Fat Tyre Fest Fun

I entered the Spring Fat Tyre Festival in a team of 3 with Craig (craked) and Tien (tienster). This was my second team event and the first time with 3. The plan was to head up Saturday to register and do final lap before Sunday. I picked up Tien and we arrived at the track at about 3pm to find Craig had already set up a gazebo reserving a spot nice and close to the transition area. We registered (no queuing for us), got our bikes ready and had a nice cruisy lap.

We then headed off as we were staying at my parent's place which was only about 20 minutes from the track. Mum made sure we were well fed with steak on the BBQ, honey, soy & garlic marinated pork spare ribs followed by home made pavlova for desert.

Sunday morning we headed to the track and as we had already registered and reserved a spot there was no real panic which was good. It was decided Saturday that I was going to do the first lap and although a little anxious, having the excuse of the extra traffic the first lap brings was always going to be my excuse

For the start we headed out to the main road to give the road in a chance for the faster riders to hit the single track first. I ended up starting mid field which was ok by me. Once we were off I was just trying to stay clear of any accidents as there's always a few. For the first half of the lap it felt more like a social cruise with no real chance to pass. After half way it started to flow better picking up a few spots getting the heart rate up a bit.

Next up for me was my second lap and Craig had definitely set the pace by doing a quick lap (officially 00:36:25) and Tien was no slouch doing a 40 minute lap. I made sure I was ready in transition and went hard from the beginning. I ended up with my fastest lap of the day coming in at officially 00:36:06

The 3rd lap Tien caught me not being ready and I lost a couple of minutes in transition and ended up with officially 00:41:46. Actual lap time on the garmin was 00:39:07.

The 4th lap started ok but my food wasn't agreeing with me by now and I wasn't feeling good at all. About half way I started I couldn't drink anything and started to fade and could see my HR dropping. It ended up being 00:41:24.

Craig had one off which took some skin off his knee but apart from this the whole weekend went smooth and with no mechanicals which was good. I do think the organisers put on an awesome event and I would like to thank the Hunter Mountain Bike Association for providing such an awesome track.

I must say a team of 3 is perfect for an 8 hour event. You go out and smash yourself on a lap, then spend about 15 minutes recovering, some time to see how everyone else is going and then you start getting ready for your next lap. I did an 8 hour event in a 2 man team and that is a killer.

I'll be back next year for sure.

Below are my profiles of the laps, an overlay of my heart rate for the 4 laps and a pic of spot Craig set up for us.