Riders Choice 6 Hour, Jarrahdale

The format of this race was a relay where teams of 1, 2 or 3 try and complete as many laps as possible of a 12km course within a 6 hour time limit. The track was the ever excellent flowing singletrack at Langford Park, Jarrahdale. There were no huge climbs (although they did seem to get bigger lap by lap) and enough technical obstacles too keep things interesting.

The team transition area

Start/finish

Our hero being propped up by his bike

I’d been looking forward to this race for a while, figuring that 6 hours is good distance to have a go at my first solo challenge. However recent training had gone a bit awry with my road bike generally falling apart and a new found distraction called kayaking.

Here is a lap by lap account of my day.

Lap 1 (38 minutes 26 seconds)

I nearly missed the start, gossiping to some friends, and had to fight my way through some of the overly keen team riders massing for their delayed start. An extended fire road section meant that I could move up to a more sensible place in the field, but it was still a fairly slow procession on the singletrack. I didn’t mind being held up as it stopped me going off too fast. As one wag in the peloton put it, “over excited and under prepared”.

Lap 2 (35:59 – my fastest lap)

For much of the lap I got a good clear run, in fact at one stage I wondered if I was lost as I hadn’t seen any other riders or signs for a while. Without pushing too hard I posted my fastest lap time.

Laps 3 and 4 (36:45 and 37:40)

For most of these laps I rode with a couple of young lads, competing to see who could get the most air (they could) off of any jumps and bumps we could find. They were chatting about doing 10 laps. Oh the foolishness of youth. I lapped them easily near the end.

Lap 5 (38:18)

Don’t remember much about this lap. I took my first (2 minute) pit stop before this one so I think I was trying to get my legs working again and digest some food. I think I overtook Pete from the ODC near the start when he was taking a leak in the bushes. His weak bladder would prove to be his eventual downfall, with 3 comfort breaks costing him an extra lap.

Lap 6 (38:51)

On the climb to the top of the course I overtook Jason, Freddy and Didge from the Sunday morning crew which gave me loads of confidence, as I thought all 3 of them would easily beat me. Some mental arithmetic on the fireroad revealed that I was just about on course to squeeze in 9 laps, but this would mean averaging 40 minutes per lap – a tough pace.

Lap 7 (43:27 – my slowest lap)

I went to some dark, dark places on this lap. The big climb nearly finished me and then I started getting terrible stomach cramps and cold shivers. It was all I could do to keep the bike moving forwards. I was drastically re-thinking the 9 lap target at this point but I had a scheduled pit stop waiting. The leading lady overtook me near the end and then we both nearly died as we were racing through the pines and a dog ran out in front of us.

Lap 8 (42:30)

Some sterling work from Cameron and Dan at the change over saw me suitably re-fueled and encouraged. Dan was a little surprised when I asked for 3 Nurofen – well it works for the roadies. This left me exactly 90 minutes to do 2 laps. Drinking some water (instead of energy drink) and scoffing snakes seemed to the trick for my cramped stomach and energy levels. The lap time reveals that I didn’t exactly storm round but I felt much better. By now I knew how long each section of the course should take me so I was able to pace myself, leaving plenty of time to complete a 9th lap, but also conserve some energy. As we approached the top car park a guy in an orange top, who I had been racing off and on all day went past me. A quick chat ascertained that he intended on doing one more loop and if I had any chance of passing him, so would I. He then left me for dead on a short climb which had me worried. Fortunately (for me) he suffered some crippling cramp at the top of the hill and was rooted to the spot allowing me to sail past.

Lap 9 (40:47)

With 50 minutes in the bank and a long sit down to look forward to, I could enjoy this lap. I took on every log roll over for old times sake (I’m not riding this track for a while). Another soloist passed, but I didn’t recognise him and judging by the speed he was going, he must have been lapping me. By now I knew the lines well and I was really gunning the downhills and had enough left in the tank to sprint uphill to the finish only 10 seconds ahead of Jason who was gaining on me fast, although I didn’t know it at the time.

Now the dust has settled and the results are out I came 14th out of the 81 solo men. I completed 9 laps (2 more than my goal) in 5 hours 52 minutes and 33 seconds. This was a total of 104.7km and 2925m of climbing.

Bring on the 12 hour now which should be 4 times as much fun, being twice as long and in the dark.