2010 World Solo 24 Hour Championships

T

tegski

Likes Dirt
UKMatt - thanks for the fantastic write up. Really enjoyed reading it.
I too saw a rider (299) ride over a brown snake about 10m in front of me. I think he thought it was a stick and then as he rode over it realised that it was a 1m long snake…as he passed his head swivelled around (about 180 degrees like an owl with a "what the ?" expression) in amazement. "Yes it was a brown snake" was my comment - we had a laugh and chat about it…only in Australia!!!
As one worried Canadian said to all at the start…"At least in Canada you can see the dangerous things - here all the dangerous things are invisible!"
 
normdouglas

normdouglas

Likes Dirt
B

Beechie

Banned
Different wildlife
Its alright, big mammals make life more exciting!
Click to expand...
Apparently I have slept with a few big mammals - this I have found out the next morning after the beer effect wore off. Probably able to attest to the fact that the skinny and slippery things can also "bite" a poor bloke.
I now keep away from beer to prevent another big mammal confrontation. (that is mammal not mammaries.)
 
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Dreggsy

Dreggsy

Likes Bikes and Dirt
so close but yet so far away

prepare for a bit of a ramble

hey all, i thought i'd say hello after this mammoth effort of an event

So, actual proper racing for 24hrs,

I was racing age class 35-39 and there were 70 of us
I went out hard but not something i was comfortable with,
I wanted to do approx 1hr laps as i know i could keep this up for a good while.
And for a good while i did, and i surprised myself, i surprised myself alot!.

I started with my joggers on as there was no way i was going to roll an ankle in the first 300 meters
I have very weak ankles from skateboarding ( i was a semi pro skater before tony hawk on the playstation made it all cool again)
I ran ( comfortably) way past my bike and was a like a salmon upstream.
and for the next 16hrs I was pushing the bike along and was feeling really really good.
I didnt miss a beat the whole time
the best part was hitting the berm track and catching up to the italian lady who got 2nd or 3rd?
and instead of sighing about it i shouted out wheeeee
and the girl in front shouted wheee and we both went through the whole section with massive smiles on our faces.
until
here i was 16hrs into the race, 20th overall, and 6th in my category. I am on the far climb of the mountain,
I am descending at top speed when I hit something big and get a slow flat, I manage to jog the last crest into the neutral zone, after inspecting for obvious sidewall tear I get out my co2 canister and reinflate my tubeless tyre, it goes down just after I spot a decent sized hole in the middle of the tread,
sweet, out comes tube, man these tyres are hard to get off, hmmm I have no tyre lever, ok what can I use?, I take off my front wheel and remove the skewer and use the handle of that to get the bead out.
off comes one of the nuts and there goes the skewer spring down the hill, I chase it down and regather the bloody thing,
now I'm rushing around, in goes new tube, on go the wheels, and pump up the tyre with my last co2 cartridge,
wheeee into skyline I go, up out the saddle I pedal and it's all a bit squishy underneath, hmm not quite enough air but if i'm smooth enough i'll get home, after all I can see it from up here.
by the time I'm halfway along skyline the rear wheel slides out and I find myself a part of the scenery, shoulder first.
I get to the bridge being a nice and open area to fix things, I have no patches, no spare tube as the one I used had a hole worn into it vis the tools in my seatbag, along comes another rider who, throws me a new tube, put the new tube in and all is good, EBUK turns up and misses all the action which is lucky as he would have been on the ground bent in half from laughing, ( sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself just to keep it real)

i get back to camp to a worried crew, my girlfriend gives me a heart shaped banana sandwich, which i dunk into some hot soup, steal the wheel off her bike ( my spare bike was a singlespeed which i was in no mood for),
I try my best to make up the time i had lost (40mins) get back to basecamp, install my now fixed wheel and 2 new tubes out of the box, and race like hell to get back to my previous 6th place, I get to the start of the climb on the far side of the mountain and i am cooked, dawn is rising and i have nothing,
it took me 2hrs to do that last lap, maybe i should have went for a 2x9 system rather than the 1x9 i was running.

I don't go out again i was there to podium and after all of the fussing around i had lost alot of time in the very late stages of the game.

I went from 6th to 10th in 40mins and there was no way I had the proper energy to chase those spots back
so my GF and I had a well earned nap.

I love my girl friend she makes me funny shaped sandwiches.



if i hadn't have flatted it would have been a completely different story as while i was in 6th place 3rd 4th and 5th
were only a few minutes ahead,

a big congrats to everybody who gave it a go

a big thanks to Ebuk and QZ13 just for being there and keeping it real

Pill wizard for giving me somebody to chase down even though i had no idea i was either 30min ahead of you or 30mins behind you.
your wife is great and my GF wants to hang out with her while we go riding.....

i still have a massive yellow bruise on my upper arm which looks like it wont go away in anytime soon.

i am now going to sell all my bikes and take up golf

i will take away so many memories from this event and alot of them i cannot put into words.
it was a world champs in my backyard and i'm proud of what i managed to achieve, even if i didnt finish properly.
 
bear the bear

bear the bear

Is a real bear
Dreggsy said:
prepare for a bit of a ramble

hey all, i thought i'd say hello after this mammoth effort of an event

So, actual proper racing for 24hrs,

I was racing age class 35-39 and there were 70 of us
I went out hard but not something i was comfortable with,
I wanted to do approx 1hr laps as i know i could keep this up for a good while.
And for a good while i did, and i surprised myself, i surprised myself alot!.

I started with my joggers on as there was no way i was going to roll an ankle in the first 300 meters
I have very weak ankles from skateboarding ( i was a semi pro skater before tony hawk on the playstation made it all cool again)
I ran ( comfortably) way past my bike and was a like a salmon upstream.
and for the next 16hrs I was pushing the bike along and was feeling really really good.
I didnt miss a beat the whole time
the best part was hitting the berm track and catching up to the italian lady who got 2nd or 3rd?
and instead of sighing about it i shouted out wheeeee
and the girl in front shouted wheee and we both went through the whole section with massive smiles on our faces.
until
here i was 16hrs into the race, 20th overall, and 6th in my category. I am on the far climb of the mountain,
I am descending at top speed when I hit something big and get a slow flat, I manage to jog the last crest into the neutral zone, after inspecting for obvious sidewall tear I get out my co2 canister and reinflate my tubeless tyre, it goes down just after I spot a decent sized hole in the middle of the tread,
sweet, out comes tube, man these tyres are hard to get off, hmmm I have no tyre lever, ok what can I use?, I take off my front wheel and remove the skewer and use the handle of that to get the bead out.
off comes one of the nuts and there goes the skewer spring down the hill, I chase it down and regather the bloody thing,
now I'm rushing around, in goes new tube, on go the wheels, and pump up the tyre with my last co2 cartridge,
wheeee into skyline I go, up out the saddle I pedal and it's all a bit squishy underneath, hmm not quite enough air but if i'm smooth enough i'll get home, after all I can see it from up here.
by the time I'm halfway along skyline the rear wheel slides out and I find myself a part of the scenery, shoulder first.
I get to the bridge being a nice and open area to fix things, I have no patches, no spare tube as the one I used had a hole worn into it vis the tools in my seatbag, along comes another rider who, throws me a new tube, put the new tube in and all is good, EBUK turns up and misses all the action which is lucky as he would have been on the ground bent in half from laughing, ( sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself just to keep it real)

i get back to camp to a worried crew, my girlfriend gives me a heart shaped banana sandwich, which i dunk into some hot soup, steal the wheel off her bike ( my spare bike was a singlespeed which i was in no mood for),
I try my best to make up the time i had lost (40mins) get back to basecamp, install my now fixed wheel and 2 new tubes out of the box, and race like hell to get back to my previous 6th place, I get to the start of the climb on the far side of the mountain and i am cooked, dawn is rising and i have nothing,
it took me 2hrs to do that last lap, maybe i should have went for a 2x9 system rather than the 1x9 i was running.

I don't go out again i was there to podium and after all of the fussing around i had lost alot of time in the very late stages of the game.

I went from 6th to 10th in 40mins and there was no way I had the proper energy to chase those spots back
so my GF and I had a well earned nap.

I love my girl friend she makes me funny shaped sandwiches.



if i hadn't have flatted it would have been a completely different story as while i was in 6th place 3rd 4th and 5th
were only a few minutes ahead,

a big congrats to everybody who gave it a go

a big thanks to Ebuk and QZ13 just for being there and keeping it real

Pill wizard for giving me somebody to chase down even though i had no idea i was either 30min ahead of you or 30mins behind you.
your wife is great and my GF wants to hang out with her while we go riding.....

i still have a massive yellow bruise on my upper arm which looks like it wont go away in anytime soon.

i am now going to sell all my bikes and take up golf

i will take away so many memories from this event and alot of them i cannot put into words.
it was a world champs in my backyard and i'm proud of what i managed to achieve, even if i didnt finish properly.
Click to expand...
nice! (10Chars)
 
quiggs

quiggs

Likes Dirt
Dreggsy said:
prepare for a bit of a ramble

hey all, i thought i'd say hello after this mammoth effort of an event

So, actual proper racing for 24hrs,

I was racing age class 35-39 and there were 70 of us
I went out hard but not something i was comfortable with,
I wanted to do approx 1hr laps as i know i could keep this up for a good while.
And for a good while i did, and i surprised myself, i surprised myself alot!.

I started with my joggers on as there was no way i was going to roll an ankle in the first 300 meters
I have very weak ankles from skateboarding ( i was a semi pro skater before tony hawk on the playstation made it all cool again)
I ran ( comfortably) way past my bike and was a like a salmon upstream.
and for the next 16hrs I was pushing the bike along and was feeling really really good.
I didnt miss a beat the whole time
the best part was hitting the berm track and catching up to the italian lady who got 2nd or 3rd?
and instead of sighing about it i shouted out wheeeee
and the girl in front shouted wheee and we both went through the whole section with massive smiles on our faces.
until
here i was 16hrs into the race, 20th overall, and 6th in my category. I am on the far climb of the mountain,
I am descending at top speed when I hit something big and get a slow flat, I manage to jog the last crest into the neutral zone, after inspecting for obvious sidewall tear I get out my co2 canister and reinflate my tubeless tyre, it goes down just after I spot a decent sized hole in the middle of the tread,
sweet, out comes tube, man these tyres are hard to get off, hmmm I have no tyre lever, ok what can I use?, I take off my front wheel and remove the skewer and use the handle of that to get the bead out.
off comes one of the nuts and there goes the skewer spring down the hill, I chase it down and regather the bloody thing,
now I'm rushing around, in goes new tube, on go the wheels, and pump up the tyre with my last co2 cartridge,
wheeee into skyline I go, up out the saddle I pedal and it's all a bit squishy underneath, hmm not quite enough air but if i'm smooth enough i'll get home, after all I can see it from up here.
by the time I'm halfway along skyline the rear wheel slides out and I find myself a part of the scenery, shoulder first.
I get to the bridge being a nice and open area to fix things, I have no patches, no spare tube as the one I used had a hole worn into it vis the tools in my seatbag, along comes another rider who, throws me a new tube, put the new tube in and all is good, EBUK turns up and misses all the action which is lucky as he would have been on the ground bent in half from laughing, ( sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself just to keep it real)

i get back to camp to a worried crew, my girlfriend gives me a heart shaped banana sandwich, which i dunk into some hot soup, steal the wheel off her bike ( my spare bike was a singlespeed which i was in no mood for),
I try my best to make up the time i had lost (40mins) get back to basecamp, install my now fixed wheel and 2 new tubes out of the box, and race like hell to get back to my previous 6th place, I get to the start of the climb on the far side of the mountain and i am cooked, dawn is rising and i have nothing,
it took me 2hrs to do that last lap, maybe i should have went for a 2x9 system rather than the 1x9 i was running.

I don't go out again i was there to podium and after all of the fussing around i had lost alot of time in the very late stages of the game.

I went from 6th to 10th in 40mins and there was no way I had the proper energy to chase those spots back
so my GF and I had a well earned nap.

I love my girl friend she makes me funny shaped sandwiches.



if i hadn't have flatted it would have been a completely different story as while i was in 6th place 3rd 4th and 5th
were only a few minutes ahead,

a big congrats to everybody who gave it a go

a big thanks to Ebuk and QZ13 just for being there and keeping it real

Pill wizard for giving me somebody to chase down even though i had no idea i was either 30min ahead of you or 30mins behind you.
your wife is great and my GF wants to hang out with her while we go riding.....

i still have a massive yellow bruise on my upper arm which looks like it wont go away in anytime soon.

i am now going to sell all my bikes and take up golf

i will take away so many memories from this event and alot of them i cannot put into words.
it was a world champs in my backyard and i'm proud of what i managed to achieve, even if i didnt finish properly.
Click to expand...
Jas, don't take up golf it's more frustrationg than anything I have ever tried

quiggs
 
wittman13

wittman13

Likes Dirt
Dreggsy said:
.....
a big thanks to Ebuk and QZ13 just for being there and keeping it real

Pill wizard for giving me somebody to chase down even though i had no idea i was either 30min ahead of you or 30mins behind you.
your wife is great and my GF wants to hang out with her while we go riding.....

.........it was a world champs in my backyard and i'm proud of what i managed to achieve, even if i didnt finish properly.
Click to expand...
Scott and Brad are the shizzle. And Suse is pretty darn good too. I was wondering what was going on when you "disappeared". You had done the hard yards with the sun coming up I thought it was your time to shine. Through the night I noticed that you were running 1X9 and thought you where an animal for doing so.

Great race none the less. Now is time for beers (which I hope you have already been consuming).
 
macboy

macboy

Likes Dirt
Glad to see I wasn't the only one

Dreggsy said:
I will take away so many memories from this event and alot of them i cannot put into words.
it was a world champs in my backyard and i'm proud of what i managed to achieve, even if i didnt finish properly.
Click to expand...
I was cruising along nicely early on, about 25th in Elite and quite happy as it was my first full 24 solo as I qualified at the shortened Jet Black.

On the 3rd or maybe 4th lap something pierced my rear tyre on the switchbacks. I wasn't overly worried, I quickly pulled off to the side and got the usual "do you have everything?" and "are you ok?" question from the riders that passed me. Great to see that even at the worlds people were still willing to stop and help. You've got to love mtb people, they're the best. Anyway, I wasn't worried, I flipped my bike over to take off the wheel and grabbed my Co2 and spare tube. Then my heart sank as I realised my Co2 had emptied itself in my tool bag. Luckily a bloke called Chris Abell (is he on here?) who we'd made friends with at the Jet Black stopped and lent me his pump. That should have been that, but then my spare tube wouldn't take air. Still not worrying, verbally at least, I was racking my brain for what to do. Chris then lent me his spare tube and I was on my way.
I thought my bad luck was behind me until I then pinch flatted the rear at the start of Skyline on the same lap. I was on foot for the rest of the lap, about 3 kms worth. I tried to coast along but the tyre was then coming off the rim so it was a no go. The hardest bit was making sure I didn't get in the way of any of the guys and girls bombing Skyline and Luge at full speed and looking on with jealous eyes.
It cost me around 40-50mins all up. Rather than heading out on the HT when I got back to pits I waited for my crew to change the tyre. That dropped me to 47th in Elite and my race was pretty much over, results wise at least. I did happen to get onther flat 2 laps later but that was a straight forward fix and didn't cost me any spots I think?
I eventually finished 23rd in Elite. So my world exploded on lap 4 and then I took me about 20 hrs to regain those spots, and then gain two on where I was.

So, my first 'real' 24 solo and something I'll never forget.:)
 
jmcavoy

jmcavoy

Likes Dirt
quiggs said:
thats funny, could have quite a large participant number

quiggs
Click to expand...
I'm not keen on this suggestion, there's a certain Jason I never want in my category ;)
At least next year I get away from you and Dreggsy I think, unless you areas old as me that is...
 
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Jackstack

Jackstack

Likes Dirt
jmcavoy said:
I'm not keen on this suggestion, there's a certain Jason I never want in my category ;)
At least next year I get away from you and Dreggsy I think, unless you areas old as me that is...
Click to expand...
S@#T, just what I need, more fast old farts.....I think there should be a new rule regarding Master's categories, if your able to ride at a certain pace you have to race elite. That is if your faster than say, me, then you have to step up.:cool:
 
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