Scott 24hr Mountain Bike Event - Kowen Forest
October 2006
Team Hardtale had entered a team of six for this year’s event but due to work commitments and injury we were down to two riders with two weeks to go. We had planned to just have a social ride and help out some team members that were going solo. Pa came to the rescue after roping in some riders from his Geriatric play group and our team had a mix of riders from their teens to their sixties. Matt and Sarah set up the base camp early on Friday morning right on the track which put us in a good position to view the action and keep in contact for rider changes, it also allowed us to be covered in dust for the full 24 hours.. With nearly 3000 riders and just as many support crew this event is huge, the logistics and area required to hold the event was enormous. The only member of our team to have completed the event previously was Matt with half the team entering in their first MTB race and their first time riding at night. Our team was Matt Bacon, Pa Bacon, Tim Hackney, Stewart Johnston, Jon Allison and Brendon Killen with Kerry, Sarah and Sharon as support crew for us and Hugh Stodart going solo.
Also operating out of our campsite were some of Matt’s colleagues from Hillross, who competed in their first event as a team of four. Nick, Brian, Iain and Oscar had all done a some training beforehand, but none were prepared for Kowen’s dust, rocks and roots. During a practice lap, Brian was heard commenting ‘does it get any easier?’ about 4km into the course.
The course was predominately single track with a few short sections of fire trail linking the sections which looped around the start area and was 21 k in length. The first part of the course was on some fast fire trails and over a steady climb which came back to the start area with some great switch back down hills and bermed single track near the main spectator area. There were a couple of curved timber bridges in this section with Pa and Brendon both missing part of the bridge but managing to stay upright.
After this there were a few solid climbs to get the heart rate up then off onto the single tracks which seemed to contour around the hills and forever twisting through the trees. The dust was the biggest problem as it cut down visibility and made breathing and taking in fluids difficult. The riders were great in giving room to faster riders and most of the competitors were very polite. I only saw one girl get taken out when a faster rider tried to pass without letting her know he was passing. I waited till she got going again and when it was my time to pass her, I called out and she pulled over but unfortunately ran straight into a tree. She said that she was tired of running into trees but it was night time, it was dusty and her lights were not too good. Most of the single track was very fast with an average speed of 15 kph easily achieved. The ruts developed quickly and in time the single track became around 1m wide in places with so many riders on the track and passing other riders. The course was a great blast with the only complaint being the continual thick dust which made it tough.
The start was an awesome site with the solo riders starting off at the start area on their bikes and the remainder of the 900 odd riders running approx 1 k down the road to their bikes. Brendon was our first rider being the youngest and he was in about the mid field by the time he got to his bike at the start. Brendon had a great first lap and was easily in the top 200 riders after the first lap. Hugh Stodart was going solo and our camp area was looking after him for the race. Hugh was in first place outright after the second lap and managed to stay in the top three for most of the afternoon. Late in the night the effect of de hydration caught up to him and he could not eat or drink for a while, after a long break he went back out in the morning and continued to clock laps of around 60min. The team had planned on doing at least three laps each and there was no pressure to bust a boiler but just have a good time. It was hard not to put in as each rider came up with good lap times. Stewart put in some great lap times both during the day and at night, on one lap he lost his front wheel and rode the last 4 k on a flat tyre, he had to borrow Tim’s bike for the last of his laps which caused considerable pain as it was set up differently to his bike.
Tim was our senior rider along with Pa and we were looking at doing around 90 min for a lap. Tim came in under 90 min so the pressure was back on for us to lower our times. We had a lap board handy with our times marked, it also allowed us to plan our roster for resting etc which worked well as we did not have to wait for any rider to get ready. Jon Allison was our fastest rider continually lapping around the 65 min mark and few riders passed him each lap, Jon had a ball and also volunteered to do the last lap. Matt did one lap with Hugh and took his time on his final lap when he stopped off at one of the porta loos positioned around the track. Pa was fairly consistent around the 80min per lap and did not hold up too many of the faster riders. Our team put together 18 laps and with a little more motivation could have done another two. We were all happy with our individual performances and it was just great being part of the friendly atmosphere at the event. Next years event will be held in the Stromlo area, roll on 2007!
Pa Egg
