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This is Vaughn's 2005 Mont Solo Story:
Training: Training is key. Without the effort put in before The Race, your performance will suffer.
Having said that, there is no experience like being on the track, in The Race, with 500 to 600 other riders. However, riding as often as possible, as far as possible, is vital. Training with others is also important. I have been lucky enough to have trained with "The Reagans" and others. The Reagan Team are more social riders, as opposed to your gun riders who are in the 20+ lap league. The Reagans should not be written off, however, given their 70 to 80 minute lap time average: Their's is a very creditable effort. (44th out of 76 Teams of 6, who finished.)
Planning: Given I rode Solo, I did not have the luxury of a Team Mum. This means that all of the outcomes on The Day depended on how well prepared I was.
The committment of the Support Team was great. Thanks to Jan, Bryn & Gryff.
We had planned for The Race for months. It was more than serendipitous that most elements fell into place in the days before The Race and over the 24 hours of The Event. Regular reviews of what was expected and looking after every member of the Team led to a very satisfying, overall result.
Nutrition: This is a Dark Art. Different bodies react to different foods in different ways. You must be aware of what does and does not work for your own body.
This is to say: I didn't get it right.
The theory is easy: You eat and drink to get enough energy to propel yourself around a bush mountain track for an hour, or more. You eat enough to sustain you. You are also careful you don't overeat, otherwise you will cramp up or vomit. Worse than losing your lunch is running out of fuel. Without the energy to continue the undulations of a testing Race track, you are doomed to walk it.
The gun athletes know that there are the wrong training and racing foods, too. Alcohol does not make a good training food. Pissing on while watching the Football Grand Finals is not a good training strategy. This will be obvious to some. Also, foods that you do not associate with "healthy eating" are probably crap for training, as well.
Drink lots of water: Even when you are riding through the sleet on a Saturday night in a dark Canberra pine forest, you will be sweating like a pig. You must anticipate the fluid loss and also replenish that loss, during and after the fact. One must learn to drink on the run. Learn that water is the power behind the strength in your muscles. If you are dehydrated, you are rooted. (To use the vernacular.)
Fitness: I have learned about complementary exercise. (A.K.A: "Cross Training".) Moreover, when you combine different methods of keeping fit, your metabolism must, as a result, be elevated and your fitness must be greater. (This is all anecdotal, of course.)
I mixed cycling, jogging and resistance training. The cycling is as discussed earlier. Jogging is something else you can do to exercise under your own steam. Particularly useful and a parallel to the cycle training is the hill training. Walking or jogging up hills does wonderful things to your quads, your glutes and your calves. Also useful is speed training. Alternating between slow and fast jogging boosts your aerobic capacity and builds strength.(As it does on the bike.)This is where you learn to "connect the dots".
If you are cheap, like me, there are many exercises you can employ to build your muscular strength that do not involve visits to the gym. Sit ups, push ups, chin ups, lunges, step ups, pull ups are all exercises that pit you against yourself. If you are a tub of lard (like Moi) then you are using the added weight as your training aid. Be mindful of your lower back, too. For whatever reason, MTB racing does odd things to your back. Back arches with a Swiss Ball work for me.
The benefits for me for the muscle training paid off when I fell heavily on my fourth lap. Without the training I had put in, in the weeks before The Mont, I would have broken bones, instead of coming out of it black and blue and bloodied. (so cool doing a Superman over the handle bars in the Switch Back section of the track with people watching...)
Learning: Taking heed of the lessons learnt from the people who do lots of this thing is gold. Their experiences and tips can not be found on web sites or in MTB magazines. However, there is a wealth of information in these two other resources, worthy of a read.
The Mind Game: Whether you see yourself pitted against the 2406 other people in The Race or whether it is a test of your own mettle, you must master the old brain box. This also encompasses the notions of Sheep Stations, Fellowship or F-U-N, requiring you to cycle around a 20km bush track by yourself.
Not all of it was F-U-N.
I did mention coming off the bike. I did that regularly. So many times, in fact, that it felt I was spending more time off the bike (and on the ground) than riding the course. That is to be expected.
Unexpected is being pushed out of the way by some rude pricks.
Note here, that we have tried to keep these pages profanity-free. However, given the treatment meted out by some of the other riders, nothing expresses the sentiment better than the name-calling.
Throughout the Race, circumstances changed every time I fell off: Sometimes the mud would stop me dead; Sometimes I could not negotiate the ruts; Times when I would do my best to get out of the way of the (polite & courteous) gun riders and just fall off anyway, especially when I could not get the shoes out of the pedals fast enough.
When you ride laps in the dark and have some wanker pass you on a single track and shove you out of the way with the palm of their hand so that you land on your arse, well,
That's Just Not Cricket!!!
Note that it happened twice on the same lap which suggested that there were more than one rude prick amongst the two and a half thousand riders, on the day.
Equipment: The right gear is a balance between what you can afford and what you need. Per the CORC 24 web site, you can not get onto the track without some elementary bits and pieces.
From the CORC web site, the list includes:
"Each rider must have the following equipment whilst on the course, servicable mountain bike, AS certified cycling helmet, 1 full water bottle (Camelbaks encouraged). Additionally between the hours of 6pm - 6am one functioning front light, one functioning rear light and a spare white light..."
Beyond this, you have to consider your clothes, your bike and tools.
As a solo rider, yo have to be more self sufficient out on the track than you average Team rider.
Lap Times: These are the stats from the five laps ridden on the weekend of the Mont(Per the Team Timekeepers):
|
Lap |
Times |
Lap Time |
|
1 |
12:15 - 14:10 |
1:55 |
|
2 |
15:40 - 17:14 |
1:34 |
|
3 |
18:42 - 20:44 |
2:02 |
|
4 |
05:15 - 07:18 |
2:03 |
|
5 |
10:15 - 11:45 |
1:30 |
The Story That Never Was: I volunteered to write a piece for one of the monthly Defence newspapers. This task has now been given to someone else. These are the words penned for the article:
"2005 Mont 24 Hour Draws Dozens From The ADO
This year's 2005 Mont 24 Mountain Bike (MTB) Race has drawn on dozens from within the ranks of the ADF as well as civilians working for the greater Defence Organisation. The race was run in the Kowen forest, east of Canberra, over the weekend of the 8th & 9th of October.
Amongst the mix of solo riders, single and mixed gender teams were many MTB riders from many areas of the ADO.
Race riders were required to ride through a pine forest track of 19 kilometres as many times as possible during a 24 period. The Race started at 12 midday on the Saturday with riders running or walking a "Le Mans" style 800 metre element on foot, then wheel their bikes to a marker then ride their way for the 24 hour day-night-day period. The forest tracks are a 50-50 mix of forest trail, and single track. While the trails are suitable for forestry vehicles, the single tracks can generally only cater for one bicycle at a time.
Track conditions varied across the course and throughout the 24 hours. Due to recent rain, some parts of the tracks were muddy pits, unpassable by any mountain biker, some were dusty and rocky and the rest was any combination between the two. Course hazards included single lane bridges, slippery bared tree roots, rocks, forest debris and many puddles and streams.
Highlights for the Department were the podium finishes for Neil Dall and the Flaming Gerbils team. Neil was a solo entry in the Men's 40+ group and completed a creditable 14 laps to become 3rd in the category. The Flaming Gerbils also gaining a third place in the Men's 40+ team of 6. Other impressive results were recorded by the ADFA and Barn Owl corporate teams of 10.
Defence members sporting the new and distinctive ADF Cycling Club jerseys were easily identified on the 19 km course."
© www.themarshalls.tv 2006
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