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Mont 2014, 24 Laps in 24 Hours


skipper_nz's picture

By skipper_nz - Posted on 03 April 2013

For the Mont 2014 my uncle has set the task of trying to complete 24laps in 24hours, as either a 6 or 4man team.
Currently he is not super fit, but wants to try and push for this to help him into shape and really see what he can do. I am not sure this is achievable for a bunch of average joes with other things going on in their lives, but he seems pretty committed.
so i ask:
How much training did you do, and how many laps did your team do this year?

He is thinking that if we are doing 300km (road and MTB) a week for a month or two before the event then we should be able to do it.

thoughts and comments...

[Mod. moved to MTB Events]

fwoark's picture

24 laps in the 2013 edition would have resulted in a place between 12th and 28th overall, or in the top 4% of all teams. I'm not saying its not possible, but you would certainly be mixing it up with the super quick boys and girls. As a reference, the newy cogheads team that finished 10th on 25 laps would all average in excess of 10hrs in the saddle per week (distance doesn't really matter). Just remember though that its not all about the training volume, but the quality of the training you do.

Best of luck. There's only one way to find out how many laps you can achieve.

c3024446's picture

There is also the possibility that they make the lap longer than last year as well....

obmal's picture

IMHO.. 300K a week for a month or two before the event wont cut it unless you have a substantial base up for the months before that.

Sure you may bust out one sub hour lap, but try backing that up for 3 or 5 more (including the night laps)... I don't know who you got in your team but you'd need a team full of fearless freaks who don't listen to their bodies pain signals.

I was feeling rather sick for the event this year but did all my 4 laps... I average about 150-200K's a week with about 4K of vertical and could do about the 1:08 pace day and add about 5-10min for the nights, If i was not sick I probably could of done 1hour day laps and about 1:05 nights.. (easy to say now..)

I know peeps that did close to 1hour laps night and day, they are pretty fit and can ride, they ride about 10000K's a year (with a heap of hills) including a bunch of races.

good luck

staffe's picture

Mont requires good descending techniques and good cornering technique and that requires your bike to be setup perfectly for that type of riding. Last year I managed to get that setup perfect and did the occasional acceptable lap time. This year - same fitness level or better but I did not get the setup right and struggled in the downhill sections and consequently lost time there - let my team mates down and had to stand in shame.

So, fitness is your platform to get good lap times but there is more to it than that.

Good luck!

pharmaboy's picture

23 laps, my average was around 1.03, didn't break 60minutes.

Training for a year of never less than 3 rides a week, those 3 would make an increased heart rate noticeable at night- ie enough hard efforts at vo2 on each ride. 6hr off road rides every 8 weeks or so. A complete disregard for OH&S at night laps.

Improved capacity requires recovery time. I'd suggest that on this years course, you need to be able to choose a team from a large group to get under an hour average, and going to be hard for an over 40's like moiré.

Pick some events in 3 months and set a goal for that event, then pick another and set a Goal for that one etc etc. chances are it will be shorter than this year , but still setting a goal to be in top 5 for your cat would make better sense to me - 24 in 24 is either easy or impossible depending on the course set

pancakes's picture

If you can knock out a 4 gates in a little over an hour I reckon you'd be pretty close. All the guys I ride with had comparable-ish times in the Mont to their 4 gates times. The hills make for good training, too.

For the record I can't knock out an hour there, lol.

Oh and we did 20 laps under 25 hrs. I really only got serious about training for it in Feb so was happy with my pretty consistent 4x hour and a quarter-ish laps.

ADtheglorious's picture

It's a tall order, but set the goal and have a crack! You'll know quickly after the first few laps whether you're a chance or not and if you're not you still have the rest of your team mates to beat, so have some fun ribbing each other about how fast or slow they/you are.

Remember if you aim for mediocrity you'll achieve it ever time.

GAZZA's picture

You'll only go as fast as you've been training.
Get some intensity in your training. Intervals, hill repeats and also bike handling is important. If you can't go round corners fast then you're braking at every bend and consequently having to waste more energy by accelerating out of every one.
Try and do some club XC races beforehand. They're cheap, hard and brilliant fun. Your fitness and bike handling will benefit heaps from them.

Griffo's picture

Hi,

I was in a team of 6 this year that finished with 23 laps. Once thing that all of us noticed was the volume of traffic on the trail that you have to cntent with. All of us had ridden in events over the past 5-8 years; training and time in the saddle is one thing, but don't forget, at this pace, all members of the team would be overtaking between 30-50 riders each lap. This takes it out of you, the constant on-again and off-again works you over. Getting a 'clean' lap at your pace uses far less energy than a lap where you have to punch through traffic at comparable times. With the amount of people on the track clean laps should not be planned for. The fitness required for this type of riding should be taken into consideration. Try doing lots of getting out of the saddle, tearing up the hill, getting off the well-ridden line and politely saying 'thank you'.

Ian_A's picture

Its certainly achievable.
The problem will be the lead-out lap is 3-4km longer and adds probably 10 minutes to your 1st lap. This time needs to be clawed back by doing sub hr laps.
I'm an average hack, nearly 10kg overweight, riding a 160mm travel all mountain rig and don't have any sort of training program - just like to ride my bike fast. I did 57, 58, 59 min laps then snapped a chain and did a 1:09. I would have done around 59 on that last one without the mechanical. I found I was faster than most on the downhill and windy stuff, pretty fast on the hills, but lacked a bit on the flat fireroad sections.
Everyone one your team would need to do consistent high 50's to get the 24th lap in. Its a big call - doing a 59 at 2:30am was pretty tough. 4 of my team mates were doing just over the hr mark with one other faster than me and we only got 23 in.
I built a good base of kms doing 100km+ rides every 2nd weekend or so, and averaged around 160km per week, for a few months leading up the Mont and competing in the WSMTB 4hr series, then in the last month cutting the distance but increasing intensity to as hard as I could maintain for 1.5-2hrs.
It's a good goal to set for yourself anyway.
Ride your bike and have fun.

Brian's picture

Don't forget if you want to finish with 24 laps on the results then you just need to finish 23 laps before 24 hours and then you can just cruise the last lap. To do 23 laps in 23:59:00 (giving you a minute to spare) then the average per lap needs to be 01:02:34.

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