Woodhill 360

This weekend just been Tim Farmer (an endurance mountain biker) held an event at Woodhill forest as a fundraiser for his campaign to get to the 24 hour MTB Solo World Championships. This new event was a team or solo 6 or 3 hour event named the Woodhill 360, there was an awesome turn out with a number of teams and heaps of solo riders.  

Several weeks ago I was looking at the different categories 6 hour solo, 3 hour solo or 6 hour team relay?? So many choices. Me and my brothers were thinking of making a mixed team together but when I saw Sarah was the only female entered for the 6 hour solo I thought I'd better enter to give her some competition! Also as I've never competed in an endurance event like this before I figured it was time I give one a go to see what they are all about. I didn't quite realise what I was getting myself into at the time I entered....

Saturday morning of the Woodhill 360 dawned cloudy but free of rain thankfully, after the mud at Moonride the weekend before I was hopeful that it would be sunny. There was no sign of sun but at least it wasn't raining! My prep for this event was a little behind as I had a busy week at work and hadn't had much of a chance to get it sorted. I arrived at the event village just in time to set up and get a in short warm up before the race start. We had a good turn out of Department of Cycling members, there were both teams and a couple of solo riders. The set up was awesome we all got to be in the same area so we could give each other support.

The event village was very well set up with a great atmosphere. The start was a le mans start, and as running is not my biggest strength I put my bike further back from the start line than most, so I could jump on it and ride off straight away. The horn went and everyone sprinted for their bikes, it was a battle to get to the single track first with riders surrounding me on all sides. Megan Dimozantos (pro mtb endurance rider) turned up to race the 6 hour solo, my goal was to stay on her tail for as long as I could. I knew I had to not go out too hard at the start because I had 6

Le mans race start

Thanks to ScottieT  for the photo!

hours of riding ahead of me, I needed to be able to maintain a good steady pace for the duration of the race. This in mind I started out strong at a pace which I thought I would be able to keep up. I jumped on Megan's tail as soon as I could and managed to keep up with her for a while even got past her down a hill. Downhill sections are a strength of mine so I pinned it down them as fast as I could. I gained a bit of distance between myself and Megan on the downhill sections. One and a half hours into the race I was feeling pretty good, had set a good pace and it felt like the time was flying by. In my mind I was mentally counting down the time, 2 hours down, 4 to go. No problem I was thinking, almost halfway! Fueling and hydrating is so important in an event of this length so I was prepared with lots of water and food to keep me going. It's actually a lot harder than you think to keep hydrating and refueling when your focusing on riding round a course as fast as you can. I knew I had to keep my liquid and fuel intake up though if I wanted to finish strong so I drank water at every point I could and ate something every hour. Thanks Mum for coming along as my support person to keep me well fed and remind me to keep drinking my water! :)

About three hours in exhaustion hit, my body screamed at me to stop and rest up but there was no way, I was in front of Megan and I was determined to stay out front for as long as I could. So grateful for my new Fizik seat which made six hours in the saddle oh so comfortable, at least I only had to worry about the burning in my legs! About three and a half hours in Megan came flying past me, I dug in with a spurt of energy and jumped on her tail, I kept up down the hill but she dropped me at the next uphill. At the halfway mark time slowed right down, every minute felt like an hour. I kept going willing my legs to keep spinning, counting down the hours to go and calculating how many more laps I could get in. Once I worked that out I focused on those final two laps I could get in before the cut off time. I couldn't have been more happy to see the finish line come into sight, those last few laps were very challenging! I crossed the line in 2nd place, one lap behind Megan, with Sarah coming in 3rd. 8 laps completed, a total of 90kms within 6 hours, my first 6 hour solo event was completed! Stoked. Massive thanks to the DoC crew, Cycle West crew and Avanti Plus Waitakere crew for all the cheering and support, much appreciated! Kept me going when the going got tough especially near the end!

Thanks to photographer Mike Breen for these two awesome photos!

At the end of the 6 hour race a short downhill race (very short 30-40 seconds long) was held from the top of uplands to the bottom, five bucks to enter all funds going towards Trail Fund NZ. The competition was labelled "Pin it to win it" with a prize from Magellan up for grabs. Of course despite being totally knackered out with sore, tired legs I had to give this a go, it was downhill after all! It got cold pretty quickly as it had started to rain so I was glad to be the first one to pin it down the hill after Tim Farmer. For the 34 seconds I pinned it down the hill everything was blur, stoked to see my brother Peter do the fastest time.

Big thanks to Tim and all the volunteers for putting on an awesome event. Best of luck Tim for the World Champs in October!