Report by Lorraine & Scott

Last Sunday saw the second event in the WA Mountain Bike Enduro series. 6 hours of fun at Langford Park in the Jarrahdale forest.

SPR’s presence on the MTB scene is growing and for this event we had 2 teams: The SPR Mud Wrestlers comprising Jonny and Ryan, and SPR Young and Younger which was Scott and my son Nick.

Getting a teenage boy out of bed before lunchtime on a Sunday is quite a feat in itself however, the excitement at getting on a brand new Giant XTC had Nick and I organised and on the road by

7.15.

Langford Park is a favourite spot for MTBers and it was easy to see why. Beautiful forests and well maintained trails. A little after we arrived Scott and his wife Gaby rocked up. We quickly found a good spot for the new 3×3 sunshade near the transition area, unloaded the cars and then drove up to the carpark area. By the time we walked back Gaby and Nick had already gotten the tent up and were setting up chairs. Gaby is a woman after my own heart and was super organised with thermoses, food, cool drinks, first aid kit…. so along with ALL my provisions no-one was going thirsty, hungry or would bleed to death!

A little after 9 Ryan and Jonny appeared and settled themselves into the SPR base camp. Registrations complete and numbers on bikes (very un-aerodynamic) consternations and murmurings began as to who was going to front up on the start line to begin the day’s epic adventure for the Mud Wrestlers. Jonny, being the gentleman of the two, relinquished the honour to Ryan. Nick the Novice was feeling nervous about the whole affair and was glad to leave the race start to Scott.

The start line was back at the railway lines at the entrance to Langford Park. After a short distance on the road to sort things out, the riders would then join onto the singletrack race circuit. The 8.5km loop was shorter than the original 9.5km due to heavy rain earlier in the week. 10 am… they were off, and 6 hours of fun in the dirt began.

The Course

Not much more than 25 min later the first of the riders riders began to appear. Being up the front of the bunch would have been a great advantage in avoiding the argy bargy of the bottleneck when the riders left the nice wide road and began the circuit. In the first flush of riders was Ryan who had set a cracking pace in his first lap.  Here, as the riders entered the feedzone/transition area they dismounted and walked through a barricade chicane to ensure a safe changeover of riders. No stopping for Ryan though as he and Jonny had agreed to do begin with 2 laps each.  Nick, who had been the picture of pre-race nerves, only had to wait a few more minutes before Scott appeared and he took off on his first lap. Jonny paced around a bit more while he waited for Ryan to appear and Scott headed back to base camp for re-fueling.  The wisdom of starting with 2 laps for Ryan and Jonny was in question as Ryan appeared… Steaming in the morning sun like a cup of tea in the antarctic, he reflected in true Fynn-esque vocabulary that indeed, he would NOT be doing 2 laps again!

Nick’s first lap went well and he reappeared some 36 min later intact, uninjured, bike in one piece and a smile on his face… good to get that first lap out of the way!  His mother, who had embarrassingly yelled out  “take it easy”…. “go for the B line” as he

took off, was

much relieved upon his return 😉

The day rolled on and apart from a few minor scratches to body team SPR remained intact. The pace stayed strong despite legs growing tired.  Hungry team riders queued at the sausage sizzle that had been provided for the day. Solo riders quickly grabbed drinks and food as they sped past transition. Commentary, updates, music and calls for missing team riders poured out over the PA system. The atmosphere was fantastic!

Just after 2 I had to leave all the action to get back in time to start work. So will leave the wrap up of the day to Scott…

I came in from a lap just after Lorraine left and young Nick headed out on his last effort. By now there where many tired and weary bodies around. Attrition was taking its toll with riders out from injury and mechanicals but team SPR was soldiering on, with Ryan and Johnny still putting in good lap times.

With Nick out on lap 8 and just over an hour left I was counting down the time to see how many more  we could fit in. At this end of the race timing is critical, can you fit in that extra lap or will you smash yourself for nothing and miss the cutoff by secounds. 1 racer did such and missed the clock by 3 seconds. Unfortunately the day had taken its toll on our young rider and I only had enough time for 1 more before kicking back to watch Ryan and the other riders try to beat the clock. The day finished with some big efforts by riders trying to beat the clock and a few fast laps recorded. SPR finished the day in 1 piece with team SPR Mud wrestlers completing 12 laps to get 6th in their category and SPR Young & Younger taking 50th. Also 2 other riders that make an appearance on SPR weekend rides raced the event with us as well. Chris Brown & Peter Gill fresh from the Alice Enduro entered the day as solo riders and must be commended for their efforts, now to get them into SPR kit.

Full details of placings and  lap times here.

All in all a good day had by all. Nick enjoyed himself greatly and looks to be an up and coming racer, and it was good to see Ryan make an event as well. The next race in the Enduro series will be the Ferguson Valley 4hr on July 25th. It would be great to get a bigger showing of SPR riders along. We know there are a number of closet MTB riders out there so make yourselves known and join the fun.