After a transition

An organised pit crew is the key to successfully supporting your solo rider. At the World 24hr Solo Championships, this was the rationale we worked with, and what helped keep our solo rider going.

Before the race, my solo rider sat down, and planned out the required nutrition and fluid intake, bike changes, lights, etc, and put all of these elements together in a chart. I took this chart, laminated it and stuck onto the table at the race. This became our (the support crews) point of reference throughout the race.

Making sure all of the required items are laid out on the table, stop watch on the ready, and whiteboard marker to make any necessary additions to the outline, we were ready to go. Race starts, stopwatch starts, and the race is underway, not just for the rider, but also for the pit crew.

The aim throughout the race was to make our solo rider's pit stops as limited and as smooth as possible. For the first few laps, when all the rider needed was a change of water bottle and food, we spaced ourselves out along the pit area. As the rider came in, he would throw his empty bottle, first pit member, hand him a new bottle, and second pit member, hand him food/gels. All without the rider needing to stop and put a foot down.

For longer changes, such as lights, we would ensure that the other bike/helmet was set up and all the rider needed to do was get off one bike and straight onto the next. This system worked really well. The amount of time spent by the rider within pit row was limited through our preparation.

As soon as the rider had left, we would reset the timer, mark off on the chart what we did and the time, and then prepare for the next time the rider came around, so that we were ready - then just wait out the time.

Although we were on the edge of pit row, we were in a really good position as we could see the rider coming through transition before coming on to us. It also meant, that we had limited interference from other teams and riders in transition.

The after race is just as important. While we have some aspects of this working well, this is an area I think the solo rider and I need to look at for future races.

At some stages throughout the race, we possibly had more pit crew members than we needed, and this may have caused some problems for the rider. There were a couple of times when he came in and were bombarded by all of the pit crew at once, all asking questions and trying to provide information. This is not ideal. After this occurred a couple of times, we decided to allow only one person to speak to the rider. It works best if everybody within the pit crew have their specific jobs and they stick to these.

While I feel that the World 24hours had some good aspects, such as being well organised, at good set up, and great, easily understood timing, I do feel that pit row lacked atmosphere. If almost felt as through the solo riders were a tag on to the team riders form the Scott. We were separated from the transition area, separated from spectators, and although there was a big screen, with the way the pits were organised, it wasn't really visible. There were plenty of announcements, competitions and recognition for the team riders, the soloist and their support crew were largely ignored throughout the race.

As a pit crew, we were very successful in supporting out solo rider in obtaining his fantastic results at the World 24hr Solos.

Enduro Pulse at WSC

There are a couple of ways to race enduro and ultra enduro events. In enduro racing it isn't always the strongest and fittest that holds the cards at the end of the day. It is often the rider that pedals in the most effective way, pedaling harder when it is necessary. There is the heavily tried method, go out hard and hold it as long as you can, then there is don't go out to hard and come home strong. Over the last year of enduro events I had trialed both methods with some interesting results but it came down to what was most effective over the longer distances leading up to this years big race enduro, the WSC.
We have all seen the running start of iconic events like the Scott24 and the WSC was no different. I lined up with the Age Group riders glad I had done some light running and hoping to make it to the bike safely. There were no hiccups during the run and I located my bike easily, one of my support Hally held my bike, he was wearing our bright blue Carman's crew shirts. Transiting along the initial open fire trail section, I didn't make to much of a fuss in passing riders but wanted to keep with riders such as Mr Dreggs, aleast for the first lap.
After our initial lap I eased back into endurance heart rate zone, happy to let other riders flog themselves. It was a great day for riding, it was warm and sunny, the track was dry and fast. Everything was going well till we hit the four hour mark, I was just spinning up the backside of Stromlo when a riders zoomed past me. Crap, was that the race leader? Twenty seconds later Jason English asked for the inside line. Damn I was being lapped in the first four hours, a quick mental calculation had me being lapped six times at this rate. First of all shocked, then slowly the reasoning and words from my support crew reminded me of the big picture and our game plan. Let them ride, I didn't want to unleash the Gordo grimace till tomorrow.

TBC...

Lead up to WSC

World Solo Championships - 24hrs of Adrenalin

Arriving in Canberra a day early was a great way to start the weekend. We were able to visit Stromlo, check out the conditions, mostly dusty and dry, and stake a claim in the Solo camping area ready for Fridays full blown arrival. Already the CORC Scott 24 bandwagon was in full swing, a massive amount of canvas had been erected both in the transition area for Scott teams and in the Solo pit-row.

Friday, there was a lot to do in preparation, the WSC registration was in the city during the morning, for the 400 odd riders and their dedicated pit managers. Then in the afternoon we had to head to Canberra Stadium for the mandatory brief. But before all that I needed to sus out the track. As I headed out a couple of other riders joined me, they had come from South Africa to represent at the WSC and for a holiday in Australia. The SA travelers were good riders, while they carved up the track and we check out the trail features in readiness for Saturday midday. After the mornings rego we headed back to set-up our camping area and pit lane then it was off to the stadium before returning to Stromlo one last time, finishing our prep.

The Team Enduro Pulse members had all qualified for the WSC but as we got closer to the day our numbers dwindled. First it was Enduro Pulse founder Craig, out with a damaged ankle and thumb after sliding out on a Stromlo corner during a prior event. Then as the last week was on us Team Enduro Pulse fast man Jamie who came down with flu like symptoms and unfortunately still was suffering on Friday when the last call could be made. The good thing about our team is that we work together when the chips are down. Craig arrived early, setting up Enduro Pulse Central in the WSC pit lane and lent me his Yeti ASR-C to be my second bike. Then both Craig and Jamie helped my dedicated crew out in the pit lane during my transitions. You will be able to catch them in the near future at the next endurance event.

Race report soon...

Scott 24!

This years Scott 24hr was the most enjoyable race I have competed in to date. To have the 24 Hours of Adrenaline World Solo Champs run in conjunction with the Scott 24hr made the entire venue buzz with more energy than a nuclear power plant.

Driving into the event late Friday afternoon and meeting up with Brian Merton, my racing partner for the Scott 24hr, we could see that the CORC organisers and volunteers were in for a very busy weekend. The venue was packed with campers and as such certain areas were restricted to vehicle access. We were able to convince the gate marshal to let us drive onto the crit track to enable us to drop our gear off. Brian had gone out earlier and grabbed a site on the crit track on the bend just before transition. This ended up being a brilliant position to watch all of the competitors roar into the finish and to cheer on friends and favourite riders in other categories, particularly Crummy in the Worlds. We got ourselves set up for the race and Brian and and his partner Mel went home and I stayed and camped to look after our camp. Unlike previous years, most of the camping areas were dead quiet by about 10.30pm. Most competitors choosing an early night rather than partying.

The following morning saw the usual bike and body preparation and organising our area for the commencement of the race. Seeing the elite riders, such as Mark Fenner and the like, warming up on the crit track was inspirational and awesome to think these guys were going to be climbing Mt Stromlo for 24hrs. Back to our race and after a brief warm up myself we headed down to transition to watch the start of the World Solo Elite and Age Group racers. 400+ solo riders commenced the day in all categories and it was certainly crowded and I'm glad we got there early to witness all of these elite athletes go off to conquer the mountain for 24hrs.
After the solo riders got underway, all of the teams lined up for the start of the Scott 24hr. Over 800 riders lined up for a Le Mans start in the transition entry and thankfully I was near the front. At 12:15 the gun went off and all of us ran 400m to collect our bikes. After a brief sprint down a fire trail, a bottle neck started to form on the entry to the first section of single track. Being near to the front only saw about a 5min delay for me but those toward the back of the pack could have seen close to a 20min delay on the first lap. In any case, we were on our way to the finishing line on Sunday.

After I cleared the bottle neck, it was time to get down to business and find a rhythm that I was comfortable with. The track had pretty much everything a MTB track could offer. There were flowing switchbacks with jumps and burms to provide massive grins, lightening fast downhill trails where speed was limited only by the fear within the rider. Technical ascending and descending rock gardens to keep you on your toes and fire access trails to "rest" on. All aspects of the track layout were challenging and rewarding. I found my rhythm pretty quickly on this circuit.
By the end of the first lap we were in 6th place and going well but a puncture on lap 3 saw us drop to 9th, but by the start of our double laps just before night fall, we had managed to get up to 7th. So at 6pm or so I headed out for the first of our double laps and we continued to go up the rankings which surprised me as our night lap times grew by about 10mins per lap, which shows that we both need to work on our night riding. After my second night double stint and sitting in fifth, I was contemplating having a good break, about 3hrs worth, but when Brian came in just before sunrise after his last double and stated we were sitting in third, well this was the motivation I needed. I then pulled out my quickest lap of my race and by then end of this lap we had a 47 min gap to forth. At the end of each of our successive laps, we monitored the gap to forth as it was closing and got as close as 22 on the penultimate lap. On my last lap I mustered all the remaining energy I had and pushed hard to keep that gap and to ensure the overnight work was not wasted.

At about the 4km to go mark, and the start of the most enjoyable part of the track, I went past a rider whom then stuck on my wheel. We both fed off each other, pushing each other harder and harder all the way to the finishing line. I don't know where this energy came from but I was able to hold the power on right up to the line. This final section was the best part of the race for me. We were both hollering and yelling and just having a ball all the way down along the flowing single track, which at the end of the day is what we were all there for. We ended up in third by about 30mins, both exhausted but thoroughly excited with the unbelievable result we had just achieved.
On reflection, what made this a thoroughly enjoyable race for me, apart from coming third in the male pairs category, was the atmosphere of the event. Everyone was out to have a good time during both races which was evident by the characters we saw go past on the way into transition on the crit track. Watching the solo riders go past lap after lap was awe-inspiring. Cheering on riders such as Mick Crummy, Mark Fenner, Jason English, etc, only meters from them whilst warming down after each lap was an experience and took my mind off the aches and pains that I was experiencing.

After my poor preparation, I was honestly surprised with our result. I definitely proved that this race is mostly a mental game. Get your head around it and you are half way to achieving a good result. I would like to thank the World Solo guys for putting on an awesome display of athleticism, Greg Ryan from TWE, http://www.ridetwe.com.au/, for providing spare wheels for me to race with, Carmen's Fine Foods for their delicious and nutritious muesli bars and last but not least, Brian and Mel. Brian for putting in a huge effort to keep us in third and giving me the motivation to keep at it and Mel for helping out at the camp as required and without complaint also. Thanks heaps guys.

Cheers,
Michael Smith

24hrs of Adrenalin - World Solo Championships

Just want to say a big thanks to my dedicated support crew. Also to the additional support of friends who were either solo support crew, injured solo riders or Scott 24hr riders.

Thanks to Team Enduro Pulse and our partners, Carman's, Bikes at the Basin and DIY MTB.

A quick look back at the 24 will be written soon.