Victorian Endurance Racing - Officer

Firstly let me welcome you to the 2008 Apollo website. I’m sure you’ve had a look around and have been impressed with the steps Apollo have made to making their company an even stronger brand and presence in the bicycle industry then ever before. Today marks the first ever post, by an Apollo Team rider on this blog and believe me, it wont be the last.

Yesterday bought yet another round of Victorian Endurance Racing to the plate of enthusiastic Mountain Bikers across the big VIC. The scene was set in Victoria's southeast at a little scout camp we know as Officer. A 6-7km loop of smooth flowing single track and some very nasty climbs, and you know you’re in for some hurt when the event organisers name a climb “Heart Brake Hill”. The Fat tyre Flyers set the course up, expecting the laps to take 25minutes for the better riders, but I think they were either kidding themselves when they made that approximation, or they were just factoring in the chance of a natural disaster occurring, because the fast guys were lapping anywhere between 18 and 20 minutes.

So at 10:00am we started racing, with the looming fact in the back of our mind that we would be doing this for the next 6 hours. I was thrown in to take the first lap and after starting back on the grid and getting caught behind some slower riders I managed to push my way up into about 5th place. I was riding too aggressive for that part of the race, and in the end it just hurt me more. I was acting like a small child juiced up on red cordial, fairly stupid way to ride when I didn’t know the course, so I finished that lap (which should have been my fastest lap of the day) in 19:36 minutes, crawling to the finish line to send James off for his first lap. And being just as excited as I was, James rode just as childish as me. My next lap was a little better, but my third lap was even better then that, coming home in 18:57 minutes. So it was a crazy day for both of us from the start.

You’d think the craziness would stop there, giving us a fair go for the rest of the day. No that didn’t happen, poor old James Mowatt was suffering chronic cramping to a shocking degree, to the point where a stranger came up to me in the pits and in a worried manner told me “James was cramping on ‘Heart Brake Hill’” the poor kid was frozen with pain as every movement caused a VOLCANIC muscle spasm. It was fairly serious so James was relegated to the sidelines while I was to ride basically the remainder of the race.

I was feeling pretty tired at this time, but I was prepared to finish the race in the single lap routine, but now I was to ride multiple lap stints, and sudden changes in race plans can have an effect mentally on how you race. I went into a survival mode, not a race to win mode.

Any way we finished in 6 hours and 3 minutes and out of 29 teams we ended in a rather unsatisfying place of 8th.

I would like to thank Apollo bikes, Michelin Tyres and Tec Helmets for their support, with out their quality equipment I wouldn’t be able to perform at such a competitive level in this Sport.

James would also like to thank Apollo bikes, Michelin Tyres, Tec Helmets and Lake Shoes for their support, James has improved out of sight since being with the Apollo team and he can dedicate his success to his sponsors.

Till next time
Cheers
Scotty L