Mont 24 Hour. Tell us your stories

S

stinkytodamax

Likes Dirt
I'll open this with what a great weekend and thank you to the organisers for doing such a great job, not just with the trail but the entire event.

My week started badly having managed to get the flu and have the beginnings of a chest infection by Friday night. I said to myself just get over it and I did my best.

So to continue my story. We finished setting up Saturday morning and got all the bikes unloaded and the shelter erected, discussed and agreed who would be the poor sucker to do the 400m run and additonal 3kms. After that I picked up my bike and lent it against our stand, turned my back and watched the whole stand fall over including all of bikes. Result. Scratched my Carbon 29er, my team mates brand new 29er and another bike and to top it off our first riders rear spoke broke in the fall. What a fantastic start. Thank you bike culture for fixing that wheel.

To the race. Our new first rider did an amazing run finishing top 50 and staying there until it was hit by 3 punctures in the last 7 or so kms. First lap 1:38. My flu infected body was next and I managed a 1:05 including an over the bars after clipping a tree, third rider one bettered our opener and got four punctures. 2 hour lap. Fourth and last rider who was meant to be our first got out just before 5pm. The feeling was the horse had bolted on any kind of result.


Thank you to everyone trail side that helped our guys out.

We survived the night but I was wrecked and cold only mamaged 2 laps along with the other guys. Several stacks during the night didnt help us.

We were all tired and broken, but can't wait till next year.

Thank you organisers and marshalls, amazing job, and thank you everyone for being so reasonable and considerate around the trails, passing or being passed is only a result of people working together to ensure everyone has a good time.


Cheers
 
hifiandmtb

hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
Wow - some story.

Our race was ticking over pretty ok (considering none of us had done much training) - we (over 40s 4-man) were in the 1'06" to 1'11" min lap time & moved into the night laps looking forward to the cold when our big gun Seb pulled out to overtake someone & went down hard.

Result: dislocated shoulder, which wasn't put back in place until 2am at Canberra hospital. Took the wind out of our sails so we called it quits at 2am. Poor Seb. He was back at camp at 11am looking a little sore :-( I feel most sorry for the poor bloke who fractured his femur. Ouch!

Still a mightily enjoyable & professionally run event.
 
Antsonline

Antsonline

Likes Dirt
Great race, fantastic trail conditions given what we had been expecting, and great vibe all round.

I'd like to say a huge thank-you to the chap that gave me a gas bomb during the race as I was sat on the side of the track having used my spare once already. As promised, I gave a spare bomb to the guys on the mic when I finished my lap and bought one - hope you got it.

As one of the faster guys on the circuit, I'd also like to say thanks to all the riders that did such a great job of moving over when possible. What I found really interesting was how quickly tired people move on Sunday morning compare to saturday arvo. Pretty much everyone did all they could.

Apologies to the guy who was passed by two of us together on the final descent, he waved us through, but none of us had seen the tree-stump that was in his way. He didnt fall, but stopped abruptly. Unintentional - and sorry.

The only bad story of the weekend was the dude I called track 3 or 4 times to at about 5pm on Saturday and he responded with 'nah mate, I'm not moving - its a race - you'll have to find your way around'. Pretty average. Still - the rear numbers plates arent just there to report the racing tactics of the Elite.....

Thanks to all involved, it was a great great weekend and I cant ever remember riding a course so tacky as the one at about 10am on Sunday morning. The dew had soaked in, and meant it was grippier than anything I have experienced.

Prizes - lovely trophy - really pleased with that..... 6x10speed cassettes - great, but paired with 6x9speed chains - odd. Still - chain will go to a club raffle. :)
 
c3024446

c3024446

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Is it usually that cold in Canberra this time of year? I struggled big time at 5am waiting in transition and it is barely 4 degrees. Might have to harden up. Track was great for how much rain you guys have had. Only issue was picking a line through Bliss Out's bog hole at night and one corner on the Beer Garden which i binned it in the mud.

Our team of 3 ended up doing 14 laps, including a decent night break and clocked off early at 10.30am. Our softest 24hr yet, the excuses of being a man down from the start killed our ambition. The goal was to ride as many laps as if we were in a 4 man team. I did 5, i'm happy. Great event, thanks people. Also thank you for not stealing my Garmin, lights and iPhone from the charging tent :fat:
 
F

fatnslow

Likes Bikes
great event

Our team of six was going to be a team of four until I reminded a mate that he still has to pay for his spot so he ended up riding.

I pick him and his boys up and hook his trailer up to my dual cab ute, ask if old mate has checked the trailer and remember that I left my riding shoes at home so head back to my place (on the way) to pick them up. No biggie and was the only thing that saved us I reckon.

As I drive away from my place I watch the left wheel oscillate about 40 degrees , so I stop reverse back to the front of my house and grab a trolley jack out of the shed and jack her up, the inner bearing was gone. completely. not there. No biggie as its saturday morning at 9.50 shops are open.

Grab the outer bearing head the 15 minutes each way to supercheap, make sure that the old outer bearing matches the new, grab two sets as the mate who owns the trailer mentions in passing that they are the original eight year old bearings and he has never tightened, repacked or checked and I expect to have to do both. Back home and the 30 minute trip has taken 55 minutes.

Get home, clean all the old gunk and bits out and in with the new, and fuck me the wheel still wobbles, pull it all apart and FFS the bearing we replaced are a ford trailer kit and the out bearing is slapping around the axle with a few mm to spare.

Back to super cheap and get two holden kits. At this stage old matey pipes up and mentioned that his dad replaced that as he was wood carting with the trailer a few years (yes years) back and overloaded the trailer in the bush and had to replace a wheel bearing after the wheel came off. Old mate has been using the trailer since, several trips out west and several coast trips.

So back home and my lovely wife (who is proud of me for not having chucked a wobbly by now) has made us lunch and even made me an espresso.
Whilst scoffing down a ham tomato and cheese sanga the team rings with a Where the Fuck are you, your the next rider.

Finish lunch and chuck the wheel bearings on and the hub I look at the clock and its 12.30 race has started. I am still in my front yard covered in grease.

Get out to the track get the tent set up and I am bumped to fifth rider to let me compose myself. check my bike and flat tyre. no biggie, replace the tube, my young fella wants to help and like had done heaps of time puts the pump onto the valve except this time he snaps the end of the valve off. off with the tyre again except this time I end up breaking all three of my tyre levers (damn you UST tyres, and yes I need to Ghetto to tubeless)

Take my six year old up to the kids race and have to leave him with his mum whilst I get ready for my ride.

Head out for a lap right on five so have lights sorted, but realise that I have my rather dark sunnies on so when I start cramping at the 6km stage I chuck them in my bag and realise that I forgot to fill my hydration pack up, OK slow down and pace myself. First good downhill rear brake lever comes to the bar... (I got the cable shortened and new olives put on this week at my LBS)

The rest of the lap was interesting on the descents but I get back to transition and drop my bike to the SRAM guys who bleed my brakes and by the looks of it cleaned the chain and tuned my cables. Thanks again fella's

Head out for my second lap at midnight and the cramps are back even though I have hydrated, electrolyted and pretty much prepped for this lap. 2Hrs and 8 minutes later I get back to transition and my right knee is full of fluid, and thats me done in this race no more riding for me.

Except for packing up where as we had disconnected the trailer to get it into the campsite, I asked old mate to guide me as I reversed up and bang I ran into his fucking trailer "cause he got distracted...."


Did I have a shit race - yes.

Did I still enjoy myself - yes.

Will I do it again - yes.


FnS
 
FatGuts

FatGuts

Likes Dirt
I posted this on The Berm:

Yup, I would agree, great weekend, firstly, great team, Nat, Matt & Craig, it was fun & we all worked together well.
Special thanks to Nat for organising the Jerseys & sponsorship *insert arms up emoticon here*
Oh & Craig for organising a heater, I think I was going to marry that heater a 5:30 when I got up for my dawn lap.

I had not ridden the course, the one ride I organised to get out there was a bit of a flop & we didnt get much in but WOW!.
My first lap was sensational, the bermy bits in Front Nine were spesh (they were not there when Craig rode through aparrently), The exclusion of Organ & Angle Grinder were good (hated them last year) the newer improved corners on Kowalski were great, loved the link into Rolling Thunder, two great tracks together. I didnt mind Love Child, it was better than that fire road pinch last year to the gate plus the entertainment was good!
The muddy detour track had a B, C, D & E line by the end.
Having the Beer Garden straight down to transition was awesome. Man it was a great track & I cant wait to do it again.

Every body that I saw broken down I asked if they were alright & they all replied "Yep". The broken leg was on my second lap & was in Resless Natives I think, ambos were there & he looked ok. Cold but OK.
Drongo riders? I encountered one on Rolling Thunder at the bottom. I caught a train of about 7 bikes, the bloke in front wanted to let me through but I said not to panic as I will get them all on the FT. Anyway this bloke came from behind & biffed & barged his way through eveybody to the checkpoint & took off. He had a fox jersey on so I knicknamed him "The Fox Farkwit". He didnt knock anyone off so I decided to leave it. Anyway on my dawn lap he redeemed himself, he caught me on Love Child, politely asked & waited for me to organise a spot for him to pass. He even said thank you......

I didnt get the drummer but I got the guitarist, it was cool listening him belt out the tunes as we ground up Love Child.

Did anybody else have the pixies under the mushrooms in Rolling Thunder?
 
EzyLee

EzyLee

Likes Dirt
Awesome event as per usual. Those trails were some of the best I have ridden in… well, since forever. It is the first time I have actually come back from a hot lap and refused to tag my team mate as I was going out again because I was having too much fun. Manners were great out on course, I only had once incident when one hero rider decided to pass a train in one go when I told him we were looking for a spot (There were learners in front of me at this point). He got an ear full from everyone.

But my biggest highlight was getting on the BBQ and trying to give out snag sangers to finishing riders on the Saturday night. They were mostly rejected, but some people loved them… of course there was a bit of fun heckling involved. To the guy with the dreads that rejected a sausage sanger, sorry for calling you a vegan.

 
FatGuts

FatGuts

Likes Dirt
c3024446 said:
Is it usually that cold in Canberra this time of year? I struggled big time at 5am waiting in transition and it is barely 4 degrees. Might have to harden up.
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It can be as you saw, last night had a low of 12.............cruel!
 
Xcisok

Xcisok

Squid
Early morning start, rush around grabbing what I can. Last year forgot to take a chair. Not going to make that mistake again.

Get to the camping ground set up tents and all the gear.

I then was informed that I had drew the short card to start the race.

Quick check of the bike, all is in order.

Time to get changed ..... Fark where are my shoes. Ring the wife and she informs me quickly they are under the coffee table where they do not belong.

Fly home grab shoes get back to see the race has started.

Change of line up sees me start last.

Start my lap all going good, feeling strong carrying some good pace, about four and half klms left come up quick on a slower rider call track, He calls go right, mid corner I pop to the right and Fark me there is what remains of a fallen tree, I swerve to miss the stump end up losing grip with the front wheel. Bike hits ground really hard. Get up to ride off .... Fark where is the end of my bar gone. Pick up the smashed part of bar. Ride the last four and bit klms holding on to brakes and using my little finger to brake. End up posting one hour 3 min lap. Bar.jpg :(

Thanks for Brent and the crew from Bike Culture for sorting out a new bar for me I was able to finish the weekend. :)
 
H

hawkeye

Likes Bikes
Antsonline said:
Apologies to the guy who was passed by two of us together on the final descent, he waved us through, but none of us had seen the tree-stump that was in his way. He didnt fall, but stopped abruptly. Unintentional - and sorry.
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That might have been me... :pirate: if it was you, the call back to confirm I was OK was much appreciated.

The track manners of all the riders both passing and being passed were excellent. Some even had time to joke as they went past:

"Hey mate, someone stole one of your fork legs!"
"Nah, it fell off"
"Don't you hate it when that happens?"

One day I might be fit enough to have a brain that sharp while grinding up a pinch climb at 4 in the morning... :p
 
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C

Canbaroo

Likes Dirt
...... salute to the young!

... me too, but everyone else who passed me [about 247 peeps a lap] were also younger than me...... but I overtook another bunch [not that many] who were also younger than me. Our Foursome ['Go Freddie' 18 Laps Avg Age 58] had our night ride destroyed by that ugly noise on 'Love Child' ....... was that music......? aaaaagh !!

I was humming [1968] Diana and the Supremes and really pumping it at 3.2kph...... bit slower than my 45rpm single!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IluVWcNtR8
 
dcrofty

dcrofty

Eats Squid
Can any locals or those in the know let me know who the photogs on track were? There were heaps and I'd like to see what shots they got, might grab a couple if they turn out OK.
 
L

Lorday

Eats Squid
Whoever organised the drummer to be out at night. You are a fucking legend. Best moment of the 2012 mont for me.
 
Antsonline

Antsonline

Likes Dirt
Lorday said:
Whoever organised the drummer to be out at night. You are a fucking legend. Best moment of the 2012 mont for me.
Click to expand...
Agree - drummer was a legend. Came round for a second lap, and he was gone. My disappointment was immense. Every lap after that, I hoped he would be there, but he was gone - tempted away by the Super Mario style mushrooms probably......
 
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