Gavin & I arrived with just enough time to setup our base camp, register and complete half a lap of the course, prior to the race briefing. The 12 Hour race format attracted 357 riders out to the Blue Mountains for a warm, sunny day of fierce racing, with teams chasing each other all day long.
The race commenced at 9:20am with a mad dash up a 150 metre fire trail into single track. Gavin put in a huge effort on the first lap and managed to negotiate the bottle neck of riders trying to enter the single track. On the first lap the Bike Bug team was in a commendable position of 5
th
overall and by the completion of the forth lap, we had moved up into second position overall. It was at this point the decision was made to start doing double laps, so that we could have a longer recovery period between laps.
The strategy of double laps resulted in our lap times becoming longer and Gavin was beginning to feel the effects of his massive effort on the opening lap. I inturn managed to do couple of consecutive double laps around the 9.5km course, which enable Gavin some additional time to recover and continue punching out consistent lap times.
The track was awesome with a number of technical climbs & descents on the first section, followed by flowing smooth single track on the back section. The track was is in fantastic condition thanks to the efforts by the WSMTB crew.
As the race developed, we managed to gradually extend our lead over the rival male pair’s to in excess of 23 minutes before the first night lap started.
At 4:45pm race organisers made it mandatory for lights to be fitted. I was the first to go out for a night lap and what a night lap it was!!! I sprinted off and approximately 2km into the lap, I drop the front wheel over a large rock step and over the handle bars I went into a rock garden. As the dust cleared I was greeted by a fellow competitor about 5 metres down the hill, with “THAT WAS EPIC MAN!” I quickly checked my Merida bike Frame was intact, grab my head light of the ground and hightailed back down the single track to try and make up any lost time.
Both Gavin & I continue to do consistent lap times during the night and completed 23 laps in total (approx 210km) in 12 hours and 4 minutes. The Bike Bug team convincingly won the male pairs category and came 4
th
overall. A special thanks for the awesome event put on by race organisers, contributions by the major sponsor Jetblack and to all of the riders that made it such a wonderful event.
