Kona 24hr

MikeyOz said:

everyone else survived it all ok... ? just good memories ?

Bikesoiler should file a RR soon. He's already gone to bedibyes tonight. :o

MikeyOz said:

ohhhhh my god..... off to bed, sore, tired, sore and sore, frame cracked 14 minutes into my first lap, so myself and fellow rider were forced to share our lone bike...! an old, HEAVY, Specialized FSR, with dud front shocks and had to lug that thing around, could only manage about 1hr 20 mins per lap, 18km laps, I personally found the course very technical for my meagre MTB skills, but scrapped through with no injuries, just good fun 24 hours, found out what sleep depravation is like while trying to mountain bike, but overall, good experience, we will be back next year, with more team members and a bit more prepared.......

very well run event, although for some reason my bike was allowed to get carted back to the campsite, but not me... was told I had to walk back, even though I forfeited the lap...... strange.. but only a minor thing.....

everyone else survived it all ok... ? just good memories ?

ah, sounds like my race last year! buckled wheel in the first 10minutes, painful scary introduction to technical racing...

where'd the frame crack 'n how? sounds nasty... did they still have the flyovers this year or had they figured out some options for those fences?

cfsmtb said:

Bikesoiler should file a RR soon. He's already gone to bedibyes tonight. :o

Good to hear he got home OK. Happened to see him asleep at the wheel on the way home (parked at a rest stop). I slept from when I got home to about 6.30pm when we had to go to some friends for their farewell drinks. I don't think I was the life of the party.

My team did well, no major injuries and no mechanical issues. One more lap than last year. Course was the best condition it has ever been with a fair bit of rain on Friday compacting things down. It meant that we all found it a bit easier and with the cool conditions we were able to post times a bit quicker than last year. A couple of new sections were enjoyable too.
No ramps over the fence this year. They'd made a gap through it for coming in and out of transition. Thanks to FGP team for a great job again.

The Rhino survived, very well in fact.😄

What a race! Big thanks to the Full Gas crew for putting on the best Kona24 so far. Some improvements this year on the track & they replaced the ramps over the fence.

My team went pretty well, I think we finished 14th, given the level of competition seem to have risen since last year. I was happy to be riding faster laps & this year just broke the hour barrier.

With a 6 man team, we all got our first lap in daylight & planned to do pairs of laps for our 2nd & 3rd laps. This gives a one lap 'recovery' break for one pair & a longer sleep/rest for the others. That was the plan, so after my lap & food(I was 6th rider) I crawled in my tent for some sleep until 01:30 ish.

Sometime before 10 Dave woke me asking if I could ride early. Pete was suffering severe cramps & had ice bags wrapped to his legs. So out I went for my first night lap, felt OK, had a minor 'off' in a loose patch in the first singletrack section. Hitting the ground is one way to really wake yourself up! OK got the fall out of the way now to get riding. The rest of the lap went well, it didn't feel as smooth and fast as my first (& wouldn't be by ~10 mins) but that’s night riding :o .

I now had a 2 lap break (~2hr 20) before my next scheduled lap. Nothing to do except eat something, drink more retched Powerade & keep warm. The sky had cleared & it had gotten cold & damp. The track surface had improved with the bit of moisture & was nice & tacky, giving plenty of grip.

Just before my next lap I had a coffee. A nicer way to wake up than slamming into the ground. Tony came in & off I went. Oops still dark, turn light on. Click. Nothing, still dark. Click, click, click, sh!t, sh!t, click, click, fcuk!. Stop, rip off helmet & pack. Checked all connections looked OK, just no light. Fcuk! Ride back to camp. Tony wasn’t happy to see me. Rummage through the back of the car for tools & spare light. The battery was OK, the fuse was OK, the switch was OK. Fcuk it! I cable tied the spare light to my helmet & added some tape for good luck. The lead was too short for the battery pack to go in my hydro-pack so it got taped & strapped to the helmet also. Light on & charge off. I’d lost 25 mins d!cking with the light & didn’t know if it would be bright enough. From 10W HID to 5W Luxion & 9 AA’s on my head! Bit weighty, but enough light except for the fastest fire-road descents.

My riding time was about the same as my previous night lap, so I’m happy with the light. One lap later, the light & I are out again. It was now about 05:00 Sunday morning. I was surprised to see the eastern skyline getting light. There goes the night. Halfway around this lap there was enough light to see by. I got the dawn lap, nice!, consistent lap time too!.

Four laps done, priorities changed. Food, shower, sleep, in that order. I only left the tent when it got too hot at 09:00, needed more food too & coffee. Coffee is as important as chain lube for 24 hour MTB racing.

Thanks to Paul, Phil, Peter, Dave & Tony for being this years team.

Already thinking of next year.......

Photo of Phil in action.

Bikesoiler said:

What a race! Big thanks to the Full Gas crew for putting on the best Kona24 so far. Some improvements this year on the track & they replaced the ramps over the fence.

My team went pretty well, I think we finished 14th, given the level of competition seem to have risen since last year. I was happy to be riding faster laps & this year just broke the hour barrier.

With a 6 man team, we all got our first lap in daylight & planned to do pairs of laps for our 2nd & 3rd laps. This gives a one lap 'recovery' break for one pair & a longer sleep/rest for the others. That was the plan, so after my lap & food(I was 6th rider) I crawled in my tent for some sleep until 01:30 ish.

Sometime before 10 Dave woke me asking if I could ride early. Pete was suffering severe cramps & had ice bags wrapped to his legs. So out I went for my first night lap, felt OK, had a minor 'off' in a loose patch in the first singletrack section. Hitting the ground is one way to really wake yourself up! OK got the fall out of the way now to get riding. The rest of the lap went well, it didn't feel as smooth and fast as my first (& wouldn't be by ~10 mins) but that’s night riding :o .

I now had a 2 lap break (~2hr 20) before my next scheduled lap. Nothing to do except eat something, drink more retched Powerade & keep warm. The sky had cleared & it had gotten cold & damp. The track surface had improved with the bit of moisture & was nice & tacky, giving plenty of grip.

Just before my next lap I had a coffee. A nicer way to wake up than slamming into the ground. Tony came in & off I went. Oops still dark, turn light on. Click. Nothing, still dark. Click, click, click, sh!t, sh!t, click, click, fcuk!. Stop, rip off helmet & pack. Checked all connections looked OK, just no light. Fcuk! Ride back to camp. Tony wasn’t happy to see me. Rummage through the back of the car for tools & spare light. The battery was OK, the fuse was OK, the switch was OK. Fcuk it! I cable tied the spare light to my helmet & added some tape for good luck. The lead was too short for the battery pack to go in my hydro-pack so it got taped & strapped to the helmet also. Light on & charge off. I’d lost 25 mins d!cking with the light & didn’t know if it would be bright enough. From 10W HID to 5W Luxion & 9 AA’s on my head! Bit weighty, but enough light except for the fastest fire-road descents.

My riding time was about the same as my previous night lap, so I’m happy with the light. One lap later, the light & I are out again. It was now about 05:00 Sunday morning. I was surprised to see the eastern skyline getting light. There goes the night. Halfway around this lap there was enough light to see by. I got the dawn lap, nice!, consistent lap time too!.

Four laps done, priorities changed. Food, shower, sleep, in that order. I only left the tent when it got too hot at 09:00, needed more food too & coffee. Coffee is as important as chain lube for 24 hour MTB racing.

Thanks to Paul, Phil, Peter, Dave & Tony for being this years team.

Already thinking of next year.......

Photo of Phil in action.

all sounds good...... 🙂 certainly was an eye opening experience.... and the speed of some of the guys absoluetely flying around that track was just awesome to see...

we only had 2 in our team and I was handed start duties, so my main aim was to survive in 1 piece for my 1/2 Ironman next weekend and keep Damien company.

I actually started really well, was getting into the riding, I struggled badly on the Rocky Horror and following switchback section, which is rocky and technical (for me) managed to get through ok that as well and was starting to gain confidence, round a corner, stamp down some power and I was almost catapaulted off the bike forward, s**t, get off the bike, my rear derailleur has hitched itself onto the spokes and is now pointing north instead of south, oh man..!! my beautiful Stumpjumper *sob sob sob* 6 years of faithful service, frame just gave out right near where the hanger is connected... so walk back to find the next check point, forfeit my lap so Damien can get out and get started, got back really disappointed and ready to go home but stuck it out and we shared Damiens loan bike because his bike was stolen the wednesday before the weekend, I think we got 6 laps in each with the 2 of us, the day/evening riding was cool, the night riding was just awesome fun, loved it, had no problems with lights 🙂 I ate so much food it was unbelieveable, protein/carb bars, powerade on powerade, licorice, lollies, bread-peanut-butter sandwhiches probably the HARDEST thing for the entire weekend was getting out of the sleeping bag at 4 in the morning for my next lap, that took a lot of mental effort.

GREAT FUN event, will be back with more team members next year.... maybe a team from here could be entered ?? I will train a little more on my mountain biking in time for next year.

Well firstly, have some photos: http://web.aanet.com.au/guy/24hr/

For our team, it was a bit of a mixed raced but mostly good.

Rohan went out first, and came in with solid 55 minutes. Carson followed that with a 56 minute lap, and I rounded out our three man with a 53 minuter. Things kept going well for the afternoon and evening, but just after midnight it began to fall apart.

The sun had set with us in fifth place in our catagory, and some good night laps might have elevated us to fourth. But at 1:40am when Rohan finished his fifth lap, reality began to bite. The sore knee which has been plauging him for a few months was playing up, and he collapsed into bed. I came in just over an hour later feeling exactly the same way with no knee problems to blame it on. Not one but two crashes just meters before the timing tent gave Dubba a bit of a laugh, and told me I needed some sleep.

At this point I have to bow down to Carson. Bloody legend that he is, he offered to do a double. At a quarter to three in the morning. This gave me a few hours of sleep before I went out and did a double of own, finishing at 8am. Another four laps and the 24 hours were up, with Rohan crossing the line at 12:10pm. Our final tally was 22 laps, which I think put us 7th. Well short of our target of 24 laps, but I guess it wasn't bad for our first 24 hour. Perhaps we can get a podium next year 🙂.

3-Man team, 27 laps, 1st in catergory and an amazing 4th overall.

It was hard work, we stuck to our plan of taking turns 1-2-3, 1-2-3 etc etc....which left us with only time to warm down, eat and warm-up during laps. The race started very badly for us, with our first rider having a double flat in the first, then me snapping a pedal in the second lap, and our third rider slashing his arm open in the third lap. Things got alot better from there, and we started to crawl back through the leaders. We dug hard, very hard....red lined and we were hurting, not knowing if we could continue. Then an announcement over the loudspeaker, our little 3-man team was sitting in 2nd overall....what a rush. We strapped on our lights and kept hammering through the night, fatigued and the ability to not 'eat' was starting to hit us all. Before we knew it, we were at the 6-hour to go mark.....the run home. We had our whiteboard all marked up, knowing exactly how many laps we had each to go. My second last lap, I dug hard, trying to keep our now 3rd place overall lead, that saw me come into transition, and nearly show everyone the contents of my stomach. My other two teammates both rode in the 'hurtbags', only riding on the sheer will that it would be over soon. We all found inspiration in seeing the solo riders out there, and knowing they were hurting as well. My last lap came so quick, number 9 for me, and it flew by and I actually enjoyed myself in the flowing course. I tagged my teammate, told him to enjoy himself on the glory lap, and that was it. We waited until he arrived, and right on time he came screaming down the hill. It was over, completed.....our last enduro for the year.

We were shelled, and then some. We all had an hours sleep before presentation, just so we could stand and be presentable. I am always amazed, just how fantatic our bodies are, the solo riders are truly amazing.......and that is the next challenge for myself.

Well done. Some great results there. My best time was 1.02, so maybe next year I'll work towards breaking the hour.

I saw an ambulance leave the campsite at about 12.30am with someone inside. Anyone know more about that?

Yesterday on my commute to the city, I saw a guy in Canning Street wheeling a bike to his door with a Kona number plate. I think he recognised me so I gave him a wave. Would that have been anyone from here?

I showed my daughters some photos last night and when I got to the first shot of the kid's race, the older girl recognised a boy from her school. He was the one that won the bravery award for having a big stack but getting back on his 12" bike and completing the race inspite of having a bloody face. Poor kid, broke down when it was over, and was comforted by Rob Eva before his dad came along.

Results are up now: fullgaspromotions.com.auresults.htmlOpen ↗

"MikeyOz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
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Quoted message said:

everyone else survived it all ok... ? just good memories ?

May as well chuck in my ride report...

We had a pretty good race, I was originaly going to do pairs with my BSC
teammate Alex but we got cold feet and found a couple of ring-ins to make up
a foursome.

I think the most important thing about a fun enduro is setting up a good
campsite. We shacked up with two other teams, pooled our resources and had
one of the most fun campsites yet.

As for the racing it was all good, the course was in great condition and the
weather was perfect. The numbers were a bit down but this made for much
more uninterupted riding.
The real star of our team was Alex who pulled off fastest female day lap,
night lap and had times that would make most guys envious. We could've
taken it easy but thankfully our competition was a team with John Claxton
and Jason Jackson to give us something to shoot for. We got within two
minutes of them in the middle of the night but Claxton could put 5 minutes
into any of us every time he went out.
Our only stuff ups were a bodged transition that saw Tex have to do a double
lap and run out of food and water and me running out of food and water on my
last lap.

So the final figures were: 27 laps, 2nd place in mixed fours and 6th place
overall. As testament to Alex's performance we would've done equaly well or
better in any other category.