After 7 Jamis Day Night Thrillers you’d think by now it would be a case of turn up, put ezi-ups, hand a out a few bottles, put some lights on, yell at a few peeps, pack up, head home......well you would be wrong and that is what is so great about 12/24hr racing ,so much can happen
The
2012 version didn’t let the side down, this was the second year I have had to
look after Jude alone, yes I have had others in the Tent, doing duos and
supporting solos, I have not had a co-dedicated support person, prior to that I
have been in charge of the bike , food has been some else’s job, (they way it
should be), in the early years I was
even able to race for a team, but not any more and I wouldn’t have it other way.
To be able to support someone who gives it every thing is just the
greatest.
Friday: roll out of home
9am and headed north, with a cruisey trip we arrived at the motel around 2pm then
it was off the venue for a pre ride,
dialled few lines, yep the laps should be in the high 20’s (ie 28-30min),
everything was looking good except for the weather forecast...”Rain Developing”,
up at 7am Saturday morning to a cold very overcast day (I hadn’t slept; the beds in the unit were the worst) down the
venue to set up the Ezi-ups etc, then back to pick Jude up just after 8am then the rest of the
site set up, 10am start .....
About 25mins later the first curve ball hit, Due to the weather the organisers had decided to cut the brand new section of the course out (too soft and most likely would have cut & pogged up real bad) the laps were going to be 20-21 mins while it stayed dry, this created something which. although small, may have been part of the big picture later in the race. Jude runs 1 lap bottles, but because the laps were so short and our measuring system doesn’t really deal with such small amounts, what I figured out was if I was 10% /few grams out with a 20min bottle after an hour I could be 30% out, (we have now come up with 2 ways around this problem so it won’t happen again)
The
next few laps went without issue, although I was hanging out for a coffee, by
the time I had done my jobs in the tent ready for the next lap, I would have
around 10 mins to run and get one from Ed, (hope the queue wasn’t too long) and
get back and be ready for Jude’s
arrival. Done! but then lap 5 Jude comes in asking to check the front
tyre pressure, yes it was down about 40%, quick inflate and off she goes again I
suspect it might have been the tyre resetting letting a bit out, being tubeless , two laps later she
comes in “can you check my rear tyre”, yep down 50%, same deal ? nope? cause the next lap she comes in with it really
flat this time, swap bikes (this includes swapping number plates as the
transponder is attached to it), I fired a Geax Pit Stop into it and left it over
inflated for a few minutes and large bubble of latex foam appeared on the
sidewall, must have damaged it somewhere and the Stans didn’t quite fix it, oh
well so next lap back onto the good bike,
While the lap times didn’t suffer as a result it must have taken more effort to continue at the same speed. About 3:30 the first of the rain hit, the wind had got quite strong but at the point Jude was dicing for second with Hannah Latta , and was about to lap 4th placed Jen Riley but the rain and the cold caught her out and she came in very cold, It’s hard enough to recover from being cold let alone possibly being down on food, This made the next few laps pretty miserable, and sadly lap times showed this.
With 58 mins to go I sent Jude out with Coke telling her 2 more
laps, she was still doing 27min laps , unfortunately Jen rolled passed to, even
though Jude gave it everything (as she
had being doing all day) for the last two laps, Jen hadn’t realise she had
passed Jude and was still chasing her down hard. Jude finished her last lap with
a little over 2min left on the clock, about 2mins behind Jen
While this race for minor placings was going on Kim Hurst was once
again giving 99% of the field (males included) a lesson in class endurance
racing. Will be good to see her line up for 24hr.
While the result wasn’t what we would have like and the way it looked like it might have been earlier in the day, I still feel it was Jude’s best race to date, yes we have come away going what if? So next time we will only have deal with a new set of curve balls I guess......gotta luv 12/24hr racing
Other results from our tent, Brad & Briony 3rd 2-3 person mixed 12hr, Bex
2nd Solo Female 6hr, Gavin
1st Solo Male 3hr & Dean
rode the best ever 12hr I have seen him do.
I’ve
spent the next two days being grumpy and disappointed with myself for what in
hindsight should not have happened.......but it did, we learned and now we look
towards the next one
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