A View from Above: Karingal 4 Hour

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Karingal 4 Hour

Sunday morning dawned cloudy and cold. Well, cold for this time of the year here in Queensland. A quick look outside confirmed what I had been hoping against for several days now. Rain. Lots of it. Bugger. I continued to drag myself around the house, eating some breakfast and thinking that I did not really want to ride around in this weather for four hours. Bloody bugger. I couldn't not turn up either. Being a member of the club and knowing the massive amount of effort the other members had put into track preparation and setup, I HAD to go! "Oh well" I told myself. I am only in the social category today so I will just trundle around and have FUN. The bike that best suited these conditions was my Kona Unit single speed. The words Single Speed and Karingal 4 hour were not to be used in the same sentence as far as I was concerned, but the weather had tipped my hand and out of bicycle preservation I HAD to ride Stanley.

Getting the bike out of the car it proceeded to bucket down again. I still felt like I was moving in slow motion. Not really wanting to do it. Once down in the start area the other guys from the wednesday morning ride crew were set up under a shelter kindly supplied by Chris. This was very civilized and proved to be the first bright point in the day. Hellos were exchanged and I had dawdled for so long that it was race time already. The rain held off for the pre race brief and all that I heard was that social riders were to start at the rear of the field. No problems. I can do that. So I did. I made sure I was absolutely dead last away. Climbing the first hill I couldn't help myself and passed about twenty riders. They must have been saving themselves for later.

Early on when you could make out the colour of my kit. This didn't last long.

I continued to cruise around chatting to Deano and Chris at varying points. It was very wet but the Maxxis Ignitor on the front wheel was gripping the drowned earth with aplomb and giving oodles of confidence. What wasn't giving quite as much confidence were the brakes. They were fading to nothing, being ground away by the mud. Luckily the BB7s are simple and easy to adjust which I did until the pads were no more.

At least I had some brakes. Chris had lost all rear brakes and had decided to call it quits as Karingal is a track that demands at least a rear brake in these conditions. So Dean0 and I continued to circulate and chat and generally laugh at this absurd situation. That was until I was climbing a steep pinch, standing and putting in the big ones when my chain gave up the ghost, went "ping" and I duly kneed the handlebars about as hard as I could!! Some choice words escaped my lips but luckily no one was around to hear. Shortly after this Dean0 turned up, laughed and commiserated me on "losing" in the Daisy Hill Wednesday Morning Crew bragging rights challenge. Oh well, I was in second place after Chris's retirement, Rich's locking his keys in his car and Dr Geoff and Coaster pulling the pin early that morning. I decided I was going to finish the lap and scootered the flat bits, coasted the downhills and pushed up the climbs. I messed with some other riders minds by pushing up behind them as they struggled to grind away up the hills. I had a chat with Outdoorgaz while he shot photos of the race for our club. Most of these shots here are courtesy of Gaz, so thanks again mate for putting up with the wet to document our stupidity!

The end result was a Nightmare on Elm St scenario for our respective washing machines........yet we were still smiling?

Stanley hates me, but I think he secretly had fun too despite throwing his chain. I gave him a spruce up today with a new front axle, front brake pads, bottom bracket and with a new rear wheel to build as well as new rear brake pads to install.Oh, and a chain! Most of these maintenance items were due anyway, apart from the brake pads.