottle and lubing chain it was a quick stop, the next lap was lights on and by the end of that lap she was about to put another lap on second who pulled the pin with  a little under 4hours left to go. Jude said she “its rapidly becoming not fun out there with the amount of walking” (even the pro-elite’s racing in teams were running the climbs) but she headed out for another lap with the plan of doing at least 2 more but asked for a coffee at the end of this lap

When she came in she got off her bike and within a very short time she was having trouble standing and was shaking…..I immediately questioned had we under fed her? What can I do? when she looked at me and really sadly  said "can I stop now", there was still  3 hrs to go and Jude turns up to do a 24hr event, I said “If you really want to stop you can…Jim (2^nd) has already stopped and is in the showers”. Jude had a 5 lap lead which was even if  Jim went out again she would never catch up and 3^rd was some 10 laps or so behind Jim.

Personally I felt other than personal pride there was no point in grinding on any further

It was clearly not fun. I could see no good reason to push her out again, so she headed to the showers (and got a hot one) while we packed up and Timmy who had been in the forest all day turned up with pizzas for every one.

Looking at data afterwards while we were down a little bit on the food in her bottles, Jude had taken on enough other food, so that was not the problem, after talking to some other riders, reading the comments on various forums and seeing Pete Marshall's photo’s the answer quickly became apparent , basically Jude hadn’t trained for pushing her bike up tacky thick mud climbs for a distance equal to about 1.5 Marathons while competing a 24hr MTB race…..I don’t think there are any un-answered questions

Jude just pushed herself further and in a way she has never done before!

No other female turned up on the day and even came close to doing  the job Jude did……a 3hrs plus 5laps lead speaks for itself……

Something about 24hr racing…there is “Teams” and there is “Solo’s”

Teams is a bunch of individuals cutting out laps as fast as they can, while what each member does out on the track effects the overall result, it doesn’t really effect much what the others do, there is a little bit of tactics to who goes out when….

Solo racing while there are a few that do it unsupported and some do that ok, to do it well you need a good Team, and what each one of these members do directly effects the others, we mess up in the tent and it can have bad affect on Jude, Jude has a mare out on the track and we have to figure how to over come it, change plans etc etc……

24hr Solo racing is team racing at its best……..on that note I would to thank every one who helped with this result Charlotte, Gav, Tim, Dean,  oh and Jude

Next year ? who knows maybe we are still chasing that perfect moonride………


Photo Cred : Pete Marshall & Myself