Hairy R's - Excellent Scott 24 Adventure

What a great weekend.

The weather was great - hot but great and the nights weren’t that cold.

Our camp site was in a perfect position – upwind from the dust, next to the natural bush toilets, far enough away from the loud speaker.

The track was a blast – it had something for everyone and a few teeth that could catch lapses on concentration (I know this from personal experience). Our teams consensus was that the track had the potential to cause carnage on the unweary or the very weary. Add to this the dust that covered everything which made it difficult even in the bright sunshine to pick out the rocks that littered the track.
- The Blue Lap 15k and in my opinion the harder of the two had a twisted undulating climb to the top followed by a fast run home through the mini A-Line and a few K of sweeping bermed corners.
- The Red Lap 13k had the usual climb up Mt Stromlo which is a steady long climb followed by a wickedly fast descent. What the roadie’s made up on the climb you could pull back on the descent. I always finished this lap with a grin.

A big rap here for CBD Cycles who suggest the Maxxis Rendez tyre up front – this tyre just gripped and inspired cornering confidence. I also had a Crossmark on the rear and loved the way you could just dab the rear brake and slide it around the corners – I never get tied of doing that.

Did I mention it was very dusty – sitting here writing this I can still taste it and I believe it is seeping out of my pores and every other nook and cranny?

Team Hairy R’s
As first timers in the hotly contested 40+ Mixed category our aim was to make the Top 10 and I am pleased to say that we came 10th in our category and we also got two special mentions by race PA.

PA Mentions
Our first PA mention was at the start when we elected our race novice rider (Rick) to do the first lap – looking down from the covered area I saw Rick sprint in the Le Mans start and in the first quarter of the field only to run right past his bike. It is only when he reached the last bike that he stopped and allowed panic and confusion to take over. Reversing his course into a sea of charging bikers made his progress slow and dangerous and spectator crowding the race start for a better view didn’t help. While Rick was running around like a headless chook race PA was commenting on his mis-fortune and following his plight to find his bike. He left the start stone motherless last and finished the Blue Lap in 1.11.10 overtaking many in the adrenaline fuel charge that followed.

I still haven’t figured out whether Rick ran past his bike in exuberance or if the bike holder purposely obscured his bike as part of his racing initiation.

Rick also had his first ever night ride on Saturday virgin, with borrowed lights tackling the Red lap for the first ever time. His lap time was a respectable 1.00:52.

Our second mention was on Sunday at 11.45am when resplendent in Hawaiian gear we embarked on our customary team fancy dress lap. Scott in Christine’s Coconut Bra was the standout and drew many double takes. We were asked to pose for an official race photograph and race PA also announced our departure.

The Racing
While maybe not in the elite class over the weekend between the 6 of us we managed 17 race pace laps plus a team lap at the end for an official lap count of 17.

Our hot laps were
Red day – 49:15 Chris Jobses
Red night – 52:49 Scott Morelli
Blue day – 58:18 Scott Morelli
Blue night – 1.05:23 Chris Jobses

My laps were
Blue Day – 58:48
Red Night – 54:10 (45:00 of climbing and 9:00 of exhileration)
Blue Day – 59:55 (including an off and mechanical)
Team Red Fancy Dress – 1.05:25

We stopped riding overnight with our last rider finishing about 1.00am on Sunday and we had the new guy (Rick) up and racing again at 6.00am. He finished his lap and waited at transition for quite a while until he realised we were still sleeping – after all he was the new guy.

This mighty team effort was fuelled by bacon sandwiches, sausage sandwiches, beef Stroganoff and paste (thanks Christine for organising and cooking). Hydrating was more sedate than last year, but with more variety (beer, red wine, port and sambuca) supplementing the water and Endura.

Did I mention the dust.

Had a ball and will be back next year.