G - Everesting

MCG Everesting

The planning

I have done two Everesting efforts in the past. My first was a sub 12hr event involving 200 reps of a steep local climb on my roadie which, when compared to a 24hr race, didn't seem like too much of a challenge. My second Everesting effort I made harder by throwing down a low carb food strategy and fixed wheel handicap. I put up a charity post I wanted people to like on Facebook and only received 600 out of a desired 1000 so I went on to complete half my second Everest eating nothing but eggs and riding the fix wheel mtb before swapping out for the roadie. I hadn't really considered going for a third any time soon however the concept of riding an 18kg (feels like 180kg) bike on an almost flat segment of road in the middle of Melbourne sounded just like the kind of insanely stupid challenge I was after. Joined with #climbfornepal I had a good reason to do something a little silly.

The hesitation

I booked my flights around 4-5 weeks out from this event so I was kind of committed to ride however a week out an email circulated that was speculating that a distance of between 600-800km would need to be covered in order to hit the vm. Everesting isn't always fun but with uncentainty of the exact route I was almost planning on finding my own more achievable hill around the Melbourne CBD so I didn't need to waste my whole long weekend.   

The late start

I planned my flights to allow just over 18 hours to complete the event. With both my previous efforts taking around 12 hours, I felt 18 hours would give enough time to reminisce with the boys before jumping on a plane. Checking into Virgin at Port Macquarie I was informed my flight was going to be 3 hours late. This meant a window of 15 hours for riding and with people speculating a massive time commitment I was disappointed that I may not have a chance of completing the distance.

Arriving in Melbourne, I ran straight to the lounge, got changed, got my coffee charge and jumped in a hire car with Jason Moxham who flew down from Sydney to help me out! Arriving at the MCG I had my seat and pedals ready to swap out of the City Bike but due to anti theft measures I ended up using the amazingly heavy and comfortable standard seat. Jason set my bike up and it was time to start busting out some laps. With Dave and Rich starting around 7pm, I was already 22 laps down by the time I got pedaling at close to 8.30pm. 

Is it possible?

Once I got started it was time to work out lap times vs vertical meters gained. I was roughly able to hold 25 laps per hour which would mean a 20 hour event. With an obvious lack of time I thought at best I could do half of the distance and still catch my flights. 

I changed

I couldn't believe the support of this event by the locals. Coffees seemed to keep flowing and the mates I met during the first night were great. Dave's wife Sarah impressed me with her ability to beg and plead in order for the event to be safe and possible for the riders. Her traffic directing was great and, while we didn't make any car stop when they weren't required, Sarah just prevented cars from pulling out in front of us. I was most impressed with her ability to negotiate free coffee not once, but on several occasions from local hotels. It seemed like everyone that came out to visit either dropped off a box of doughnuts, brought a load of coffee or cake. The local restaurant owner that brought over buns and rolls was outstanding. I made sure there was no wastage for this supporter! I'm not sure if it was the encouragement from Dave and Rich that convinced me to change my flights or the company by randoms on the ride or the food and coffee that was delivered in pleasing amounts but moving my flights back I now had well over 24hr available.

The second night

This is where things started to get interesting. I was mindful of how much caffeine I had been consuming and so I really wanted to go easy. At around 8pm I headed into my nutrition bag for more Shotz caffeine gels but I was all out. I was starting to get the nods so I needed something! I managed to find 3 cold coffees on the support table that helped me through the next hour. By 10pm coffee wasn't cutting it so I had to put the order in for NoDoz. Being careful once again I managed to only take 4 tabs to keep me alert until 2am.

The last few hours really dragged on. Rich was starting to struggle and I think most of these struggles come down to sleep deprivation and just the thought of sleep deprivation. At 6pm I recall estimating we will be finished by 10pm. At 7pm I estimated 11pm but the required laps weren't completed to just after 1pm. In the last couple of hours I got to meet Ben who not only kept me company but straight after the event helped me out with a shower and somewhere to sleep for 90min. It was only a short sleep as I had to take the share bike across town to the airport shuttle bus. For some reason the navigation on my phone wasn't working perfectly and I ended up riding past some very interesting night clubs on my way to the shuttle.

Once I made the shuttle and got to the airport lounge I couldn't eat a thing. I had no appetite but I was very dehydrated so I went for the juice and water option. By the time I flew into Sydney and found the lounge there things had changed and I had a serious savory breakfast.

I have no recollection of hearing the flight safety talk, the plane take-off or land...

I was asked several questions during the event but one that stood out was how do you train for Everesting? I guess I feel like I know how to pace myself for a 12hr race and could do a 12hr at anytime with just a simple taper and carb load, no specific training required. Training for Everesting on the otherhand should involve hill repeats. Hill repeats is something I have excluded from my training program as I have started using power and Todays Plan. I was super impressed with both Rich and Dave in attempting such as event. Without having extensive overnight experience I think they both performed outstandingly well and I'm sure they have learned heaps about themselves and how hard they can go. This was by far the hardest event I have completed. I'm now considering Brisbane CBD on their bikes for my next Everest! 

The highlights

Coffee

Generosity - both people with their time, cash donations and motivational nutritional gifts

Gourmet sangers and buns

The company, there seemed to be an endless supply of jean clad hipsters to ride with

Seeing the number of laps finally down to 2 digits

People to thank:

Andy for coming up with such a crazy route

Rich and Dave for being my pain brothers

Jason Moxham for supporting me in the pits with nutrition and mech support

RACV for supporting the climb for Nepal 

Ben for the shower and bed

Everyone else that came out and bought company and food. 

Thanks @melbacycle for the pics :)

Bathurst Winters Edge Evocities Rd 3 - 4hr

Bathurst is a long drive from Port Macquire. With Jamie Vogule as designated driver and the goal of attending the junior mtb race presentation we were on the road around 7am Saturday morning. I had managed to swing a bag of G8 Performance balls for the juniors race from the Port Macquarie Company owner David Lee who happens to be a major sponsor of the Evocities Mountain Bike Series.

At the junior presentation there was limited time for a Q&A as the kids were freezing! It was great to see such enthusiastic athletes.

I checked out an easy lap of the course after preso with as much warm gear as I could find before heading back to our accommodation. Thanks to Jason and Ian from McArthur Design and Drafting there was no camping in the icy conditions! I finished off my bottle of Shotz that I had filled up earlier in the Blue Mountains before refilling the bottle at the accommodation. I dropped in a Shotz tab as before but half way through the bottle I relised it didn't quite taste the same. I checked the colour of the water and it was yellow, as it should be after adding a Shotz tab...... Either way, within an hour I had lost my appetite, then another hour later I lost what dinner I had manage to stomach. After another few spews during the night at around 6am I decided I couldn't race. By 8am I had managed to get some soup down that was high in salt and fluid and it seemed to stay down, so I thought I would give the race a start.

As the gun went I tried to get a good spot into the first single track as there wasn't a whole lot of passing and I was scared of thorns that live just off the side of the track. I was sitting quite comfotably around 5th for the first few laps of the race and I knew that holding 5th would be a great result considering my nutritional strategy in the lead up. By 2.5 out of the 4 hours completed I thought I should try to eat something and had my first gel of the race. Normally I would have consumed closer to 5 by the same time mark! With 90 minutes to go I managed to stomach another 2 gels and somehow sneaked through the field to keep hold of second.

Photo Cred: Wombat Photography

The layout of track was quite interesting and nothing I have really raced on. Due to the extent of open grass field and lack of vegetation, it was very easy to keep track of other riders progress. It meant that when I did get ahead of the chase group with 2 laps to go, I could see exactly how far ahead I was sitting and how much effort I had to apply to keep that gap! It also meant when chasing you could get immediate feedback on if you were catching or dropping off.

The course design was quite open, fast and flowy. It was obvious that most natural features available were taken in to allow for an interesting track. There were plenty of windy climbs that kept the gradient comfortable and allowed for a track that suited all abilities.

It sounds like there will lots more track development in the future. With an already fun track, I'm happy to head back and see what more they can do!

A big thanks to #TeamMacDesigns for the pit support and accommodation, #PureEdge for helping me with this series and G8 Performance for looking after me feet, sponsoring the Evocities series and looking after the juniors.
I'm grateful once again to be on an awesome Jet Black blinged Pivot Les for thes smooth trails around Bathurst. See you guys net year :)