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12 Hour Solo Mcleans Island 2014

I made the crazy decision a few months ago to enter the 12 hour solo event at Mcleans Island. Despite every intention to train for the event, my longest ride leading up to the event was only 3 hours long... Not exactly ideal but in the end it seemed to work in my favour (not that anyone probably believes I did barely any training).

The race started in typical fashion with a compulsory sprint around the first lap despite the long distance ahead of us. After that first lap I was sat comfortably in the lead bunch with the eventually winners of Open men and Vet men as well as 2nd and 3rd place Vet men. I was expecting the pace to drop off at any moment but when it didn't I made the decision to drop off the back and ride at my own pace because it felt like if I kept going at theirs, I would blow.


I was soon passed by Dave Slater and focused on trying to maintain my position and keep my lap times fairly consistent. Mentally the race started to also become tough from here with fresh team riders flying past you all the time and slow riders getting in your way and holding you up. The track was also starting to cut up from the amount of riders and become quite loose and rough in places. The course builders had however done a great job of creating a spiral in the middle of the pits which was great for the spectators but unfortunately not so great for the solo riders. I got pretty sick of going round and around and around to then just have to ride back out of the spiral again the other way.

 

My food selection of fish and chips and bacon sandwiches were fantastic during the last 6 hours of racing with each lap afterwards being at least a minute quicker as well as the salt helping to make my legs feel fairly fresh (doesn't mean I could push any faster though!). After 7 hours of racing and thinking I was in around 5th (someone told me that as they rode past) I was super surprised and excited to hear I was in 3rd place. Going into the last hour and a half of racing I was riding like a scared animal, surging whenever I heard a rider behind me, expecting it to be one of the other solo guys catching up and passing me. I didn't want to lose 3rd now even though I had come into the event with no expectations. I managed to push the last few laps a bit faster which meant I finished the 12 hours with 26 laps and roughly 280km in my legs in an unbelievable 3rd place.


The support out on the course was fantastic and I still cant quite believe what I achieved. The only downside of the whole race was hurting the tendons in my wrist from the constant pounding they received from the rough parts of the course.

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