24 hours of Kincaid AKA "The Moose Gauntlet"

For the summer solstice weekend Amanda and I called in some more Grandma and Dennis favours to look after Fiona so that we could go race at a 24 hour race at Kincaid park.

The local Bike club (Arctic Bike Club) mountain division organises the event with the help of some sponsors.

The race is a lot lower key than the previous 24 hour race (Sleepless in the Saddle) I competed in back in 2004.  Racers could race a variety of different categories including Solo, Duo and Pairs.  Revolution racing were fielding four teams.

DUO 24hr M Team: Revolution Racing

Clinton Hodges

Jim Rasi

DUO 24hr M Team: Riff Raff

Aaron Mells

Trevor Jones

QUAD 24hr F Team: Midnight Masochistas

Jill Parsons

Kirsten Gilbert

Laura Fox

Amanda Blades

QUAD 24hr M Team: Insomniacs Inc.

Nicholas Blades

Marc Romano

Andrew Cunningham

Peter Malecha

We all arrived before 11am on the Saturday, to get set up and check over bikes etc.  Then it was time to wait for the start.  We all lined up ready for the Le Mans style start for it to be delayed 30min whilst the course flags corrected, some idiots had decided to move the course which is really not that sporting.  Once we had the go ahead racing got underway at 12:32.

Start lineup

Running start with our base camp in background

Bike pickup

Almost at the end

The atmosphere at the event was really relaxed and combining that with the great summer we are having at the moment ensured the event was a whole lot of fun. Snacks and BBQ was provided along with a fire drum for when it got dark, yes it did get dark for a couple of hours, not really dark but dark enough to require lights on the single track trails.

The course was a 11ish mile loop which used a combination of ski trails, social singletrack trails and STA trails.

Due to animal activity in Kincaid we all had to ride with Bear Bells, although annoying at least they alert other users to our presence in the park.  Oh and the nickname "The Moose Gauntlet" comes from the fact that moose like bedding down/walking along the trails we all like to ride, they also don't really move off these trails when we are riding on them so we sometimes had to detour from the course.

Since I was racing I don't actually have any pictures of the course but I can confirm the following things, ski trails are fast but a little boring, social trails are technical and rooty, STA trails are fast flowing and smooth.  I know which trails I prefer to ride.

Critter count

Rabbit - 1

Porcupine - 2

Moose - Many many

Birds - Many many many

Unidentified rustling in bushes - Lots

Results

All of our teams did really well, full results can be found here and summary here

Revolution Racing - 12 laps, 138 mi, 23:14:12 - 2nd

Riff Raff - 6 laps, 69 mi, 21:28:12 - 3rd

Midnight Masochistas -  11 laps, 126.5 mi, 22:57:40 - 2nd

Insomniacs Inc. - 19 laps, 218.5 mi, 22:59:24 - 2nd

I think I speak for everyone when I say I don't think anyone had another lap left in them by the end of the race, to all the racers well done and see you all again next year.... or at the next XC/road race!

Until next time have fun all

Nick