Karingal 4hr Enduro - Dave Nearly Killed By Dinosaur

Sneaky dinosaur eats my chippies and nearly devours me.

My first event in Aussie was the Karingal 4hr Enduro. I entered the SS class and hoped to not embarrass myself too much and had a goal of riding consistently and finishing. Lofty goals for my extra light riding regimen.

There were quite a lot of people. About 140 entrants, a mixture of teams and solos. I did a pre-ride of the 7km course which was a bit tiring. It was good dry singletrack with no real climbs. Just regular pinches and short efforts. Nothing where you had to settle in. I thought I would go fairly quick at the start and see how I got on.



I took off quick and joined in with the shaved racerboys, sitting in about 12th overall. I was swinging along pretty well and was leading the SS class by a few minutes after 3 laps. One of the pinch climbs was steep and out in the open. It was baking me every time. I kept chanting "I am a solar panel, I am a solar panel" in an effort to convert the heat to energy. Didn't work.

I wiped out in a fast rocky corner on lap four and rolled into the scrub where in my mind, 1000 snakes and spiders were looking for a meal. I cut the sidewall of my tire on a rock in the process. So I sat at the side of the track with sweat dripping off my ears, nose, elbows, knees etc fixing a puncture and trying to patch the cut with tree bark and gum leaves, so the inner tube wouldn't poke out and flat again. I got going after a few long minutes and three nasty bites from inch long red ants (more near death per the title) I called them the c-word very loudly. It still hurt a lap later. At least it wasn't a crocodile.


Entirely predictable breakdown of my organic tire reinforcement. Fortunately the cut never let the tube through anyway.


I joked that 84 was my lucky number at rego. The lady asked if it was because it was my birth year. I love her.

I got going again and went quickly through a lot of riders who had passed me. I eased up a little to deal with the heat. Then I flatted again. Bad luck for sure. Two flats are quite rare. I've not flatted twice in a row for years. I was out. No more tubes. Very hot hike back in from the back of the course. Bugger.



Still a good outing and an opportunity to meet new people and ride some good trails. Next year if I get the chance, I will do a bit of training for it and try and smash the whole 4hrs and win my class. The course suited me. It was a shame to have the problems.

I hung out with the team from Fortheriders, which is a very good shop here who are involved in all the races. Their mechanic, Shaun, is also the Yeti World team mechanic and as his team mate, he had Jared Graves, former UCI 4X World Champ. It was interesting talking to him. He was superfast XC too. Those guys are not just good at jumps. Apparently 4X is not a UCI event now, so he is focusing on DH.

Not sure when I will next be racing. I am quite keen to try a bit of surfing. When in Rome...

Looking forward to getting a trail ride in at Daisy Hill tomorrow. To get it done before our trip to the Gold Coast I have to head out at 4am. I'll be first into the trails and will clear the cobwebs for the rest of the day's riders. I look forward to hastily scraping them off my face and trying not to imagine what is attached. No doubt more near death blogging to follow.

Cheers
Dave