West Australia 12 hour ....

I thought it was about time I sampled the Australian bush on the mountain bike, so in a team of 4 I entered the WA12 Mountain Bike Race sponsored by Alcoa and arranged by Perth Mountain Bike Club. In true Perth style since its too hot to ride all day this was a 12 hour race through the night from 6pm till 6am. With Dan from work and a couple of native Aussies we entered under the dubious team name of the 'Hard Core 4', we were only hard core in the fact that all the others who had promised the race with us had seen sense and dropped out! I was dutyfully representing the UK with Team Zimmer (www.teamzimmer.org) the Perth Chapter has started now lads! I had some pre race maintenance help from Anna as you can see, note 'Bicycle Doctor' costume.
So with a quick team meeting to discuss DIY lights, batteries and old war wounds we pitched up at Langford Park in Jarradale (about 45 mins from Perth) mid afternoon to race through the night. By preregistering we were entered into a raffle and won support for the night from the sport drink sponsor Carbo Shotz. This entailed a inflatable tent to use as a base (see pics) and free energy drinks and gels for the race.

The race started with a Le Mans style run to the bikes for Pete our team Captain. Things were fast and furious until darkness when the bike lights were needed and we took turns at laps, Dan put out a 43 min lap which was our best all night, even though it was dusk and he'd never raced at night. Check out the blistering start from the 'unknown' rider in black No.188, had my serious racing face on there!

It was an excellent course, 99% singletrack with logs, rocks, pea gravel and fast dusty sections, comparing favourably with built courses in the UK. In between laps there was enough time to charge lights a bit, get some food on the barbie and do a bit of bike/light manintence. It was a good atmosphere and no one felt like sleeping, with the effects of the energy gels no doubt, so by the sunrise we were feeling tired. The view of a kangaroo boucing along in the trees at about 4am was a bit special though.
I had the last lap needing to finish before the 6am cut off otherwise the lap wouldn't count, after a top effort from Pete I had plenty of time I thought......until complete light failure so I was using a back up LED headtorch until sunrise which was interesting to say the least.......luckily about half way round it was light enough to see. More by luck than fitness/skill I got round before 6am and we came in 12th in the team event. We all agreed it was a great night out, although doing it solo was purely for nutcases!

Note hat and jacket for some in photo, it did get cold overnight or perhaps some folk are a little soft!