2010 World Solo 24 Hour Championships

Boreit

Likes Dirt
Really? So the remaining 73% of us must all be rocket scientists then.

3 questions.

#1 Do you know how to use a computer?
#2 Do you know how to send and receive emails?
#3 Do you know how to pay for things on the internet?

If you answered yes to these questions then entering should be easier than putting your shoes on the correct feet.
are you directing at me? not sure how someones lack of computer know how makes others rocket scientists? this assumption may be incorrect. :confused:

dont have any dramas at all myself thanks, but was suggesting that just possibly some people are better cyclists than they are on computers. are you suggesting that -

1. all cyclists are computer literate?

wonder how many may not speaka de english very well & whether this could be a factor also?
 

macboy

Likes Dirt
are you directing at me? not sure how someones lack of computer know how makes others rocket scientists? this assumption may be incorrect. :confused:

dont have any dramas at all myself thanks, but was suggesting that just possibly some people are better cyclists than they are on computers. are you suggesting that -

1. all cyclists are computer literate?

wonder how many may not speaka de english very well & whether this could be a factor also?
Just saying that it's a pretty straight forward process. The 3 things I mentioned are about all I can do on a computer and I managed it, months ago, whilst working shift work, training, secondary part time work, training, social life, training aaaaand sleeping.
They are organising it from the other side of the world after all.
Also, we've had how long to get organised? If you want it, you make it happen ;)
 

stuartwsc

Likes Bikes
a bit miss leading...

Did anyone else receive an email this morning from WSC?

With 691 current riders.

Now that is a lot of riders,
I remember the days when there were 12 of us doing it.
and maybe 50 at the Easter race.
and the one time I was ranked 8th, DaGonz 9th.

this will be a crazy start.
Not to be miss leading that's riders and Pit Managers, should have 820 in total. Really looking for riders to finish up the required Pit Manager element.

Final days here at Interbike, then off to meet you all in OZ.

Cheers,

Stuart
 

Dreggsy

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Are us Aussies going to have a nice big pre-race dinner at some stage?

I was thinking of being down there on the Wednesday / Thursday, just to get my shit sorted.

I guess I should put my bike together first.
 

jeffandal

Likes Dirt
Are us Aussies going to have a nice big pre-race dinner at some stage?

I was thinking of being down there on the Wednesday / Thursday, just to get my shit sorted.

I guess I should put my bike together first.
Trying to bleed a front brake, and standing at the servo trying to bead a tyre with Stan's is the only way I'm sure.:p
 

stuartwsc

Likes Bikes
Ringing in the old and the new

This story never made it to print and I just received it tonight, my first read as well.

Thought you might enjoy it!


RINGING IN THE OLD AND THE NEW
Aussie wins again, Rusch Three-Peats at the 24-Hr Solo, Which Heads to Oz in ‘10

By Roy M. Wallack

July 26, 2009, Canmore, Alberta—
The 2009 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solo World Championships, held in this Canadian Rockies resort town for the second year in a row, had something old and something new. The old news is that Rebecca Rusch, the two-time defending champion, dominated again, at the age of 40 gaining the magical three-peat that puts her in the company of the 24-hour gods.

The new news all had to do with Australia. Spearheading another huge Aussie worlds contingent, 2008 runner-up Jason English beat back strong challenges from American dentist Cary Smith and New Zealander Tony Hogg, who for over half the race were separated from each other by just seconds. That made him the third Aussie in the last four years to win the event, joining Chris Eatough-killer Craig Gordon in 2006 and James Williamson in 2008, who were both on English’s mind at the finish. “I’d have finished third if they were here,” said English.

He followed with a prediction: “We’ll sweep the podium next year at home.”

Home? What he means is that the 24 Hours of Adrenalin Solos will be held in the land Down Under in 2010, the first time the event won’t be in the U.S. or Canada. How many North Americans will show up in Australia — beyond Rusch and Smith, who won free round-trip tickets for their performances — may not matter in terms of numbers of competitors expected to show. The first ever solo world’s to leave North America will tap the planet’s most rabid 24-hour scene, with has seen fields of over 4,000 riders, virtually assuring it of being the populous ever.

Whatever course they ride — Adrenalin owner Stuart Dorland is currently fielding bids from two locations, including one in Canberra that was the site of the Scott 24 Hour Mountain Bike Championships — chances are it won’t match the difficulty of the trail encountered this weekend at the Canmore Nordic Ski Center, the site of first Solo Worlds in 1999 and the cross-country ski events at the 1988 Winter Olympics. The 10-mile loop included a daunting 2,000 feet of climbing on often-precarious, newly-built singletrack that intricately threaded its way through the forest in tightly-coiled squiggles.

The ungrooved trail was endlessly bumpy, “jackhammering me the whole time,” said singlespeed winner Greg Martin, the 37-year-old Idaho fireman and boyfriend of Rusch. Using an unusual Spot 29er with a fabric-rubber belt-drive system instead of a conventional metal chain, he took his second-straight solo crown in a time placed him fifth among the men overall.

The tough course didn’t seem to have any effect on Rusch, who bolted to a lead after the 1500-meter LeMans running start and never looked back at her expected challengers: Jari Kirkland of Crested Butte, CO, who beat Rusch at the 24 Hours of Moab last year, and 2009 Aussie champion Jessica Douglas, who tried a go-for-broke strategy that work back home. But Rusch was uncrackable, jumping to a lead form the start and steadily lengthening it. By midnight, barring accident, the race was hers.

Riding like a woman half her age, the four-decade wise Rusch, a world-class paddler, climber, adventure racer, and now endurance mountain biker, won by an hour. It makes her the first three-time winner in women’s Solo history

"I worked all year on this one," she told the crowd at the finish. "I put all my eggs in one basket, doing only cycling this year and nothing else — the (8-day) Cape Epic mountain bike stage race in March, the Firecracker 50 in Colorado a couple weeks ago, and several 12-hour and shorter races in-between. It was a little scary staying so focused. But it worked."

The men’s race was a very different story. Sixty minutes into it, New Zealander Hogg came into the pits 30 seconds ahead of Smith and English, who were riding wheel-to-wheel. From there, it got tighter – and stayed that way for a nail-biting 14 hours.

That was a surprise to English, the favorite here after his 2008 2nd place finish, who admitted he’d never even heard of his rivals before the race began. No surprise there, as Hogg, a 34-year-old firewood contractor and rugby player from the remote south island city of Dunedin who didn’t start mountain biking until 4 years ago, was riding in only his second 24-hour solo after winning the New Zealand title with a dominating win at the Rotorua 24 Hour. He was confident, having been in Canada for nearly a month beforehand and finishing third in the solo division at the 7-day, 300-mile BC Bike Race.

Also off the radar was Cary Smith, a dentist from Jackson Hole, Wyoming who rides mountain and road and does adventure racing, cyclocross, and ski randonneuring. Not only was he 40 — maybe not the big deal it once might have been, considering the Solo success of oldies like Rusch and Tinker Juarez— but he’d only done one previous 24-hour race, an easy win at the Grand Targhee Resort over 24 people. Two weeks before the Worlds, he wasn’t planning on doing it, only changing his mind when a friend called him up at the last minute and offered to be his support crew. When he heard that Juarez wouldn’t be here this year, he set his sights on the podium.

English, in far better shape than in 2008, when he entered the race after a two-month recovery from a broken back, was caught by surprise by his no-name competitors. “When Hogg went out at that fast pace — well, I don’t think he knew that it was a 24-hour race. I had to drop back for a while. As it was, my heart rate didn’t go below 170 for a long time.” The lead seesawed back and forth as the weather turned from hot at mid-day to overcast and briefly rainy in the afternoon, then to clear from the evening forward.

By 6 pm, the crowd was abuzz; this was a neck-and-neck-and-neck race, getting closer by the lap. English stretched the lead to 3 and 6 minutes over Hogg and Smith after 8 laps, but by lap nine the top two were 3 seconds apart, with Smith down just 2-1/2 minutes. By midnight, the riders were separated by just two minutes, with Hogg in the lead and Smith in second. By 2 a.m., they were closer.

By 3:40 a.m., using superior climbing skills to repeatedly vault past English, Hogg led by 6 minutes. In only his second 24-hour race, he was the story of the race.

Then the X-factor stepped in: Hogg’s back.

"After a bike race, he's like a bent-over old woman," his crew had admitted to this reporter earlier in the race. "He can climb all day and, but the bouncing on the technical singletrack gets him." Hogg's back gets so wracked with pain, they said, that he must take a prescription anti-inflammatory pain medicine and rubs in a heat -generating ointment. That only worked so long on the bouncy, freshly-cut singletrack, relentlessly embedded with rocks and roots. By 4 a.m., his back destroyed, Hogg plummeted to 15th place. He dropped out after 14 laps.

By 7 a.m., English had put 11 minutes on Smith and never looked back, eventually winning comfortably with 22 laps. Actually, maybe not so comfortably, “It was a tough course — those bumps took a toll on my body,” said English at the finish line. “ I normally don’t have triceps, but I definitely feel them now. The guys who had the 29ers seemed to handle it best, rolling over them a lot easier.”

Runner-up Smith, who was close enough to force winner English out for a late final lap, had to concur, as the course pulverized him. "The bumps slammed my lower back and pecs so much that I felt like I doing all-body 'push-ups,'” he said. “At times, I couldn't hold my torso up, and had to start walking the hills occasionally just for the relief." He was pleased with his unexpected second-place finish and the major lessons the day left him with: Get more upper-body fitness, eliminate excess food from the pits, and nourish the talent he didn't realize he had.

"I didn't know I was this good,” he said. “It was a surprise. But I'm not going to stop." He was thrilled to have his free ticket to the 2010 Worlds. He’s never been to Australia.

He’ll be stepping into the lion’s den, according to English. “Aussies will all podium next year,” he said. “I’ll have to train more to keep up with them.”
 

DaGonz

Eats Squid
Funny old race at the start that was. I got the impression Tony either didn't have his pits in the same shape or was going hard and resting each lap, then going hard to catch up again. It was pretty warm, Jason was pushing the pace and Tony was effectively putting a couple of minutes into him if you count the faffing he was doing in the pits. Jason wasn't stopping though and while tony was coming in most laps at the start first, he'd spend a couple of minutes at his pit, by which time Jason and Cory were out the other end already. It became almost routine, Tony would pull in, Cory and Jason would pass him in the pits, repeat. 14hr mark rolled in and we were waiting for Tony to roll pass when Jason and Cory was first through then waited to get the split just assuming tony didn't catch up this time....

...after a while we had to get to the other feedzone so something was up, and as it turns out, he never made it back to the race. The fact he was dehy'd and low blood sugar is pretty telling I think of the pace the guys were pushing.

I did have a quiet chuckle when I think it was Roy (nice bloke, always had a pencil behind his ear) came up to us at one stage and asked when Jason was next going to stop for a break. I don't think he believed me until he saw the way Jason was "pitting", me running like an idiot beside him.

Down side of that race was having some stupid team rider steal a bottle out of my hand on the shooting range, drink out of it and throw it away all the while Jase yelling at him. if Jen didn't have a spare bottle he would have gone out without a bottle.

I don't think Jason was happy when we sent him out for another one at the finish either, but he had to finish after 23hrs and we had no idea what cory was up to. untill the last couple of laps cory was about the same pace and only about 10mins back so had to assume he was capable of pulling something out of hat English stylee...

I tell ya, it's an incredible experience having now been on both sides of the fence though, especially having done so both for riders like Jason (twice) and Jess and those that were just hoping to qualify last year. I don't know, maybe it's just me but it was hard not to get too emotionally involved in the whole caper as support crew...

I keep thinking this will be my last 24hr solo, that I've had enough, and truly I've struggled to get myself in right head space for this race. It's memories like this that make me remember how cool you feel at the finish, feeling like you've just done something great no matter which side of the fence you were on.

...anyway, I'll stop with my little soppy moment ;)

Cheers
Spoonie
 
In case you want a nice relaxing ride in Canberra ...

View attachment 183941

Now, we are trying to shorten the solo course a bit because we really don't need it to be quite that long. But this should get you started.

More info available later tonight ...
Fantastic. I have no idea what the trails are like, but that has me all excited. I can hear the rigid singlespeed twitching in anticipation downstairs in the garage. Looks like testing, but not over-steep climbs and a course that either goes up or down - none of that silly flat stuff. Like a home away from home (Wellington).
 

Blingerific

Likes Dirt
Fantastic. I have no idea what the trails are like, but that has me all excited. I can hear the rigid singlespeed twitching in anticipation downstairs in the garage. Looks like testing, but not over-steep climbs.
The climbs aren't that steep, there is the odd short/sharp pinch though. There are some places you may end up begging someone to give you their suspension equipped bike though ;-)
 

austy

Likes Bikes
i did even know there were trails on the Left side of the mountain (cotter side)-on the second of the climbs, are they new or am just a bit slow and/or disorientated. is it the same climb up as last year?
 
The climbs aren't that steep, there is the odd short/sharp pinch though. There are some places you may end up begging someone to give you their suspension equipped bike though ;-)
I can guarantee there are a few of those moments every race. I get rid of those thoughts with a moment of self-flagellation though :)
 

Blingerific

Likes Dirt
i did even know there were trails on the Left side of the mountain (cotter side)-on the second of the climbs, are they new or am just a bit slow and/or disorientated. is it the same climb up as last year?
They are lightly used fire trails. I have been wanting to build tracks in there for ages. Considering the chair lift is on the table (first thing I hit up Glen Jacobs for back in the day :) maybe I should be more consistent with my pestering?

Cheers!
 

Australia

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I'm looking but I'm not understanding...

So we go through the mouse hole, chuck a left and go out along that section we did in the recent Singletrack Mind 7hr - then we go up the Bluegums climb (aka trunk trail) through the ABC switch backs and all that - past the observatory and the DH start, down that little sniggle then up that little pinch (to Echidna gap junction i think?), chuck a left on some trail and start descending (Wedgetail/ Roller Coaster/ Porkbarrel?) Down to slickrock trail junction, then out some fire roads (i think) for a bit of gentle climbing/vicious pinching then up to Wedgetail junction before coming down skyline and luge (aka the berm track). That bit north of the observatory is going to be lonely at night... also, dont let your lights run out of batteries or it'll be death getting back!
 

spikenet

Likes Dirt
Russ, thanks for the map!

looks great and I'm sure I'll be cursing those climbs more then one time :)

the counter-flow on the crit track could be interesting!
 

scbullit

Likes Dirt
I'm looking but I'm not understanding...

So we go through the mouse hole, chuck a left and go out along that section we did in the recent Singletrack Mind 7hr - then we go up the Bluegums climb (aka trunk trail) through the ABC switch backs and all that - past the observatory and the DH start, down that little sniggle then up that little pinch (to Echidna gap junction i think?), chuck a left on some trail and start descending (Wedgetail/ Roller Coaster/ Porkbarrel?) Down to slickrock trail junction, then out some fire roads (i think) for a bit of gentle climbing/vicious pinching then up to Wedgetail junction before coming down skyline and luge (aka the berm track). That bit north of the observatory is going to be lonely at night... also, dont let your lights run out of batteries or it'll be death getting back!
Mostly right I think, but I don't think you get all the way to Echidna Gap, just basically left straight down Beginners Downhill. That is going to be a tough lap for sure!
 
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