Race Review - Gazebo 3 Hour

There is something very magical when you get 150 riders turning up on the Friday night to race a 3 hours solo-only event from 7pm to 10pm.

I would like to say I was well rested when I arrived “just in-time” to register, but it had been a mammoth adventure just to get there.

Close to 300km of driving, one missed flight connection and some missing luggage at the airport almost had me say “not going”, but with the weather looking nice, and a chance to race on the flat tracks of the You Yangs under lights I am glad I finally made it out.

The Geelong Mountain Bike Club in Victoria always do a fine job of running events, and the Gazebo series of 3 x 3 hour events is testament to the clubs philosophy of ‘having fun by putting great events on’, but also there no-nonsense entry fees. The gazebo entry was a paltry $25 (and only $10 for juniors who either raced for 1 or 2).

There were 4 categories to enter, with juniors slotting in with either C or D grade. The course was 20 – 30 mins long, and took in all the wonderful flat track goodness that the You Yangs has to offer.

Racing was going to start right on time, and lights had to be on at 830pm, other than that we were told by Rich Grant (GMBC president) that we were “not racing for sheep stations, they sold them last week”.

A grade was off like a bullet, with a group of 4 (myself included) on the attack within the first kilometre. The key to being fast at the You Yangs, is holding your speed through the corners and smashing the fireroad sections to hold off the groups that followed.

The course is like a roller-coaster, with the straight sections the only time you can grab some water and food, and the singletrack a chance to have some fun.

The first hour went by very quick, with the leading 4 riders being chased down by a second group of 3. The groups did eventually all get back together, but a surge along the fireroad separated the groups again, but the leading group was now only 3.

With 2 hours of the race gone, and now lights being used by all riders, the race was very much going to come down to how could break who on the shorts climbs that littered the course. Each of the 3 leading riders had there own strength on course, so there was no clear “strongest rider” out of the pack.

I was personally waiting until the long fireroad sections to attack, I know Sam was happiest in the tight singletrack and Brendon was comfortable on the short/sharp climbs. It was coming down to be a amazing race, a battle even, even if the course itself was getting a bit repetitive.

Then came the words you don’t want to hear from people you are racing against, “I think you have a flat”, and sure enough I did.

The You Yangs flat track is exactly that, a flat course designed for speed, with no rocks or anything else which you could puncture on, I somehow had achieved the task of obtaining a slow leak on the rear.

With only 2 more laps to be raced, I took a gamble to see if the tyre would hold (or seal itself up), and neither happened. As we were no “racing for sheep stations”, I took that as a queue to sit down and enjoy the free BEER that GMBC had put on for all racers.

I then waited to see how would take the win, but was surprised to see that neither Sam/Brendon who I had been in the leading group with came first, in fact both 1st and 2nd were taken out by riders in the chase bunch, with Brendon holding on the take 3rd and Sam dropping back to claim 5th. 

It was a great event to be raced, and I will make my way to the 3rd and final round on March 3rd.

Ryan Hawson

Event website: Geelong MTB Club