24 hours of N-duro

Number 1 son and I left Auckland at 6.45 AM and went down to Rotorua for the 24 hours of N-Duro. The weather was not too bad and I was pumped and really looking forward to the riding.

I was in a supposedly 5 man single speed team in the open category, but there end up being only 4 of us to add to the challenge of racing against fully geared teams. Number 1 son was in a mixed team of complete strangers from Wellington.

We stopped at Macca’s for a bacon and egg McMuffin power breakfast and then drove the 2 half hours to Rotorua, had a good trip down, little traffic and what there was was moving at a decent pace.

We arrived on site as expected around 10.00 AM, I was surprised at how small the event ‘village’ was. There must have only been about 40 teams at the most. This event is definitely aimed at mountain bikers, unlike the Moonride and Day Night Thriller 12 hour events which attract huge amounts of teams and are more aimed at participation. Our team was not overly serious though we are all experienced mountain bikers. We were racing under the Essence Bicycles team.

The event started on time at 12.00 I took the first lap. We started with a Le Mans start of a 500m run to the bike, then a 500m climb up a sealed road before hitting a steep 4 wheel drive track into the forest. The tracks were bit of Baur, road, A Trail, road, Tickler, Be Rude Not 2, bit of road, Lion, bit more road, bit more Baur, bit more road, Exit trail. All up the course was 12k, mostly sweet sweet Rotorua single track, with a bit of metal road linking he tracks. There was a fair amount of climbing which I hated on the single speed as I am not a great climber, even though the climbs were short they were steep. In some cases I was loosing traction and ended up walking them on most laps.

The first lap was very hot and I think I got quite dehydrated, it took me 55 minutes. I lost my chain at the bottom of the exit trail. The second lap at 2.00 and took about an hour, I think as a result of the dehydration - it also started to drizzle, which made the pinch climbs on Lion quite greasy. The second lap I had somehow lost a cleat screw so I had a lot of fun was slipping cleats, and when I lost traction a couple of times I could not get my foot out so ended up falling over, removing my shoe, tightening the cleat screw and riding off, this happened 3 times, which did not help my lap time.

I then had a 5 hour break until my next lap at 7.30 PM, spent some time sifting around the site, chatting to people. Sent number 1 son out on his first lap which he enjoyed, especially the exit trail down hill.

The 7.30 PM lap was a goodie, no mechanicals, though it did get quite dim at the end and I only maintained speed down the exit trail by following someone who obviously knew where they were going, I think this was my fastest lap of the event but I haven’t seen the lap times yet .

The 9.30 PM lap was my first, and as it turned out, only lap in the dark. I found it quite hard to flow the trails under lights and maintaining a rhythm was very difficult, which does make life on a single speed hard. It rained lightly for most of the lap. The ride after me copped a solid 1 hour downpour of rain and our next rider had only been on the course for 15 minutes when the organisers closed the event down till 6.00 Am for safety reasons. There had been a couple of injuries and the A trail had turned into a river and was quite dangerous. The riders on the trail were grabbed at the half way check point and sent down the road.
Number 1 son and I had planned on sleeping in the marquee, but the rain had made that impossible so we ‘slept’ in the car. He slept OKish, but I had the steering wheel side. We both woke up with sore knees.

As the weather had improved the race re-opened at 6.00 AM, with the A Trail being removed and a small climb up to the Katore jumps trail being added. I had an 8.00 AM ride, The tracks had dried out amazingly well, the drainage in Rotorua is fantastic. The tracks were fast and sticky, with only the horrible climbs on Lion being too slippery for me to get up. I passed 6 riders on this, my final lap.

All up we came 8 out of 12 in the men’s 5 man team competition, even though we only had 4 and we were the only single speed team.

It was a good event, though we did not stay for the prize giving, but drove straight home.

I will have another go at a 24 hour team event.