2010 Moonride 24 Hour Solo

2 weeks up to the event I was off work feeling sick for 2 days, then on the Monday my cold hit me a bit worse. I was back at work, I still did my Tuesday morning training ride though it was a struggle. Each day I would turn up to work and in the morning load myself full of Zinc, Berrocca, Panadol and nasal spray.

Thursday we drove up to Rotorua and met a Mark and Arthur - 2 of my work colleagues also doing a 24hr solo, we had gone 3rds on a Camper Van for the event.

I still was sick on Thursday and the nasty asthma attack I had on Wednesday night worried me. Friday swung around and my cold was mysteriously gone, just in time.

Friday was a bit of a waiting day, we waited all day so that we could register at 4pm, but this also meant we relaxed. After registration we headed down to the event and started the setup. A few hours later some more friends from Wellington turned up to race the 24hr Solo.

After we were setup we had a bit of time to kill before the race started so I thought I would try and get a few winks in. Sleeping can be pretty hard to do when your excited about something and I think in the 2ish hours I put my head down I only dozed off once for a short period.

Race briefing rolled around at 9:30pm then Race start at 10am. The 1^st lap started off with a race down the road and back before we jumped onto the course. There is always a scramble at the start of these races and since we were racing solo –  we were in no rush, the 6 of us took up the rear of the field.

Laps were 8km long (apart from the 1^st being a bit longer) and my plan was to ride each lap at a good pace but not raising my heart rate over 130bpm which I worked out was approx 55% effort. I had a menu prepared that my manager (my partner, Candice) used to feed me every 2^nd lap and replace my drinking bottle. I had my race pretty well planned out and  with my manager this worked great for me.

I planned to sleep at 4am for 2.5 hours, then start the race again at 7am. I felt this sleep would be important for my energy levels as well as to warm up. I wanted to get 12 laps in before 4am but only managed to get 11 in.

The 1^st – 3^rd laps of the race I was cold, it was 7 degrees outside and I had trouble warming up riding at my slow under 130bpm pace (Actually this pace ended up being a bit faster than I had initially thought).
I rode laps at around 30 minutes each, stopping every 2^nd lap for a refuel in our pit area.

Having a Camper Van made a huge impact on us for the event, my manager could stay warm between my laps and when I came to sleep at 4am I really did sleep and slept well.

After a solid 2.5 hours sleep I got up and changed into some new clothes and ate breakfast, I was away again by 7am. I stuck to my 130bpm heart rate pace and continued around knocking laps off at around 30 minutes each. My next challenge was the 10am start for the 12 hour and 6 hour teams and I managed to time it perfectly where I started a new lap at 9:45am. I completed this lap and had about 10 minutes in the pit area while I waited for the majority of fast riders from the 10am start get through. Then back on my bike and I was off again.

Over the course of the day there was a lot of hustle and bustle on the track as riders tried to push past us solos and other slower riders out there. There were many good places to pass which riders used and there were bad places where riders tried to push through. I saw quite a bit of carnage out there including a young kid getting taken out by a pushy rider and one of my fellow solo riders getting taken out of the race by someone crashing into him. Fortunately for me I was pretty lucky, I had only one incident where I rider tried to pass me on a narrow section of track and pranged into the back of me causing no injury – after shouting at the rider he claimed he could do as he wanted as he was “leading the race”. Of course this is all pretty normal for the Moonride, I would hate to be one of the more inexperienced riders out there as I am sure it would not be an enjoyable race. Most riders were pretty good though and called “on your left” before passing and waited for you to let them do so.

At 3pm I put on a change of clothes as I had sweated quite a bit and was feeling cold.

Close to 4pm was the last lap for the 6 hour teams and so there was a lot more pushing and bad riding as people tried to get through to finish. After this the field obviously thinned out and laps became easier to ride.

I stopped for a short Dinner at 5pm and was told I was coming a disappointingly 9th (out of 17 male solo riders). I ate a bit too much lasagna and when I started again I felt terrible, but came right after 3 laps. At this point after dinner I also put my lights on and within 1 hour it was dark again.
All of a sudden it felt like a lot of people had stopped riding or were riding much slower, this made for easier laps and I also quickened my pace a little, riding to a heart rate bpm of 140. It was great knowing there was only 4 hours to go and I counted down the time each lap I did.

At around 7pm I was told I was now coming 6^th, this gave me a new lease almost to try a bit harder and try and move up the rankings. 1-3 placings were far off but 4,5,6 were close. It was around 8:20pm and I was told I was coming 5, but I had just squeezed in, I was beating the rider by 1 lap. I knew I could get 3 more laps in and it was great knowing there were 3 to go. I picked up my speed, I no longer tried to follow my heart rate pace. I knew if I could get these 3 laps in that was all I needed to do to hold this position and the next placing up was quite far off so I didn’t aim for that.
I completed my last lap with just under 25 minutes to spare, I figured I may have been able to get 1 more lap in if I really went for it but I didn’t need to. I was stoked that I had come 5^th.

Later on I had found out there were a duo of Tandem riders who had entered as Solo riders. The woman was disqualified as she would have gotten 1^st place in the women’s, though they let the male rider have his podium 3^rd. The results later showed differently though and I had been bumped to 4^th in the male riders.
I am very happy with this result, I felt I had put a lot into this race in preparation and training everything worked really well for me and I cant thank my manager Candice enough for looking after me while I was out there.

This is my 2nd 24 hour solo for the Moonride, though this time round I was more organized and experienced.
4^th Place in the Men’s 24 hour solo, 40 laps, approx 320kms

Bring on the World Champs Canberra!!