Timaru 12 hour MTB race 2012

It has been a long time between races, so going into the Timaru 12 hour MTB race I was interested to see how my fitness would stack up against the likes of Milan Brodina who I coach and know is going really well at the moment. Besides this I was just fizzing at spending some time on the bike.

I started conservatively and quickly settled into a steady pace lapping through in around 5^th place. After an hour I was feeling good so started pushing the laps a little harder and I started moving through the field into 2^nd. I was riding well and could not believe how much fun I was having. It was great to be back on the bike.

At around the 3.5 hour mark I like so many others in the field suffered a puncher. The sharp rocks over the top section of the course were shredding tiers all over the place. A quick change soon turned into a long one when I cross-treaded my CO2 pump and jammed up. Not being able to get it un-jammed I resorted to begging others for their pump, which soon paid off with a fellow competitor stopping to lend me his pump. Back on track I had only lost 1 placing.

 The weather was perfect throughout the day with it being warm and overcast with a slight breeze. As the day wore on the hills started to feel steeper and longer, while the razor sharp rocks out on the course were still playing havoc with tires. I noticed a slow leak in my front tire that would get progressively softer over two laps. I had to make a quick stop every couple of laps to top it up with air. After repeating this process for a couple of hours the leak was getting worse and I was forced to stop to change it in the pits. Luckily Nick Taylor was in the pits and he did a quick change for me while I stocked up on some food.

With 2 hours to go Nick was reporting back to me that I was pulling slightly faster laps than 2^nd place. I keep working on closing the gap but the legs were feeling the day’s activity. With about 26 min until the race finish I got the call from Nick that I was on the same number of laps as 2^nd place and that he had called it a day like most of the other riders, as it was starting to get dark and a final lap in that time would likely be completed within the cut off time. If I could do one last lap and get back in under the 12 hour cut off I would move into 2^nd place. It was worth a try.

So with everything I had left in the tank I took off for one last lap. With the light fading fast all I could do through some of the tree covered sections that were now pitch dark was hold on and hope my bike knew the way over the obstacles. Red lining it all the way to the finish I narrowly missed the cut off by about 2 min so my final lap did not count. Oh well, it was worth a try!

So with 223 official kilometres under the belt I finished up in 3^rd place in the men’s solo section. More than happy with my days work.