2012 Forrest 6 Hour - Entries now open

[jathanas]

Yes, also good advice. Get into a routine, have a short wind down on the bike, eat and drink straight away, by which time you need to get covered up. Dont bother trying to warm up too much each lap unless the laps are quite long. Expect to ease into the lap, because yes, your legs are going to feel horrible after a bit. Have a system for counting lap times so it's one less stress. We use the iPhone clock timer with laps these days... Used to use a whiteboard.

Forgot to offer you congrats for the strong ride and the win. Awesome effort!

 

[normdouglas]

Thanks for an awesome event, loved every minute of it, the mud was just enough to make it interesting, without being bad enough to destroy drive-trains and brakes It was my first solo race after racing teams for years and I survived!

My only thought for improvement would be let the solo riders go ~10 mins before the teams. I was up the front end of the solos on the 1st lap and several times we got stuck in mariners with less experienced team riders stopped in the middle of the track. It'd be nice to have a clean 1st lap without as much congestion.

It's a great suggestion as are most others.

I guess the thing is that short of having two entirely separate laps (someone misses out on Marriners) then it won't matter how we do it, someone at sometime will encounter traffic.

Sadly this is just a fact of life with multilap enduro events. In fact it's also a fact of life in point to point races too.
At the another 100k on the weekend, there were reports of people waiting upwards of 20 minutes to have their turn to get across a bridge.
Congestion happens because we all love to ride singletrack. If we did away with the singletrack and just had fireroads then we wouldn't have such a problem. No event wants that and hence we learn to live with traffic.

I'm led to believe that there was virtually no "bank ups" and no walking rather just a slow down during the first lap. For me, that's a huge success and shows me that this starting procedure is probably the best one to date.

We listen to all suggestions so keep them coming.

Cheers

 

[cooken]

My only thought for improvement would be let the solo riders go ~10 mins before the teams. I was up the front end of the solos on the 1st lap and several times we got stuck in mariners with less experienced team riders stopped in the middle of the track. It'd be nice to have a clean 1st lap without as much congestion.

I agree with the suggested start time difference. The front solos and back-end teams entered Mariners together and it was really, really slow. Can appreciate that some congestion is a fact of life and this event does a great job with the separate loops and capped entries but a staggered start might work better in the future, even if its means a 6hr 10m solo race time.

But it was only 10 minutes of annoyance in an otherwise great event. Will be back again for sure.

 

[pistonbroke]

Thank you Forrest. I had forgoten how much I love riding that track. I had a minor case of man flu and was in two minds about racing. But I'm so glad I did. I entered the S/T dead last in the solo field and congestion was minimal. There was no walking or waiting and I only unclipped a couple of times on the first lap for people having little stumbles. I too thought the split track was a winner, but it did feel good passing a few team riders in the mud. I thought the track was brilliant. Not too hard, not too easy and just a little mud to keep you interested. I even learned to love "the rock".
On my last lap I felt I had a win by holding off a rider who had been gaining on me for a km or two. Only later, while looking at the results did I relize that he was 2 laps up and in another class. Oh well, it still felt like a win.

On another note, I am seriously considering start a rumour about a new 24 hour event at Forrest. You know it makes sense!

 

[uhuforrest]

Thank you Forrest. I had forgoten how much I love riding that track. I had a minor case of man flu and was in two minds about racing. But I'm so glad I did. I entered the S/T dead last in the solo field and congestion was minimal. There was no walking or waiting and I only unclipped a couple of times on the first lap for people having little stumbles. I too thought the split track was a winner, but it did feel good passing a few team riders in the mud. I thought the track was brilliant. Not too hard, not too easy and just a little mud to keep you interested. I even learned to love "the rock".
On my last lap I felt I had a win by holding off a rider who had been gaining on me for a km or two. Only later, while looking at the results did I relize that he was 2 laps up and in another class. Oh well, it still felt like a win.

On another note, I am seriously considering start a rumour about a new 24 hour event at Forrest. You know it makes sense!

Having a small insight into what it takes to run a 24 hour.

You need to have a couple of people working almost full-time for up to three months prior
You need to find an event centre that doesn't cross a public road (at Forrest)
You have the choice of innacurate chip timing (missing laps), or, resource-hungry manual timing, both of which are difficult over 24 hours
You need to find someone willing to organise all of the above.

I have the upmost respect for those that have/do, there is no way possible it would be me under any circumstances

Roland

 

[pistonbroke]

Have you got a date in mind yet Roland? March maybe?

 

[normdouglas]

Thank you Forrest. I had forgoten how much I love riding that track. I had a minor case of man flu and was in two minds about racing. But I'm so glad I did. I entered the S/T dead last in the solo field and congestion was minimal. There was no walking or waiting and I only unclipped a couple of times on the first lap for people having little stumbles. I too thought the split track was a winner, but it did feel good passing a few team riders in the mud. I thought the track was brilliant. Not too hard, not too easy and just a little mud to keep you interested. I even learned to love "the rock".
On my last lap I felt I had a win by holding off a rider who had been gaining on me for a km or two. Only later, while looking at the results did I relize that he was 2 laps up and in another class. Oh well, it still felt like a win.

On another note, I am seriously considering start a rumour about a new 24 hour event at Forrest. You know it makes sense!

Stay tuned for more information about the Forrest 6 hour... perhaps the goose might drink some wine?

 

[Pastavore]

I would like to add my thanks and appreciation for Saturdays event. Rode solo, first 6 hr event. Tracks were awesome, I think the crossover between the solo and teams courses worked really well, kept things interesting, gave you wheels to chase and incentive to push when no other solo riders were around. I spent the day losing ground every time we went downhill, catching back up on the climbs. Norm, can you recommend anyone to help me with my technical skills?
Kudos to all the elite riders who were unfailingly polite and appreciative in getting past on single track.
Seriously, the only remotely negative comment I could make is that I under ate for the whole 6 hrs, and was hanging for a burger when I finished, but the food tent was already closed. After taunting me with the aroma of cooking onions each time I went past.....

 

[normdouglas]

I would like to add my thanks and appreciation for Saturdays event. Rode solo, first 6 hr event. Tracks were awesome, I think the crossover between the solo and teams courses worked really well, kept things interesting, gave you wheels to chase and incentive to push when no other solo riders were around. I spent the day losing ground every time we went downhill, catching back up on the climbs. Norm, can you recommend anyone to help me with my technical skills?
Kudos to all the elite riders who were unfailingly polite and appreciative in getting past on single track.
Seriously, the only remotely negative comment I could make is that I under ate for the whole 6 hrs, and was hanging for a burger when I finished, but the food tent was already closed. After taunting me with the aroma of cooking onions each time I went past.....

Well done on your first event.
MTBSkills.com.au runs courses in Victoria, QLD and soon in Adelaide, Hobart and Cairns. Check out the website for skills courses that don't use witches hats! You will get genuine Mountain Bike skills instruction.
As for the food tent, yes this can be an issue at many races. I'd like to think that we've trained the Rotary club well enough now and they didn't actually close early, rather they ran out of food!

Very sorry and we'll try to sort that next time.

 

[Pastavore]

Well done on your first event.
MTBSkills.com.au runs courses in Victoria, QLD and soon in Adelaide, Hobart and Cairns. Check out the website for skills courses that don't use witches hats! You will get genuine Mountain Bike skills instruction.
As for the food tent, yes this can be an issue at many races. I'd like to think that we've trained the Rotary club well enough now and they didn't actually close early, rather they ran out of food!

Very sorry and we'll try to sort that next time.

Thanks Norm, will be booking in soon, don't worry.

And that certainly wasn't a serious complaint about the food, no need to apologise, was more just a reflection of how stomach churningly hungry I was by the end of the event.

Thanks again

 

[cleeshoy]

yup +1 on a fantastic event. I think my only complaint was when the sun came out and "exposed" my cheeks through my knicks
If it was overcast the whole day I would have gotten away with it Might be time to bin that pair!!
BTW Norm is your voice hoarse after 6-7 hours of being on the microphone? Your MC'ing was very entertaining (with Lance doing a great job as backup!)

Great vibe, great people to ride with - what more could you ask for?

 

[Art Vanderlay]

Top event, first 6 hour solo and loved every minute of it. Thanks to the Forrest MTB club for such a great event and great course. I was slightly underdone coming in so it was great that there was no granny ring climbs! (I don't have anything against super steep climbs it was just good timing with my reduced training. Thanks baby number 3!!!!!). Looking forward to doing it all again next year. I have no complaints so don't change anything! Every rider I passed or got passed by were nice and I received plenty of encouragement.

A long but great day. 6.5 hours of riding & 6 hours of driving!! Camping next year for sure!!

 

[normdouglas]

yup +1 on a fantastic event. I think my only complaint was when the sun came out and "exposed" my cheeks through my knicks
If it was overcast the whole day I would have gotten away with it Might be time to bin that pair!!
BTW Norm is your voice hoarse after 6-7 hours of being on the microphone? Your MC'ing was very entertaining (with Lance doing a great job as backup!)

Great vibe, great people to ride with - what more could you ask for?

Umm... as they say

 

[jamespierce]

Are there photo yet Norm ? Quite like to see if the photographer has one of me (and half the field by some reports) binning it at the end of the first section on Mariners - be nice to have a souvenir apart from a stiff, sore shoulder.

 

[jathanas]

My souvenir from the the end of the first section on Mariners, hip, shoulder, and some "carpet burns"...

I understand that Court might be sporting a much more impressive bruise.

Race photos are posted via the Forrest MTB facebook page.

 

[cleeshoy]

My souvenir from the the end of the first section on Mariners, hip, shoulder, and some "carpet burns"...

I understand that Court might be sporting a much more impressive bruise.

heheeh yes binned it on my first lap on Mariner's (4-5 mins into the race?!) and again on my second lap on a muddy Foxtail section - not sure I can take a photo of my bruises - its very near a "controversial area" and this a G rated forum

 

[cooken]

A few photos

There are a few photos here from my old man, including a few binning it on Mariners

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42041621@N04/sets/72157629609418422/

 

[jamespierce]

Let me just say for the record that this isn't the fastest line around that berm... To be honest I'm still not quite sure how I washed out - I must have ridden that corner hundreds of times... I can only guess I was distracted at just the wrong moment by the camera / flash or just misjudged the transition from corner to corner and clipped the root or something ? By the looks of the two photos I washed out both wheels at once though. Another team member racing with us did the same thing in the same spot and earned a trip to hospital for her troubles.

 

[macboy]

There was an exposed tree root just in the entry to that berm running gently right to left. It almost got me a few times

 

[jathanas]

Let me just say for the record that this isn't the fastest line around that berm... To be honest I'm still not quite sure how I washed out - I must have ridden that corner hundreds of times... I can only guess I was distracted at just the wrong moment by the camera / flash or just misjudged the transition from corner to corner and clipped the root or something ? By the looks of the two photos I washed out both wheels at once though. Another team member racing with us did the same thing in the same spot and earned a trip to hospital for her troubles.

Thanks for the chuckle James, and congrats on your solid ride. You guys flew through 16 laps!

LOL, that's a proper washout...