The Pitchblack 12hr MTB race is a new event put on by Tailwind Promotions at Old Hidden Vale (out Grandchester way).
I entered the solo singlespeed category on my newly front suspended new Ti 29er.
I set the bike up with an easy 32/20 gearing after learning my lesson at the DelXC 6hr (yep another one without a race report). Other setup items of note was a burly Ardent front tyre (@ 26psi), ergon grips with integrated bar ends (good for catching trees) & a bontrager seat post with random rotating seat clamp system.
My goals for this event was to ride for at least 10 of the 12 hours and stop for no longer than 30 minutes at a time, other lesser goals were to minimise wardrobe changes and keep on top of nutrition and hydration.
The race started at 7pm Saturday night just as the light was all but faded and finished a 7am, as you'd expect a 12hr race would. It was a mass start with 35 solo riders, 15 teams of 2 or more all heading off at once, I got away toward the front and my original plan was to go steady and not be concerned if other riders got past, its a long race and you don't win it in the first lap. I have this plan at most longer races and I never stick to the plan, so why bother this time. So I stuck to the wheel of the rider in front and passed at any opportunity, heart rate be damned :-)
Toward the end of the first lap I realised I'd studied the track map but had no idea of how long each lap was nor what time I was expecting to do a lap in, consequently I didn't know how many laps I was going to do. When I crossed the line & saw that I had done a 32 minute lap I thought, hmm I could be up for 20 laps tonight, heck, thats a lot of laps. Lucky I was setting my stops by time rather than laps. Anyway back to the race, in the first lap at the bottom of rockbottom, a rocky downhill section I just kissed a tree with my right bar end, in the second lap I did it again, better make note not to do that again I thought.
In my 3rd lap I'd started to pass back some of the first lap hares & I think lapping a few of the slower riders, I was feeling super good, the bike was working well, birds were singing, stars were shining etc etc, well you can see where this is going I bet. Anyway with my mind elsewhere the don't forget to miss that tree alarm was muted and as luck would have it, the tree was still there but only this time I was going faster than previous and that's all she wrote, tree meet bar end, bye bye rider. Off I went for a spot of dirt surfing on my left knee, hip and hand, just the ticket for a great Saturday night out. I quickly jumped back up & got back to the bike, nothing looked bent so I jumped back on. A few corners later my knee was yelling at me and my left pinkie didn't want to hold onto the bars much, I raised my hand into the helmet light and made a quick guess that while it wasn't broken it wasn't looking quite the right shape, ewww. No point stopping so I just kept on pedalling, another lap down, don't think I'll stop at the pit tent this lap just incase I don't like the look of what I see. If that is blood running down my leg then surely the OHV dust will dry it up nice & quick. A few laps later the knee & finger gave up hurting and only once per lap as I passed the angry sapling I actually remembered about it, cool.
A few laps later I settled into a happy groove and was totally enjoying my night out, then my seat decided to rock back a few degrees, then a few degrees more. No problem I thought, only half a lap to go and I'll stop in for a break and fit it up. By the time I got around to my pit tent I'd gotten used to the seat and decided I was feeling way too good to pull in, so I didn't. I just grabbed another jam & cream cheese sandwich from the stack and peddled on. My plan of stopping every 3hrs for as long as I needed to eat, change batteries and regroup was based on previous races and as it turned out had no relevance with tonight's race, I was feeling great, heaps of leg power (its all relative) when I needed to get the singlespeed up the climbs and good recovery in between. The seat angle was far from optimal but thankfully one of the things about singlespeeding, especially on a course with a few hills is you don't spend a lot of time suspended by the seat, even when you are seated you are usually pushing hard enough through the pedals to provide some lift up from the seat.
Somewhere around 3:30hrs I stopped to change a fading helmet battery but that was it until about the 6:30hr mark (10 laps / 110km). I used this stop to change both batteries, fix the seat, lube the chain, eat a good feed of 2 minute noodles (my favourite race food) and refil my 6 empty water bottles and 4 empty gatorade bottles. All up this stop had me off the bike for about 30 minutes, a bit longer than I'd hoped.
When I got back on the bike, I'd cooled down and didn't feel as good as before, on the up side at least the lights were brighter and the seat was feeling right, for the first quarter of the lap .. damn it. I stopped twice to adjust and tighten it down, second time I really really tightened the seat bolt. Previous I was worried about over doing it and breaking the bolt, if that happened it would have probably been the end of my race, but by now I'd had enough & let it have it. Lucky nothing snapped & the seat stayed put. Okay lets get back to pedalling. Next lap in my noodles weren't sitting so well and I'd started to get a headache, you know the type, the ones you get after a big night on the bottle. I upped my fluid intake and completed that lap and the next but it wasn't enough to get rid of the ache so I stopped in and popped a few ibuprofens, I figured if they don't fix my headache they might just help my knee that was also starting to complain.
Somewhere in the next few laps the headache subsided, probably thanks to the pills & fluids but maybe also because I realised my helmet was hurting two spots on my forehead. A quick adjustment and it was like monkey magic getting his headband removed... pure bliss. At this stage I began to realise that I was probably going to make it through the night with only 1 real stop, that gave me a huge boost of confidence and energy. It didn't seem to effect my lap times but I was starting to enjoy the ride again and couldn't wait for the sun to peak out, when it finally did rise it was quite a thrill.
At the start of my 15th lap, around about 5am I removed my lights and set off to soak up the final two hours of the race. I didn't know where I was placed but began to entertain thoughts of an overall podium position, figuring I'd only been passed on the track by team riders & Andy Fellows (aka world 24hr champ) I couldn't have been far off. I didn't really know how many laps I'd done either as my hear rate monitor/lap counter was on the blink. Not much I could do about it but ride, that is what I came for so that is what I did.
I crossed the line to complete my 17th lap with 20 minutes to go and was told I was in first place ... WTF I thought, no way! The I realised they were talking about in my age group (& singlespeed too as it turns out I guess). I'd never really considered where I was in the age group category & was only really concerned about overall & singlespeed categories, so it took me a while to digest that. Nobody could tell me where I was sitting overall so rather than finish up there I decided to put in a final lap to make it 18 laps in total. I finished that lap at the 12:22hr mark having clocked up 198km.By far and away my most successful outing on a mountain bike and once I learned that I was first in singlespeed and third overall I was stoked, even if I was too tired to show it on the outside :-)
Thanks for reading this far, I hope you enjoyed it. I haven't proof read it so apologies if there is some unintended oddness in there.
Thanks to Tailwind for putting on another great event at the challenging and rewarding OHV facility.
The Merida 24hr will be held on the same track mid 2010, I can't wait for that, I'll have to work on some harder goals this time. BTW I did the whole race without a wardrobe change, another goal smashed :-)
