Paul Petch

Hanmer 12 hour by Blue Dog Events

Getting ready

Taking Friday off and packing for the weekends sillyness at the Hanmer 12hr race was a great idea and a relatively stress free experience in contrast to the Cyclic Saga only a few weeks prior. Infact by the time Craig got here for 7ish I was totally ready to rock and roll… and chomping at the bit to get out there :)

Before we knew it, we arrived at Hamner and swiftly took care of registration before picking up the keys for the “pad” where we were all going to crash for the weekend. Driving up to the house it was clear that we had stumbled upon a real gem as it was large, modern and nice and warm with a massive open wood burner taking pride of place in the living room! Grabbing the double bed I was set :D…. and once we had unloaded the car and got our bearings,  I lit the fire (nice!) and we were soon chilling  in front of the box relaxing. Ben and Spencer had planned to meet us at the forest the following morning and then crash at the house on Saturday night. Brent was also traveling down at “stupid o’clock” in the morning with his girlfriend and staying elsewhere for the weekend. With cold ones in hand we chuckled like school kids at how the rest of the “team” were having to get up at such a ridiculous hour…..as the fire crackled and we watched TV :D By 11 were were both knackered and off we went to rest up for the following days shenanigans.

I slept really well and woke to a fantastic blue sky, crisp Autumn air and a view of the surrounding mountains….you have got to love NZ and Autumn ;) After a really lazy breakfast and plenty of coffee we packed our gear for the day and headed to the site. On arrival, the site was totally buzzing with literally hundreds of tents and happy mountain bikers. Brent and Co. soon arrived looking very “I’ve been up since sparrows fart” and then it was time to get to the start line. I opted to do the first lap and with butterflies (I always get them on a new trail) and with a mind fueled by way too much coffee… off I went smiling like the village idiot.

The Trail

The first lap was characteristically a bit awkward….with novice riders coming to a stand still on the most ridiculously “un- technical” parts of the track, but I was there for fun so just went with the flow. When there was a safe section to pass riders, I did so with a “hello” and that silly smile you have when you just know the day is going to be a good one on the dirt. The sweet little course of about 9KM? itself was as follows;

From our tent there was a leg sapping grassy exit to a fireroad that was then fast and great to get the legs warmed up before it hit a rocky and dry river bed and onto the dry and slightly rocky single track that weaved its way into the forest. There was just enough trail litter such as fist sized rocks and roots that kept me on my toes through this section and caught me off guard a few times when I was not concentrating (often…lol). Once into the forest the sound of running water greeted my senses and the pungent smell of pine forest was fantastic :) I just love that sound and smell…..its so New Zealand! The track now became a tad greasy as it was under cover from the sun and much tighter and narrower and it started to get some real flow as it crossed a few wooden bridges and running streams. Exiting the forest I then hit the longest climb of the day, a steep and “draggy”  fireroad that had a surface similar to sticky clay…..lovely! Many riders complained about this section, but I actually quite liked it as I just spun up and zoned out for 5 minutes!

Reaching the top of the fireroad I was greeted with a sweet little pitch that took me up in granny gear to the start of the best part of the trail… a fantastic walking track that had been opened specifically for the day (nice!). Once up the steep entry it flowed up and down through the green pine forest and required the full range of gears at my disposal….. it was brilliant! The Gravity Dropper got a good work out at points on the track too as I flew over and down steep and rooty sections passing the weight weenies on their 6KG road bikes :D At the end of this particular section there was a really steep section that zig zagged upwards into three clear sections and it just went up…..gradient changed…..and up……and another gradient change…..all of which lead me over slippy roots at what seemed to be the parts where the legs were screaming. This part of the trail was the only part that I considered walking…..as it was a total bitch! With an audiable PHEW…. the singletrack goodness just kept going and then weaved downward through trees at speed like I was on a speed bike from Return of the Jedi! At points there were still moments where things could have gone seriously wrong and I was on my toes….with tight turns and huge drop offs to the side, slippery rocky sections and more greasy bridge crossings…… this trail rocked!

Exiting the singletrack I then hit a gravelly covered fireroad that had a perfect gradient to hammer it, and was a relief to my senses after such an intense section of trail! I soon ran out of gears though running a bash guard and then settled back into cruise mode as the “dirt roadies” with head to toe lycra that I had totally smoked in the forest passed me like I was standing still. Turning sharply off the fireroad it hit another section of double track that was hard, dry and strewn with small rocks that after a few minutes met a really cool little track that dropped down and weaved through some trees in a steep and tight kind of way. After hammering it on fireroad and double track, this little section was quite tricky as it required my brain to start thinking again :D Another fast bit of 4WD track headed back to the camp site and a tent that beeped as I passed through it……with that stupid grin still plastered on my mug :D I enjoyed it that much that I decided to do another lap and set the theme of the day as I rode double laps on most outings from the team camp! (8 laps total vs 5 from the other guys).

How did we do?

The vibe at our tent and everywhere else was electric! and with the sun high in the sky and warming the site…..it was perfect for sitting about and socialising too! Each lap on average seemed to take us about 25 minutes and before I knew it….it was my turn again! I must admit that physically the course did not bother me that much even though I was on the Wolf :D, but during the midday heat it was not a nice time to be slugging a 16KG bike around the forest! Everyone came back smiling after their lap and we all celebrated how great the course was while kicking back in the sun with a cold drink and of course the token banana or muesli bar! Bike wise, Craig was the only one on a hardtail in our team and did really well too considering the technical and greasy parts strewn throughout the trail. Talking of hardtails……I noticed that they are still the racers choice out there……which is odd, as a lot of them came unstuck as soon as the trail became rooty!

Thankfully, mechanicals were few and far between considering we were hammering our bikes and kit for 12hrs…. I had a snake bite (yep another!!!) while Ben snapped his chain on his first lap and ran most of it (coming in only 3 minutes later than me!!!) Talking of Ben’s antics…. he also skulled an energy drink and iced coffee prior to one lap and then vomited “on route”. Not wanting to waste valuable time, he “threw up on the go” and of course it went all over himself and his bike :/ On arrival back to the tent he looked kinda green….. haha.

The black art….

With only a few sets of lights between us, we worked out a simple system to ensure that we were all ready to go once it came around to head out. I did a sneaky double lap just as dusk came around…..which guarenteed that I would get out for a total dark lap come my next turn (there is nothing worse is there??) By the time it got to my night lap….it was really dark….and blinking cold!…and it required some serious motivation to get me out of my warm gear and back into the now wet gloves and helmet! Thankfully I had a change of top and gillet that was toasty! As an “extra” incentive, I decided to utilize Bens “Boy Scout” skills and he taped a set of battery powered iPod speakers to my back and plugged in my iPod Shuffle :D Heading off it into the forest was bloody awesome with some tunes pumping out! I can honestly say that to date, I’m yet to experience such a fantastic buzz on a bike! Just imagine flying through the walking forest track with Led Zeppelins “Wanna Give You My Love” rocking out!…….it was a fu&#ing amazing experience! I’m grinning just thinking about it!!! Brilliant. I Arrived back at the tent with comments that out of the eight laps that I’d done, this final lap was the only one that made me sweat!! haha.

At 9.35 and with the last rider back (Spencer) we packed up our gear under the tunes still pumping from the grounds sound system (which by the way was pumping out all day!!!) and then with gourmet pizza and beers in hand we all hung about to see the results of the day. Some trippy statistic of the event was that the total amount of KM’s for the day covered by all teams was something like 45,000!!! EEEEK! All the solo riders deserved some praise too, with some serious lap times and distances covered by these loonies :) I’ll not bore you with times and corporate team results…..but the winning solo male (Dayle McLauchlan) did an astonishing 28 laps!!! Like I said to him, if he came up against the Predator, he would win :D Chuck Norris? who is he? haha :D The results can be viewed here if you are keen.

Knackered, dirty and happy!

By midnight we were all chilling infront of the log fire buzzing from a spectacular day of mountain biking and sharing stories of  “what about that rigid solo single speeder dressed in a suit and tie carrying a cardboard guitar on his back??” or “did you see that guy dressed as a giant mouse with his tail nearly getting caught in his rear wheel?”…..ahhh…..events….you have got to love the freaks that they attract! Out of all the events that I’ve done so far, the Hanmer 12hr was the best to date. The company was great, the weather was perfect and the event organisation and trail choice was absolutley first class. Cheers guys and lets hope we make it next year ;)

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Related posts:

1. Mcleans Island 12hr 2009
2. Suburu Dockland 12 hour & New Zealand
3. Mountain biking at Hamner Springs
4. Mcleans Island mountain biking
5. Big Foot Track at Hanmer Forest – gone :(

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Bike Rides, Featured and tagged with ben, brent, craig, Events, hanmer, marin, spencer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.