Rut100

kim

New member
How many motor sport events do you know of where the organizer prays for rain? Well, it started at 2am on the Saturday and didn't stop until after lunch. But that was enough to make the inaugural Rut 100 an outstanding success.

It was a fine balancing act to have something that was a real challenge and yet still ridable but Sean Clarke pulled it off .

Testament to its difficulty were the top riders who fell by the wayside. OTOH, intermediate super-vets (50+) Lester Yates and James Fowlie both completed their three laps.

But the real standout was Chris Birch who very nearly lapped second place to finish with a 40 minute margin despite being held up at the first 180 turn into the bush just after the start. He must have had a good 10 or 20 riders ahead of him on the narrow greasy tracks by the time he got through the bottleneck. But by the end of the first lap he had a three and a half minute margin on 2nd placed Karl Roberts with this margin being extended on every subsequent lap.

Chris completed his 5 laps in three hours and 46 minutes and, while he made it look easy, he did comment afterwards that, "it felt a lot longer than that."

BTW I did 2 laps in just over 4 hours, properly stopped for 5 minutes 6 or 7 times on each lap to catch my breath and had a ball (even that I had a bad dose of the flu).
The Rekluse and a Scotts Steering dampener make it quite easy work, I just need to learn to go faster in the ruts (the race was basically 5 x 20km of deep ruts and mud).
Will return next year fitter and keener.
Kim:D :D :D
 
Hi Kim, I was there also, was racing in the intermediate class which only did 4 laps (80km).

I was amazed when Chris Birch came past/lapped me about 1/2 way round my 2nd lap, I was expecting more of the fast guys to be following and they just never appeared, the next person to lap me was when I was well into my 3rd lap!! He rode an amazing race and must be phenomenally fit.

Was the hardest race I have ever done. In fact would say it was the hardest sporting event I have ever done, (I have done lots of mountain biking, triathlons, multi-sport races, orienteering etc). I managed to complete my 4 laps in about 4.5 hours. This got me 1st place in the intermediate over 200cc class (over 250cc 4-stroke).

My bike (07 EC250) went really well, but even with the large radiators on the Gas Gas I managed to boil it every lap on one hill. The main thing I would probably change for next year would be not running a Mousse(foam) insert in the rear. I would have preferred to have run a lower tyre pressure at the rear for better control.
My fitness was what really let me down mainly in the upper body, and I to had also had a cold/flu, still do. Will need to be fitter for next year. But for a hard race it is everything I expected and more. There weren't many places that you could rest. On my last lap I had to stop a couple of times to let the cramp in my legs and arms subside before I continued.

Do you have any idea when or where the results will be published? I assume Kiwirider as they were a sponsor, but anything sooner. Would like to compare my lap times to others.

Kerry:)
 
Shit I forgot:
WELL DONE

I loved every minute of it and I'm looking forward to next year already.
 
Thanks
I know what you mean with your cold, I was recovering/over the worst of it on the day of the race and on sunday/monday it was back worse then before. Coming right now though.

Will be doing my best to be back next year also. Loved it.
 
I'm rider #35, heres a link to a couple of the photos of me. To see the others just search for rider 35.

logs

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passing crashed bike

Those logs were the finish of each lap were really difficult, made even hard by the fact that there had been layed out not quite square and there were 3 in a row with 1.5 - 2 bike lengths between them. There were a couple of other logs out on the course and by the end of the race the ruts leading up to them made them even more challenging. But that's what the whole idea of the race was so defiantly worth it. I am probably going to look for a skid/bash plate for my bike because the frame rails took a hammering.

hope the links work
 
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