WSMTB - 4hr TWLIGHT RACE

My first race of the 2011 season was a 4hr Twilight race at Yellomundee, which was put on by the Western Sydney MTB club. I planned to use this race as a training ride and thought it would provide a good indication on my current level of fitness and highlight areas I need to improve.

With my last race over 5 months ago, the preparation for this race was a massive organization exercise, involving the location, fitting and adjustment of my bike, lights and associated equipment.

In true form, I arrived at the event centre with the bare minimum time to complete the pre-race regime of registering, attaching lights and race number plates, setting up my feed station and throwing on my kit. With temperatures around 29 degrees and humidity above 70%, just walking around the event centre resulted in sweat just pouring of me.

I raced to the start line to catch the end of the race de-brief and squeeze my way into the front of the field.

With minimal notice, we were off and racing. It was a mad dash to the start of the single track and I managed to pull off a descent sprint start to be forth into the single track. Flying down the rough single track and comfortably holding the wheel in front, my world was turned upside down as out of the corner of my eye, I saw my water bottle go flying out of its cage.

It was decision time, do I continue without a bottle or go back. Either way I was going to lose precious time. I quickly pulled off the single track and ran back for my bottle, the bottle was located on the opposite side of the track and with a stremof riders flying along the single track I had to wait for an adequate gap to jump across the track grab my bottle and then try and rejoin the race.

Back in the race and rushing like a mad man up a short section of fire road, I managed to regain some of the place I had lost. The decision to stop, lost me over 50 positions, I quickly managed to gain back 20 to 25 positions early on, but with so much single track, I had no choice but to be patient. I pushed on trying to regain the lost time for the next two laps, but the effort of sprinting, was tolling and due to the heat, my heart rate was ridiculously high. I had no other option than to back off the intensity, or risk blowing up completely.


The 7km course was awesome with 95% of the track being single trail, with technical rocky pinch climbs, fast flowing burns, and rough winding descents.

As I was self supported for this race, I was unsure of my overall position during the race and struggled to maintain a positive metal focus or gain any rhythm in my riding. By the mid way point of the race, I was drenched in sweat and my shoes felt like wet sponges.

With the sun going down and the threat of rain in the air, I strangely gained some metal focus towards the job at hand. I continued to lap consistently and counted down the remaining laps.

On lap twelve, I thought my time was up and I would miss the 4 hour cut off for a final lap. As I came within sight of the event centre, I heard the words “one minute remaining”. With several riders following closely behind, I made the rash decision to go for another lap and passed through the transition area with 20 seconds to spare.

At this point in time, I really wasn’t keen to do another lap, but figured it would be good training. With little concern of any one chasing me down, I cruised around and had a chat with some of the other riders still on track and completing their final laps.

With 91 kilometers of single trail in the bag and over 5 liters of electrolyte / water consumed, my race was finally over. At this point in time, I had no idea where I had placed and after some quick hydration, I checked the results and was surprised to discover that I had placed a respectable 2nd place out of 59 solo entrants.

This year I have decided to post a race review and identify some race tactics that worked or tactics that I would employ next time.

RACE TACTICS

- Opening lap carry only half a water bottle and make sure its secure (Pending the lap size)
- Best to ride the track before racing, nothing worse than not knowing what’s coming up (ie technical ascents/descents or going the wrong way);
- Goes without saying, but I need to arrive at the event centre earlier, as I place allot of unnecessary stress and urgency on myself turning up late.
- Managed the effort to the conditions really well at this race;
- Need to set smaller race goals (i.e. lap time goals, focus of breathing etc. This will assist my mental determination.

I would like to thank the race organisers for putting on a well run event and Bike Bug for their continued support.

RECAP OF 2010 AND PREPARATION FOR 2011 SEASON

I apologise for the long delay since my last post, but the last couple of months have been frustrating, with poor health and doctor’s orders to rest, dampening the end of 2010 race season. As a resulted and to my dismay, i missed my 2010 target race, the world 24hr solos.

As this is the first post for 2011, i thought i would quickly recap 2010 season and let you know my focus for the 2011 season. The 2010 race season was hectic with an unprecedented number of endurance races on offer. I raced 15 plus endurance races during the year and I achieve a number of good results for all the effort.

Looking forward to 2011, I have started accumulating base km’s in my legs in accordance with a draft training programme. I am currently reviewing the race calendar and prioritising the races i want to target this season, but I am struggling not to get carried away and overload myself with too many races.

In 2011, i am planning to provide a more comprehensive blog, with weekly posts providing training tips and updates, nutrition tips, equipment reviews and of course race reports. I will also be looking to undertake a charity cycle expedition of New Zealand at the end of year and will provide further details as the year progresses.

In my next post, i will report on my first endurance race for the 2011 race season, which i am using as a training ride and to provide a good indication where i am at fitness and skill wise.

I would like to thank my wife for her continue support of my racing ambitions, as i would not be able to do it without her. Inclosing thanks for reading my blog and i hope that i can provide some insight into the excitement, difficulties and rewards of endurance mountain biking.

Yours Truly,

True Swain

APPIN 400

On Sunday 15 August 2010, the Appin 400 was organised by the crew from Wannaride.
After a hard week of training, I was keen to see what the legs had and was looking forward to riding the Appin track for my first time.

On arrival at the event I grabbed a free coffee, helped Garry and Fiona set up our base camp and completed the over pre race rituals of signing in, prepping my bike and catching up with the usual suspects.

For this race I joined forces with Garry Milburn and we raced in the male pair's category. I opened our campaign with a shocking start, as I could not clip into my pedals for the first 150 metres and had to dodge a number of riders over shorting corners and sliding out. The remainder of the lap was a big learning curve in selecting the correct lines and earmarking the areas where I went over the handle bars.

By the third lap we had secured second position, with Craig Gordon & Josh Carlson in the lead and throwing down super quick lap times and in third place, also nipping at our heals Matt Reekie & James Lamb.

We soon settled into rhythm of completing low 30 minute laps managing to refuel and rest in the short breaks.

On my forth lap a westerly change whipped through with some light rain, which barely dampened the track. The rain was short lived and by the time I returned to transition and cooled down the sun was back with vengeance. The Merida Ninety Six performed perfectly in the techy, rough and rocky 10 kilometre course, I on the over hand struggled for most of the day and never really felt like I was on top of my game.

The win and outright victory was taken by Gordo & Carlso, with Garry & I coming second overall and in the pairs category.

I would like to thank the race organisers, Garry Milburn for his consistently strong efforts, and bike bug for their support.

Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix 4Hr - Dargle Farm

The second round of the Rocky Trail Grand Prix Series was held about 1.5 hours North West of Sydney at Dargle farm on Sunday 9 August 2010.

Arriving at the event centre early Sunday morning I was greeted to crisp blue skies, with the camp event centre awakening from the 12 hour race that had been held the previous day. I was unable to make the 12 hour race as I had committed to undertaking a cycle coaching course on the Saturday.

I had given myself adequate time to register, set up my gear up and even do a warm up prior to making my way through to the start chute of the GP 4 hour.

My expectations of the track quality were moderate, I was pleasantly surprised to find a great mixture of pinch climbs, technical rocky descents, flat fast fire road sections and even a pump track.

My race plan was to go out fast and hold the tempo for as long as I could, making sure to keep hydrated and consuming fuel consistently.

The opening lap was fast and I found myself making numerous rookie errors of coming into tight corners and pitch climbs in stupidly large gears and taking ridiculous lines.

Still young gun Sebastian Jayne and I were flying round the course and knocked out a super quick sub 26 minute lap and placed a decent couple of minutes between the rest of the field.

I soon found myself settling into the race and lapping with consistent 26 to 27 minute laps and was enjoying the challenge of the tough technical pitch climbs.

By lap four I had opened up a gap descent gap on second place and was feeling strong. As I passed through the race event centre I over heard the race organisers offering a prize for any one who commences their 10th lap (100km lap) within the allowed time of 4 hours. This information took a little while to sink in and my initial thoughts were ‘like if anyone could do that’. On 5th lap, I soon realised that I was in striking distance of completing the magical 100km lap and set about upping the tempo.

I dug deep and managed to give myself a two minute buffer to start the final lap within the 4hr cut off time. This gap soon disappeared as I slowed on the eighth lap with a sore back and increasing traffic.

As I came through the event centre with huge support from the crowd, I was advised that I would have to punch out a sub 26 and half minute lap to make the cut off time for my tenth lap. The pressure was on and I knew if I attacked the track I could possibly do it.

I speed off up the climbs, grinded the big dog along the flats and was able to track past riders with out any dramas. That was until the bottom of the final climb, where I lost my line and slipped on an off camber rut. Hugely frustrated by my lack of concentration and the fact that I was loosing precious seconds. I jumped back on the bike and took off, taking as many risks as I could flying down the final decent and into view of the event centre.

As I sprinted towards the transition, I was greeted to a huge applause and new it would be close, I managed to complete the 9th lap in 26 minutes and 13 seconds and was under the cut off time by mere 14 seconds to commence my 10th and final lap.

I took my time on the final lap, enjoying the track and chatting to the young solo riders who were completing their final laps and showing the great depth of young talented endurance mtb coming through.

I would like to acknowledge the amazing event centre put together by race organisers and thank all of the riders and spectators that inspired me to complete ten laps and win overall the GP4 race.

A special thanks to Bike Bug for finely tuning my super quick Merida Ninety Six and to my wife for all of the support she gives me.

Shack Attach 6 hour - Nowra

At 5:00am on Sunday the 18th of July 2010, Gavin Storey and myself made the long trip down to the Shack Attach 6 hour, which was held at Nowra's Coondoo Road track. The 2 and half hour drive went relatively quick and as the sun slowly rose on our approach Nowra, we were greeted with a fine but cool winters morning, which was perfect for a long day racing.

The race attracted around 200 riders, with the event centre having a laid back social vibe. I personally was prepared for a long hard day in the saddle, as I was feeling the effects of a chest cold, which I had been trying to shake off with some antibiotics for the last couple of days.

Gavin was also nursing a calf strain and I had a feeling that we would be chasing the leaders all-day long. Upon arrival at the event centre, we went about our pre race ritual of quickly catching up with friends, setting up pit, registering and a hotly contested game of paper, scissors and rock, to see who would do the opening lap.

Gavin elected to do the first lap and found it to be steep learning curve, as he had not seen or ridden the Coondoo track before and was treated to endless flowing sections of bermy corners with minimal traffic. The course was significantly different to the "Chocolatefoot single track series", as we raced the track backwards and the track had about an extra kilometre of freshly cut in track.
Gavin came through on the first lap in about fifth position, which is a commendable effort for his first ever lap of the Coondoo track. I set about chasing down the leaders, which were about a minute or two ahead of us. I soon encountered a little track and was suddenly stop by a rider who clipped a tree and hit the ground rather heavy, a quick stop to make sure he was okay and I was back on my way. I found myself struggling to breathe at times as I was struggling to pull in the air due to coughing fits and a severely blocked nose.

The new sections of track were hard to see and ride at the start of the day, but as the sections of track became more worn, the riding through these sections of track improved. We managed to nail down the transition with a Madison styled (track racing) push.

We both continued to do consistent lap times and quickly reeled in fourth place on about lap 4 and were closing in on third. On lap 7 Gavin got us within striking distance of securing 3 third place, so I dug deep to catch 'Team Heathcote' and hopefully smash out a quick lap time. I caught Team Heathcote pushing his bike on the back fire road, with a rear puncture.

I quickly ripped of my tube and CO'2 canister, which he called for and threw it to him on my way past. As I passed him, he also called for the CO2 attachment, which I grab out of my jersey and drop on the ground for him about 10 metres up the road. I set about trying to compete a quick lap time, but never really felt strong or consistent.

At this stage we were still about 6-7 minutes behind the leading pair’s teams, which stretched out as the race went on. We managed to hold our third position and complete a total of 13 laps (133km) in 6 hours and 22 minutes.

The Team Bike Bug - Merida would like to thank the awesome event organisers and Bike Bug for finely tuning Gavin's Merida FLX Team and my super quick Merida Ninety Six.

Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix Series

On Saturday 3rd July 2010 the Rocky Trail MTB Grand Prix Series kicked off at the Awaba MTB Park. The race was started under blue skies and in a packed event centre with more than 200 riders and their support crews in the “pit lane”. Two race options were offered – a 4Hour and 8Hour race length with the Bike Bug Team of Gavin Storey and I opting to do the latter as a male pair’s team.

Gavin & I arrived with sufficient time to setup our base camp, register and complete a warm up, prior to the race briefing.

The race commenced at 9:00am with two waves of solo riders being released straight into the single track. The team riders were release about 5 minutes later. I completed the opening lap in heavy traffic and managed to overtake a handful of riders. I was happy to pass the baton to Gavin for the next two laps, as he managed to sneak past a few more riders and gained clearer track by the 3rd lap as competitor’s spread out.

By the forth lap with the track clearing up i was able to open up smash out a couple of quick laps and really got to appreciate the amazing single track that Awaba has on offer. I managed to complete the fastest lap of the day with a 23:13 and back straight up with another sub 24 minute lap with a crash in the dark forest section.

While Gavin was flying around the track, i noticed that my front wheel had a server buckle. The event bike mechanic had a hard time straightening the wheel and made the wheel safe to continue racing.

The track was predominantly silky smooth single track, with corners that could be railed with absolute confidence. I would especially like to thank the Hunter Valley Mountain Bike Association, for building and maintaining such an amazing track.

Both Gavin & I continued to do consistently quick lap times for the remaining of the race and lapped 2nd place team to be the only team to completed 18 laps (approx 162km) in under 7 hours and 50 minutes.


The Bike Bug team convincingly won the male pairs category and came 2nd overall in the GP8 hour race. A special thanks for the awesome event put on by race organisers and to Bike Bug for finely tuning Gavin’s Merida FLX and my super quick Merida Ninety Six.

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT 2010

Capital Punishment was held on Saturday 30th May 2010 in Canberra and took in some of the best tracks that Canberra have on offer. I was predicting a wet race, but nether expected the mud fest that prevailed.

Due to poor planning, we underestimated the time required to travel to the get start line (i.e. getting lost) and missed our race start slot by over 10 minutes. I started the race in the 4th wave and soon realised that forgetting my glasses was a crucial error, as mud was flicking up into my eyes, making visibility extremely difficult. After the 3km of fire road, we soon discovered how hammered the tracks truly were.



The next 30km was a battle, with the previous 300 plus riders turning the track into slop and the front wheel drifting through corners and the rear wheel sliding across the track from left to right. Overtaking other riders was made difficult by the poor track conditions and sheer volume of single track. I worked hard on the fire road sections to overtake as many people before re-entering the single track where patience was essential.

Half way through the first section, I had worn through my rear brake pads and was using the front brakes cautiously to ensure I would have some brakes for the rest of the race.





On arrival at the first 30km check point I literally had no vision, I was squinting to prevent any further mud going into my eyes and trying to make out the fast approaching check point. On arrival at the check point, I quickly grabbed a cup of premixed Endura and threw it into my eyes, to try and wash the dirt out.

I pushed on through the miles of paddocks that followed on my way towards Majura pines. At this point I was feeling strong and managed to make up some lost time. My expectations of the Majura track was not high, but the trail was in much worse condition and I found my self hugging a number trees and walking the steeper climbs.

At the 60km mark I stopped and had some food, attempted to wash eyes out again, but unknowingly over stayed my welcome by thinking that this section was untimed.

I was ecstatic on reaching the untimed section another 15km’s later, as I desperately need to go to the toilet and had been holding on from the start.


The last section before entering into Stromlo was painful, the track felt like I was riding through wet concrete, with large sections in an unrideable condition. The trails at Stromlo were the complete opposite and had held up really well.

This may sound like blasphemy, but I preferred the climb up Stromlo than the run down to finish, as I had absolutely no brakes left and the descent felt sketchy. With the finish line insight and the hum of the tyres rolling over the asphalt brought on a feeling of relief that it was all over. I ended up in a respectable 25th position overall and 16th in elite category.

Thanks to Bike Bug North Sydney for tuning my Merida FLX hardtrail for this event and to Steve who is going to help me strip clean the bike in the aftermath that was Capital Punishment.

SRAM SINGLETRACK MIND ENDURANCE SERIES – ROUND TWO

The second round of the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series was held on Sunday 16 May 2010, at Coondoo Road track, located just outside Nowra.

A crystal clear day greeted over 340 riders to the 8 hour endurance race format, with approximately 80 solo riders and 91 teams competing.

I was well under prepared for this race, as prior to the race I was battling a cold and was unsure if I would be well enough to go the full eight hours. After much deliberation, I made the call late Saturday afternoon to harden up and head down to Nowra for the race.

I had heard lots of awesome reviews about the Nowra course and found the first lap was a pleasant learning curve. The 10.5km course lived up to the hype, with smooth, fast following sections, log rollovers and pinch climbs spread evenly throughout course. South Coast United Mountanbiker’s (SCUM) put together a really good blend of high quality single trail and fire road for this event.

The gifted mechanics at Bike Bug North Sydney had tuned my weapon of choice, a Merida FLX Hardtail, which was perfectly suited to the fast flowing course.

The game plan for this race was to settle into the race for the first couple of laps and pace off the leaders as much as possible. Upon completion of the first lap, I had managed unknowingly to get myself into 3rd position and kept 2nd placed within sight for the first 5 laps. By midway through lap 6, I secured second place and was feeling strong.

First place was approximately 5 minutes head at this stage and was recording constantly strong lap times. I planned to try and maintain consistent 30min lap times and reassess how I was feeling at the mid way point. By lap 8 (4 hours) I was still feeling strong and decided to try and chase down 1st place.

I managed to pull back approximately 3 minutes on lap nine, but the following laps were considerably slower and any margin I had gained soon disappeared.

With the end in sight (1.5 hours remaining), I tried to pick the pace up along the back fire road and awkwardly hit an off chambered rut, which somehow caused a spoke to snap. My wheel was instantly buckled and the remaining half of a lap was completed very sheepishly.

Upon my return through the race transition, there was 45 minutes of racing left. I quickly arranged for my wonderful wife, Samantha (a.k.a support crew) to grab a spare wheel from the car and arrange for a tube and tire to be fitted to the wheel (excellent example of good preparation, Not!).

Meanwhile, I took a gamble that my wheel would hold up for another lap to try and maintain the small gap back to third place, who was creeping ever closer. Cornering was horrible and descending was sketchy to say the least, but the wheel held up and I managed to hold a mere 3 minute lead over 3rd place going into the final lap.

A quick wheel change and fast final lap was required to secure a 2nd place, in 8 hours and 17 minutes with 168km of single track covered.

A special thanks to Bike Bug & Merida for an awesome bike and the race organisers for another wonderful event.

SRAM Singletrack Mind Endurance Series – Round One

On Sunday 18 April 2010, round one of the SRAM Singletrack Mind Series was held at Lidsdale State Forest, located just outside Lithgow.

The 8 hour endurance race format attracted in excess of 60 solo riders and 40 teams who made the most of perfect sunny day of fierce racing.

The race commenced at 8:00am sharp with a mad dash on a short stretch of fire road into the first endless section of single trail. I was fortunately close to front of the massive bunch of riders and successfully avoided the bottle neck of riders trying to enter the single track.

The first lap was a steep learning curve, as I had not managed to ride the 10km course prior to the race commencing. I was pleasantly surprised when I found myself railing sections of single trail, which was quickly followed by leg burning pitch climbs that dropped into steep sections of single track littered with jumps and burns.

The biggest difficulty that I faced during this race is that I had no external support; I was completely independent and reliant on my Merida Ninety Six, which had been finely turned for this event by the talented mechanics at Bike Bug, North Sydney. The next biggest challenge was my nutrition preparation, I had all of my water bottles laid out on two make shift tables with gels and energy bars strapped on the side with duct tape, to cut down transition time during the race.

My aim was to ride as hard and as fast as I could for the entire eight hours and shake off the disappointment of a DNF at the 24 Hour Solo National Championships a couple of weeks ago, due to a faulty eye. On the completion of the first lap, I had managed to get myself into a commendable 2nd position and mid way through second lap had secured 1st place within the elite male solos.

At this stage I was completely unaware of position and continued riding to my limits for the next seven laps (3.5 hours) to open my lead up to 7 minutes on second place. At this point my legs had started to cramp and I had to drop the intensity of to prevent myself from blowing up.

By lap 10 I had discovered that I was in first position and continued to lap consistently, until lap twelve (120km) when my earlier efforts started taking a toll physically. Mentally I was being worn down by the unknown; I was unaware how far back 2 place was and the effort I needed to exert to maintain my lead.

On lap 14, I thought I was on the home straight until I caught a glimpse of second place Garry Millburn, descending quickly down a section of single track, some quick calculations in my head placed him 3 minutes behind me with over 15 minutes left to race.

The writing was on the wall, I would have to do a quick lap 15 to hold my first place position. So I dug deep, grabbed another bottle of water and went hell for leather. On the final lap I managed to pull some time back off second place to win by over 8 minutes, in 8 hours and 30 minutes, with 150km of single track covered and 2800m of vertical climbing.

A special thanks for the awesome event put on by race organisers, Merida & Bike Bug for an awesome bike and to all of the riders that made it such a wonderful event.

2010 Australian Solo 24 Hour MTB Championships

The solo 24 hour National championships was held in Canberra over the Easter long Weekend3rd & 4th April, on a nine kilometre course at Majura Pines.



The race attracted 173 riders to the start line and as a mark of respect to James Williamson, one of Australia’s most successful mountain bike riders who recently passed away, all riders observed a minute’s silence, wore black armbands and completed a slow roll out lap in honour.

On the second lap the race heated up with a bunch of eight riders picking the pace up. My main aim was to remain within contact of the leaders and minimise the deficit before night fall. This proved to be more difficult than I expected, with a couple of wheel mechanicals resulting in a couple of additional pit stops.



On lap six I severely damage my rear wheel on the Merida ninety Six and was forced back onto my Merida FLX hard tail. I was lapping well into the night and secured second position in the 25 - 29 age group and 7th overall after eight hours of racing.
My pit crew were helping me focus on the target of consistent lap times through the night and I was feeling strong after the first battery swap around 12:00am.

On lap 26 at about 1:30am, I notice that things around me were getting a little hazy and soon after realised that my eye issues, which I experience at the Scott 24hr in October 2009 had returned to haunt me.



I let my support crew know that my eye was playing up and said I would try another lap and see what happens. The lap was very sketchy and I found that my vision was quickly deteriorating. Upon return to the transition area, I had my support crew inspect my left eye, which had once again gone cloudy and was moving erratically. The sensible decision was made to pull the pin after 14 hours of racing and 243km of single track.

Once again it was frustrating to not finish the race, considering I was feeling strong, the fact that the eye issue had occurred for a second time is a serious concern. I will be focus on getting this issue diagnosed as soon as possible, to ensure this issue won’t plague my world solo Championship bid later this year.

A special thanks to my wife Samantha Swain & friend Gavin Storey whom were my pit crew for this race, Bike Bug North Sydney for their continued support and Merida for an amazing bike that helped me race with the world’s best ultra endurance athletes.