DirTraction 12 hour MTB Marathon - Tampines Bike Park

The Cannasia-Cannondale team competed in the DirTraction 12 hour MTB Enduro over the weekend, racing in three different categories.

Solo – Shahrin Bin Amir, Shahrom Bin Abdullah and Cas Brentjens

Mens Duo – Tim Wilkins/Rob Hensby and Nathan Baltoski/Richard Sinclair

Mixed Quad – Matt LeCornu/Craig Sheppard/Gabi Code/Chris Bray

Despite a few of us roadies masquerading as mountain bikers for the night, we had high hopes of being able to win all the categories we were contesting, and with one exception, we weren’t disappointed.

In the Solo category, Shahrin rode an unbelievable race to win, completing 30 laps of the 6.9km Tampines course in the 12 hours, his nearest rival only managing 28 laps. The Mixed Quad team comfortably took out first in their category, whilst the Mens Duo teams had to be content with second and third positions behind a team from Hong Kong.

Due to a drenching on the Saturday morning of the race, the Tampines Bike Park was wet and muddy before the race even got underway at 5pm. With over 200 riders circulating in the dark for the next 12 hours, the track conditions in one particular section of the course got worse and worse, with mud up to half a foot deep testing competitors’ handling skills. However, everyone’s spirits remained high throughout the night, the good-natured banter between the riders never stopped, and everyone gave their all in an energy sapping event.

The Cannasia mechanics and support team did an unbelievable job in keeping the bikes running without any major hitches for the whole night and ensured the changeovers for the teams were as slick as possible. Without them the race would have been a lot more difficult.

Not the usual Saturday night out routine in Singapore, but it was definitely enjoyable. We’re all counting down the days to next year’s event.

Here are some perspectives of the night from a few of the team.

SOLO - Cas

12 hrs SOLO was going to be a long day, actually night, on the bike. I believe this would become my "12hours on a MTB" ride number 4 or so. All other times it was in a stage race or ultra-long marathon. This time it was doing laps.

The first lap, the conditions were reasonably dry, but every lap "Kidney hill" spewed out more water and halfway through the night the course it became a real mud-fest. Then there was still 6 hours to go!

The first 2 hours in daylight were hot and the cooling down at night was a nice welcome. My "every 2 hr a break" rule became "every 3 lap a break" and then "every 2 lap a break". During the breaks, the Cannasia mechanics did miracles to the bike, and therefore it was holding very well in the worst bike conditions you can imagine. No chainsuck for 12 hours in these conditions.

Still recovering from a bad lung infection, pushing it hard was a no-go for me, but finishing the 12 hours was therefore the goal. I was pleased with the 20 laps. Now getting ready for Kent-Ridge.

MENS DUO - Timmy/Rob

For the Rob and Timmy Cannasia Duo Team the race couldn't have started any worse. A wrong turn not 5 minutes into the race saw Timmy go from 3rd to last with a deficit of about 12 minutes on the leading duo team. And even with shouts from the team tent to take it easy the red mist had descended and Rob and Timmy were on the chase like it was a 10km time trial not a 12hr enduro. With a two laps on, two laps off strategy, Rob and Timmy found a good balance between rest and smash with strong and consistent lap times throughout the night. And just as fatigue began to set in in the early morning hours, Rob and Timmy overhauled their fellow Cannasians, Nathan and Rich, and were now in striking distance, about 9 minutes, of the leading Duo Team. Every second counted now and the lap times started coming down again. But alas, we came to within 3 minutes of the first place after 12 hours of racing - achingly close.

MENS DUO - Richard/Nathan

On the first lap, three Cannasia riders wanted more value for their entry fee by adding some distance with a wrong turn. Thankfully Nathan realized his mistake early and managed to correct without losing too much time, however, Timmy (Duo) and Sharom (Solo) kept going for a full extra half lap and they had to rejoin behind the entire field wasting some valuable energy and time

Nathan and I decided to do 3 lap turns to get in some extra rest. Things went smoothly until the wee hours of the morning when fatigue set in. Ham sandwiches and gels always help but the sticky trail combined with a lack of sleep drained the energy reserves quickly. The 5am finish could not come fast enough near the end.

Mud is not our friend. Unfortunately the course does not take well to rain on the back 9 and this section turned into a quagmire - swallowing up wheels and stray small children. Initially we thought that the course would dry out with all the wheels pushing the water out. In actual fact we managed to dig down to the water table to create a series of new lakes.

MIXED QUAD – Matt/Shep/Gabi/Chris

Our intention, as a team, was just to ‘give it a go’ as the majority of us had no experience mountain biking in the dark, between us had done very little training for a race like this and three of us had only recently returned from a five stage road race in Thailand. Therefore, we were pleasantly surprised to see that we were in second place at the halfway mark even after all our ‘adventures’ in the first six hours. These ‘adventures’ included 15 minutes stuck in transition due to a misplaced timing chip on lap 2 lost somewhere in the mud on the 6.9km course; helmet malfunctions (ie: roadie helmets not coping with the extra weight of lights!); light malfunctions due to un-used lights gathering dust for the past 2 years etc etc… Despite all these new experiences we kept fighting through the mud and dark taking 1 or 2 laps each at a time and spending our down time napping, eating, chatting, photographing, going on drink runs to the local 7-eleven (in our muddy lycra!) and even going home to get the ever-important ‘boom box’. Knowing we had cycled into first place with about 2 hours to go was the little nudge that got our competitive juices flowing and the ‘give it a go’ strategy went out of the window! We had some storming last laps and were all very excited to hold on to our first place spot as Shep came over the line just after 5am. It’s amazing what can happen when you leave three roadies in the dark, muddy jungle for 12 hours with a bike shop owner and a couple of mountain bikes!

The Team would like to extend a huge THANK YOU to Eric and Ryan, the Super Mechanics for their non stop support through out the night.

Photography by: Craig Sheppard. www.craigsheppard.co.nz