Marathon Man McAvoy

Enduro Pulse caught up with endurance racer Jason McAvoy to find out what makes someone want to ride solo for 24 hours, what it's like to come second in the World 2009 Solo 24 Hour Championships (age group) and working towards the 2010 World Solo 24 Hour Champs in Australia.

You recently finished 2nd in your age group at the 2009 World Solo 24 Hour Champs in Canada. With the 2010 Championships to be held in Australia will you be counting on the home crowd to get you back on the podium?

Absolutely, the cheers I was over whelmed to receive at Nationals this year were the highlight of every lap and kept the pedals turning over for sure.

The comrade of the Aussies at Worlds was a huge boost too, with all the Aussie teams cheering each other on every lap. 24 Solo is sometimes more about the mind than the body, so any mental lift you can get in the dark times gives you that extra edge to bring it home harder.

Both Canberra and South East Queensland are currently being considered as venues for the World Solo 24 Hour Championships. How will an Aussie track compare to Canada?
They will be chalk and cheese, the Canadian courses are completely devoid of flow, filled instead with slippery roots, holes, rocks and hike a bike sections.

As a result they are pretty dangerous, I saw 3 spinal board lifts at 2009 Worlds alone, and that was just the ones I came across during the race, I don’t know how many people went home in an ambulance, but was a lot. Here in Australia we race very differently, faster and with more flow and more fun. (Ed: Announcement made 6th October 2009, the winner is Canberra!)

How did you get into endurance racing, and what drives you to keep turning the pedals at 3:00am in the morning in a 24 hour race?
I kind of fell into solo 24, doing it for a lark in 2006, the last MONT at Kowen. I didn’t have a dedicated support crew, Kylie, my wife was on a 6 person team at the event and I figured she could just throw me a bottle every few hours when she had the time and that would be all I would need. I was pretty naive and had no idea what I was in for.

Pretty quickly Kylie realised she was going to have give up her race to support me, which was pretty amazing of her.

\We ended up coming 14th, which blew me away as I was there only as a challenge to see if I could finish without stopping, we never even kept track of where I was in the field during the race. It made me want to come back one day and see how we could go racing one.

It took two years of hard work for me to get to where I needed to be mentally and physically, but at the 2008 Easter Nationals we did our 2nd 24, but this time we raced it.

Mountain Bike Australia (MTBA) are running an endurance series for the first time at each national round in 09/10. With the inaugural national endurance series title up for grabs will you be slotting these races into your calendar?
It would depend on the location and timing, being a father of 3, getting away for weekends to race is not easy for me. I look forward to the series, I think it will fill the void the old Working Week Series (Ed: a NSW series of five 8 hour enduros) left behind and we will see some awesome racing on great courses. Can’t wait!

Operating behind the scenes for every solo racer is commonly some family and friends providing support. Who do you have in your pits helping out?
I am very lucky to have such a supportive wife, she has been the power behind all of my races, and it’s not just the support on race day either, it’s putting up with months of demanding training schedules and nutritional needs, tolerating my mood swings when things aren’t going right.

24 solo is a lifestyle for us, it affects all aspects of our everyday life, all year, so without her incredible support I could not do it all.

I also have two close mates that come out to my races and run my mechanical support, Neil has tirelessly supported me and Kylie at Nationals, and Adam has taken unpaid time off work to come to Canada twice and keep my bikes running faultlessly in the most atrocious muddy conditions, somehow he even finds time to mentally keep me in the game and motivate me to push the levels I never thought possible and shoot some amazing photography.

I am also very lucky that Nationals have been in Canberra, where I live, and I have literally dozens of wonderfully supportive friends and family that come to the race to cheer me on, support my crew and keep us going.

I recall coming into one transition at Nationals last year at 3am, blurry eyed and in a world of hurt, to my amazement there were 6 people there to help me (most of them had just showed up, unplanned, in the middle of the night to see what they could do to help), in Formula 1 style I was changed, fed and on a fresh bike and rolling again.

Without their incredible generosity we would never do as well as we do. I’ve also been lucky to get the support of Radical Lights this year, they really look after me with personal support in and out of the pits.

So what’s left racing wise for the rest of the year?
I’ll be in the Onya Bike Belco 3 man team at the Scott 24 Hour next weekend (10th/11th October) defending our win from last year, having my 3rd crack at the 100 Mile Highland Fling next month, then soloing at my first Kona 24hr to end my season before a solid break over xmas.

Then it will be time to start the build to the 2010 World Champs!

Thanks for your time and bring on the 2010 World Solo 24 Hour Champs!
Cheers.

When Jason's not training he finds time to detail some great rides at his site http://www.wickedrides.com.au/. Check it out. Photo credits to Adam from Jason's support crew.