PEDALLERS POWER ON
Navy’s easy riders tackle 24-hour race

ABCIS Jenny Macrow after her lap for Navy’s Meandering Matelots in the MONT 24-hour Mountain Bike Race near Canberra. Photo: WOCK Bob Barb

By CDRE Russ Baker

The biggest mountain bike race in the southern hemisphere was run at Kowen Forest, east of Canberra, on the weekend of October 11-12 with 1795 riders gathered from all around the country, including some from overseas.

The MONT Australian 24-hour Mountain Bike Race is now in its fifth year and is the “must-do” event on the Australian calendar – so much so that more than 2000 riders who tried to enter, missed the cut.

The event attracts riders of all standards and getting overtaken by Olympic, Commonwealth Games and world champions was a regular occurrence (for some of us, getting overtaken by just about anyone was a regular occurrence).

The format of the race is multiple laps of a 17.5km course, with the majority of riders entered in one of the 13 team categories.

On top of that, about 60 men and 10 women did the whole event solo, with riders ranging in age from 12 to over 60.
When the riders and more than 3000 helpers and spectators assembled before the race, a small town was in operation in the pine forest.

Among the 78 riders entered in the event from various sections of Defence was a mixed team of three from 816 SQN, a male team of three from 816 SQN and a corporate team of 10 – the “Meandering Matelots” – from Navy Headquarters.

A team from Australian Command and Staff College also competed as the men’s team of six, comprising four Army and two Navy. Team members were LCDR Adam Allica, LCDR Charlie Stevenson, MAJ Dave Hay, MAJ Brendon Balin, MAJ Chris Parsons and MAJ Andy Duff. Named “Wrong Place Wrong Time”, they finished 22 laps and came 23rd out of 77 teams of six.

The non-Canberra riders got a surprise taste of what might be in store for the race when a brief hailstorm covered the campsite with a thick white blanket.

The weather cleared overnight and the race started with a Le-Mans style 500-metre run through the pines to the area where the bikes were racked.

CAPT Steve Davies put his day job of looking after sailors as DSCM aside for the weekend and led off the Meandering Matelots on their first lap in 65 minutes, followed by CMDR Brenton Smyth, CAPT Jenny Firman (RANR), CMDR “Zed” Zwerwer, ABCIS Jenny Macrow and LEUT Dan Hosick.

By the time CMDR Jonathan Mead started the team’s first night lap, the Meandering Matelots were locked in a battle with the “Geezers” for third and fourth place.

Zed’s first day lap of 56 minutes set an unbeatable standard for the rest of the team, but wasn’t quite up there when compared to Australian champion Paul Rowney’s lap time of 41 minutes.

WOCK Bob Barb, LCDR Tony Powell and CDRE Russ Baker added their night laps to the team tally before it was time to restart the watchbill just before midnight.

The temperature dropped to minus two in the early hours of Sunday and many teams decided to have a break, but the struggle between the Meandering Matelots and the Geezers continued unbroken, with the Matelots slipping into fourth place.

With sunrise on Sunday came a renewed effort by all riders and by the time Jenny Macrow finished her second lap, the Matelots had made up more than 40 minutes to be only eight minutes behind the Geezers.

Bob Barb then set off on the team’s final lap after four hours rest and turned in a 61-minute lap, overtaking the Geezers’ rider on the course to finish 45 seconds ahead and seal third place for the Meandering Matelots.

The 816 Tigers Two team of LEUT Jeff Choat, LCDR Stuart Bailey and Kate Moloney (civilian) finished third in the mixed teams of three, while in the male teams of three, the 816 Tigers of LEUT Corie Redman, LS Darren Smith and LEUT William Veale finished tenth.

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