Jet Black 24hr

1st 24 hr pair mens team / 2nd overall

57 laps @ 24hr:21mins

This weekend saw Ed McDonald (Maladjusted) and I pair up to race the Sydney Jet Black 24 hr.

Ed is better known for being one of the Team Beard single-speed freaks ... but he sucked it up this weekend and rode gears.

The race was held in the Del Rio resort located outside of west Sydney at Wisemans Ferry.

Our fingers were crossed for good weather - as this race had been severely affected by rain in the past two years. I think we all crossed out fingers too much - as there was not a spec of rain during the race, and instead we had a scorching day and night.

The race started at midday on Saturday, and on-track the temperature was hitting 47C! Even by 2am the temp was still over 30C. The Garmin reported an average temp over the weekend of over 34C!

Having not ridden a 24 hr as a pair before, we were not quite sure how to plan the race out. So, we decided to run 2 x laps each during the day, and then swap to 6 x lap stints through the night. This worked quite well during the first 8 hrs of daylight, as we could smash out quick double laps and then sit on a bag of ice to cool down! 

The course itself was quite short - around 9km in length and mostly fireroad. Leaving the start line the track followed the Del Rio entry rode along the river, with just a little roller. A hard left hand switch back up onto a dirt road then saw three little climbs to ascend about 100 vert m.

From the top of the fireroad, the track entered a fast little descent though some rocky and then sandy switch-backs. From there some more sandy corners, a little bridge and the track entered a couple of nice rock gardens. Although quite rideable, you needed to carry speed to get through them - and with a busy track (and tired minds) there was many little offs in this section.

Once out of the rocks, there was another small pinch, another tiny bit of single track and then back on the Del Rio road back to timing.

So, for the first 20 laps we knocked out pretty quick laps, and stayed up there with the leading 4-man team and World Solo champ Jason English.

The longer time off the bike as we entered the 6 lap stints was tough. You actually feel better when riding and still moving, then when you are sitting around waiting to ride!

It was during the night that the heat really caught up with us. With the huge amount of fluids going in, and the ambient temp still really high our stomachs really started to give in. You can see our laps times increase over night. The legs felt fine, but out guts were a mess and were not able to get any food in.

By around 4am we were still only around 5 minutes behind the leading 4-man team - but our slow night and Sunday morning saw this slip to a lap behind.

It was not until around 10am the next day when it finally started to cool down a little that we could again get good food in and we could get the lap times back down. In fact my 2nd last lap was my fastest for the race!!

In the end, we were 1 lap down on the overall winning 4-man team, 2 laps up on the 3rd place 4-man team. We were 9 laps up on the next 2-man team, and 13 laps up on solo winner Jason English.

A big thanks to Robyn for supporting Ed and I this weekend. As always she was brilliant with keeping our food and drink in order ... and in dishing out the tough love when required. No dogs this weekend, so no-one to eat up the left over Torq bars.

Thanks also the Bike Superstore for getting my Spark race ready. The bike performed really well with no mechanical issues at all. The twin-lock (shock and fork lockout) was a real advantage on the fireroad climbs - enabling some really quick ascents. I also ran 2.1 Schwalbe Racing Ralphs on front and rear - fast rolling and great grip in the single track.

Thanks to Rockytrail Entertainment for running this fun race, and for the great Jet Black prizes.

Food for the race was;

• Torq gel every 2 laps
• Torq energy 2 scoops / bottle each lap (day), 3 scoops / bottle per 2 laps (night)
• 2 x Torq bars
• 4 x pizza slices
• 1 x bowl pasta
• 3 x nutella sandwiches
• 1 x Hammer Electrolyte tablet every 2 laps
• Many many litres of plain water

Lap times;
#       Lap time    Avg Spd Rider
57    28:05:00    20.94    Andrew
56    22:58:00    25.6    Andrew
55    24:21:00    24.15    Andrew
54    26:53:00    21.87    Ed
53    27:04:00    21.72    Ed
52    27:51:00    21.11    Andrew
51    28:11:00    20.86    Andrew
50    26:36:00    22.11    Ed
49    25:55:00    22.69    Ed
48    27:09:00    21.66    Andrew
47    26:32:00    22.16    Andrew
46    25:14:00    23.3    Ed
45    24:48:00    23.71    Ed
44    24:28:00    24.03    Andrew
43    27:42:00    21.23    Andrew
42    28:23:00    20.72    Andrew
41    30:38:00    19.19    Andrew
40    28:46:00    20.44    Andrew
39    26:44:00    22    Andrew
38    27:01:00    21.76    Ed
37    26:15:00    22.4    Ed
36    27:24:00    21.46    Ed
35    25:55:00    22.69    Ed
34    26:31:00    22.17    Ed
33    25:19:00    23.23    Ed
32    26:17:00    22.37    Andrew
31    26:05:00    22.54    Andrew
30    26:12:00    22.44    Andrew
29    25:45:00    22.83    Andrew
28    24:43:00    23.79    Andrew
27    24:34:00    23.93    Andrew
26    26:34:00    22.13    Ed
25    26:05:00    22.54    Ed
24    26:30:00    22.19    Ed
23    26:56:00    21.83    Ed
22    26:47:00    21.95    Ed
21    26:23:00    22.29    Ed
20    24:16:00    24.23    Andrew
19    24:25:00    24.08    Andrew
18    23:45:00    24.76    Ed
17    25:04:00    23.46    Ed
16    23:55:00    24.59    Andrew
15    23:49:00    24.69    Andrew
14    24:38:00    23.87    Ed
13    25:01:00    23.5    Ed
12    23:39:00    24.86    Andrew
11    23:42:00    24.81    Andrew
10    24:17:00    24.21    Ed
9    24:12:00    24.3    Ed
8    24:04:00    24.43    Andrew
7    23:29:00    25.04    Andrew
6    24:27:00    24.05    Ed
5    23:49:00    24.69    Ed
4    24:06:00    24.4    Andrew
3    23:18:00    25.24    Andrew
2    25:28:00    23.09    Ed
1    22:02:00    26.69    Ed

Alpine Assault 100km

Alpine Assault 100km

7th @ 5hr:28min

This weekend was a road trip with Garry down to Victoria for the 100km Alpine Assault.

This race was originally scheduled for the end of 2010, but with all the rain it was postponed. I'm glad it was postponed - not just because of the great weather we had, but if I had done this race at the end of 2010 with all the other races going on I would have been totally destroyed.

This was definitely a tough race. The 30km descent was brutal - and the big climb under 38 degree sun was nasty.

The race starts out in the ski resort of Falls Creek, with a quick loop of some of the upper firetrails around the resort and around a little dam. I was lucky enough to hang onto the lead bunch of about 11 guys for this first 35km.

As usual, my descending skills let me down a bit and I had a bit of a chase to get back on the ground after the first little descent though some rough and wet double track.

Come the 35km mark we were at the peak of Mt Nelse (1850m), and from there the crazy descent started. Over grown double track with big rocks, holes, trees, branches and who knows what else littered over this drop.  Add on the fact that you are doing switch backs next to plummeting gorges just made the whole thing scary but spectacular.

A few guys went down with punctures (or mechanicals) and it was not too long until I came across Fenz with his wheel off. He had managed to put a massive ding unto his ZTR rim and had blown 4 co2s stuffing around with it! I left him with another tube and him using his tiny hand pump ...

I lost a few places during the descent which really shat me. This is definitely an area I will be working on before Terra. 

Eventually the descent leads to more conventional fireroad, some cooling water crossing and some little climbs back up to the Falls Creek road.

From there, a bit of tarmac and onto the Survey Line single track - which as Tupalski put it is just like Stromlo Skyline but in a mirror!

This single track leads into the Mt Beauty MTB park, and some great single track to the bottom of the park.

All in all, 1850m down to 430m in just 30km!

Once in the MTB park, it was a 10km climb back up to 1000m on a well named hill called "Big Hill". The climb had a nice steady gradient, but by now the temperature was well into the 30s and the day taking its toll.

Garry caught me up at the bottom of this climb, and we stuck together for the ascent that never ended.

The run down from the was a mix of rocky steep fireroads and then flowing, rooty single track. I left Garry behind on the descent.

A final small climb back up and another run through some more single track and the 100km was done. I was surprised to see Garry already in the pits. Somehow he had taken an accidental shortcut on the 2nd loop, and gained 5 - 7 minutes!! Nice work Gaz :)

As for gear, this was the first real test of my new Ergon GX-3 grips. For a race like this, where the single track was not too tecky, these grips were great. They made the big descent quite bearable, as I was able to get a much flatter palm position during the descent. And I spent all my climbing time on the bar ends. So, a big thumbs up for these.

For tires, I ran tubeless Schwalbe UST Racing Ralphs. These were perfect for this race. Low profile and quick on the roads and firetrails, and great in the single track. The UST really lived up to its name - check out the pic below of my punished rear tire. Despite those two big cuts I lost no sealant or tire pressure!!

The Scott Spark 10 performed well and the twin lock was an advantage - switching the lockup around depending on the surface. Probably the only thing I would setup differently for this race would be to run a little less pressure in my front shock.

Food wise, I took in 5 x Torq gels, 2.75 liters Torq energy, 1 x Torq bar and a no-doze to get the race started. I probably could have done with a little more fluid - but I did not feel too bad for it.

A big thanks to Dean and the Torq UCI MTB team for letting Garry and I crash with them and for getting us to/from the event etc.  And of course a big thanks to Garry for the long drive!

A couple of quiet training weeks now, until the Jet Black 24 hr 6 x 6 in Feb.

This race is basically one stage of the Terra Australis 7 day stage race Jason and I are doing later in March ... can't wait!!

UST Racing Ralph - punished by held up to it