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A new level of fatigue!


Tristania's picture

By Tristania - Posted on 13 July 2014

Re: This ride meeting: 
JetBlack 12 Hour
Status: 
Finished
Laps: 
19
Time: 
12:20:59
Position (Overall): 
9
Position (Category): 
7

A NEW LEVEL OF FATIGUE!

Ever since I discovered that there was an Under 23 category for 24 hour racing, I had contemplated having a go at one. Although the most I'd done in previous races was 100km events, I have done 12 and 24h rogaines (on-foot navigation competitions), so I had hoped that I'd be able to merge my cycling ability with my long-term endurance. To put things mildly though, a 24h (solo) on the bike is a a big step up from a marathon, so before I did one of them, I needed an intermediate type of event that would get me a feel for what this type of riding would be like.

Hence the JB12H.
Being in the middle of uni break, it was at an optimal time so that I could do it not in a massive rush and I'd have time to do some extended rides in the lead-up. That didn't go quite to plan as my Trek spend 3 weeks at the "doctor" whilst the rear suspension was being sent away, and thanks to Fox's "speedy" service, I couldn't get it back until late Friday afternoon, so my training ended up just being a bunch of semi-long rides on the road. Although I'd been placing well in the marathons, upon realizing I'd be in the same category as Jason English, I conceded that I probably wouldn't podium this time round!

I really had no idea to expect though knew that the fatal mistake would be to go too hard early on, however am glad that I got into a decent position at the start as I observed a bottleneck had built up further along at the start of the singletrack!

Nutrition was going to be another experiment, so I left a mix of gels, apples, mandarins, chocolate, sandwiches at the start line, where my faithful mother sat and watched for a good portion of the event and kindly swapped my bottles every second lap.

Having not ridden the James Winery track before, I spent the first couple of laps getting a feel for the course and where its features lay and picked whether I'd take the A or B lines where it diverged

The first few laps were mostly uneventful; having this endurance format meant that I'm still learning how to position myself among others as I needed to remember that most are in teams and hence get to have a rest at the end of the lap! I certainly didn't, at least until I had done eight laps, after which I stretched, ate, reapplied sunscreen and lubricated the chain.

Up and running again, I just kept at it, trying not to lose momentum though now completely unaware of my position due to riders scattered all over the track, something which I'm unaccustomed to from marathon racing. My body was starting to hurt and I was working hard to keep cramps from developing...

Until horror of horrors! My darn front forks bottomed out completely at the end of my 10th lap leaving my hands taking in every knock the wheel went through. A lot of effort was what kept me from completely losing my temper so I could finish the lap and get to the mechanics. After looking at the issue, the problem was diagnosed as the screw at the top of the forks had not been screwed in correctly, letting all the air and some oil out. Although it needed a full re-service to get it fully operational again, thankfully we were able to use a shock pump to get it to work to some extent. I took this as an opportunity to get some solid food down, stretch, put the lights on and calm down in what was a frustrating situation.

About 4pm I was going again and by this point all the laps blended into each other. I just shared the experience with other riders on the track, tried to enjoy the great track and physically survive it. My mum had the great idea to buy a pizza, which I ate over three laps and turned out to have a positive effect on me. Looking at my watch, I hoped to get in 20 laps, but eventually I worked out this wouldn't be possible and looked to push, shove and propel myself through the 19th.

I burned up the final few millijoules of energy I had left when SS champion Brett Bellchambers lapped me 2km on the firetrail from the end, so I smashed out, determined to beat him over the line - which I did, even if he was a lap ahead of me. But I definitely had no energy left after that. Such an event like that just eats up one's energy without them really noticing until such a point.

Finding out the results, I came 7th in solo male in my age group and 9th in solo overall. Considering Jason English was only three laps ahead, I had to concede that's not too bad, particularly with my general lack of experience in this format and I look forward to tweaking my skills in these endurance events to see how it all pans out!

But now it's just time to recover, think about the future - and get the darn bike fixed up!

Ian_A's picture

That's a massive effort Tristan. Well done.
I sometimes get these stupid ideas of racing a 12hr solo, then quickly realise that I don't have the ability.
We (a soft team of 4) had Big Steve camped in with us racing in the SS solo. I imagine your mum's face was similar to Steve's wife's face as he came through every lap - I think she was feeling the pain as much as he was.

sikllama's picture

Well done Tristan, congrats on the result. I reckon that snaking grass hill climb towards the end of each lap would have gotten steeper and steeper as the race wore on Smiling

Brian's picture

Great work mate. Well done.

hawkeye's picture

You've really stepped up a level.

GAZZA's picture

You were completely delirious!!!
Well done!

GAZZA's picture

You were completely delirious!!!
Well done!

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