Merida 24hour

About a month ago I agreed to go up to QLD for my first lap race as support crew for my brother. He had already qualified for the 24hr worlds however it was at the shortened del rio race so he was looking to experience the full 24 hours of fun. He got me into mtb racing earlier in the year and again managed to convince me that entering the solo category would allow me to ride a few laps with him in the later stages of the race.
We got to Spicer's Hidden Valley just before 10 so plenty of time to register and set up in transition. In our tent were my brother John, Boonie, one of his old water skiing mates and me. Boonies wife was barely moving after coming down with the flu the day before and John's wife had a 2 year old to look after so we were expecting to keep my 11year old daughter busy mixing bottles.
They decided not to warm up as it was a downhill start and they both knew the track after practicing there a few weeks ago. John went up the front while Boonie and I started somewhere in the middle. Rode most of the lap with Boonie and saw heaps of people with punctures. Decided to sit out a few laps while we got the transition working smoothly.
The track was mainly single track sections linked by short sections of fire trail. Wasn't as flowing as the sections used in the Husky 100. Most of the forest sections were very narrow with lots of speed changes required with different radius corners. There were a few clay sections however most of it was hard packed dirt offering good traction and seemed to handle the traffic fairly well. One section of bulldust was fairly flat however everyone really struggled to do more that 10k through it. Lots of sharp rocks dotted along the trail and a few downhill sections made up entirely of small rocks. Quite a few logs and several small jumps. Loved the big berms that were out in the open paddock. No really fast downhills and I think the fastest section was on a grassy trail that had 1 line and had me maxing out at 43k. It was really bumpy in a lot of sections as it looked like the cattle had cut up the surface when it was muddy.
John came into transition after his second lap without much air in his rear tyre. Pumped it up to 40psi and tracked the problem down to a poor seal in one section between the tyre and rim. Felt like it wasn't seated properly and I wanted to put more air in to get the tubeless tyre to sit right. John made the call to throw a tube in so the usual panic while he looked for a normal tube. Eventually got it changed, filled with CO2 and sent him out again.
Checked the results and worked out it took me 8 minutes to do my first tyre change so plenty of room to improve next time. Not many good ways to tell him next time round that he went from first to third. Things were running fairly smoothly in transition and the girls had the hang of the bottles, gels and food. Boonie kept chugging around doing laps in the mid 50's, John was doing mid 40's and Jason English was doing his stuff taking 40 minutes for the 15k laps.
Went out for a lap with John around 4pm and talked to him about lap times until he dropped me on the technical sections. Did the lights transition and Boonie stopped for a bit of a chat and some more food. He's in the clydsdale category so was impressing me with his laps.
Decided to do a night lap so went out next time John came round. Wasn't getting dropped as quickly and about a third of the way round John stopped with a pinch flat. Swapped back tyres and got him on his way again. While throwing another tube in it dawned on me that swapping tyres may not be in the rules. Finished the lap after spending most of the time on my own. Its funny how some areas aren't as bad in the night while other sections seem much more difficult than the daylight. Was happy to stop and wait until what should be the bad hours between midnight and dawn.
Not very successful slowing John down over the next few laps as he was comfortably in the lead and looked to be going ok. Boonie just kept chugging around and wasn't complaining that much. John came in at 10:30 complaining about cramp and neck and back pain. After sitting down in the chair for a few minutes and then trying to stretch on the ground he decided a shower might help. Boonie came in to transition and didn't hesitate to follow John back to the room. At that stage I made a mental note to keep the girls away from transition when it gets ugly as the last thing they need is sympathy.
Anyway the comfort of a hot shower, some food and a lie down on a comfortable bed turned into an 8 hour break. Surprisingly they were both up at dawn and keen to ride again so I wandered over to transition with them and got them going. Went back to the hotel a few times to retrieve things we left behind. After the first lap the girls were up so I changed and went out for another lap with Boonie. Got another pinch flat with Johns tyre on my bike when I hit the rock ramp for a tree crossing a bit hard. After putting my last tube in and getting back on the bike I was kicking myself for not checking the pressure after leaving it sit overnight with CO2. When I got back to transition it was only 20psi so used the pump to get it up to 40. Felt like I had swapped from crew to rider as the girls revved me up to go out again. Seems that my three laps from the day before only had me 1 lap behind the next two riders so it was very tempting to do a few more laps so I didn't finish last in my only 24hr solo race. The girls were doing really well in transition so waited a while for John to come round again and did a lap with him. We did a low 50 lap and my heart rate was about 150 on the climbs and 140 on the flat sections so it should have been a sustainable pace for John. Kept getting dropped through the technical sections and had to work a bit harder on the hills to stay with him. When we got back to transition I was able to explain where the last spare tube was so we found it and taped that on while I worked out I could cruise round for another two laps and reach my target of 100k. Both the boys were feeling good so I took off again and spent the next few hours chatting to the other solo riders. Most of the team guys were either too fast or too slow to stay with. You get a really good appreciation for how challenging a 24 hour solo ride is when you see the carnage in the last few hours. Everyone was in really good spirits throughout the event and were always polite when asking to pass or going out of their way to make room to let me past. Used granny gear a bit on the last lap and was regretting missing the gel in transition. Happy that I didn't have any crashes and got progressively faster through the technical sections.
I enjoyed the riding however wouldn't willingly do it again on a hardtail. I ended up third last, John ended up 5th after sleeping through 8 hours of race time. That was probably a lot better outcome than how it was looking earlier in the race when he was leading my division by a lap and I was last, might not have heard the last of that for a while if he had held on for the win. Boonie ended up mid field in the 30-40's.
Learn't a lot about what to do in the pits and I will be more organised in October. Confirmed that you don't need to be the fastest to win, you just need to stay consistent and manage lots of things like lap times, eating and drinking well. Doesn't sound that hard does it.

btw my main observation is that its still all about the beer. Following my previous race experience where having a quiet drink the night before kept the cramps away I had a beer on the plane and another at John's house so it seem's like a minimum of two is required.