MountainZone.com Home

Search
MountainZone.com



Google




Race Report: NW NORBA
Matt Hart Talks About His Big 24-Hour Race Win...
June 15, 2006

Pages »1   2  

Matt Hart Racing at NW NORBA Championships

Last year, in Spokane, Washington, I competed in my first solo 24-hour mountain bike race. As the NORBA National Championship there were plenty of big name athletes including Tinker Juarez, Chris Eatough and Cameron Chambers. Although I had been on the endurance racing scene for years, I had yet to try a 24 hour mountain bike race. I got lucky. The temperatures on that day reached 104 degrees and many top pros dropped out of the race. This allowed me to snatch sixth place. I was hooked.

This year the Round the Clock race in Spokane was not the NORBA National Championship, instead it was the NORBA Northwest Regional Championship and Washington State Solo 24-hour Mountain Bike Championship. I raced for my sponsor Hammer Nutrition / E-Caps.

Arriving late afternoon on Friday, May 26th, we blocked off our pit crew area and I headed out for a pre-race ride of the loop course. I was able to keep my heart rate around 124 bpm, at my zone 1 and finished in 1:12. This was a good place to be for 24 hours if I could somehow maintain that pace at that exertion level, I knew I'd finish well. At pre-race registration I discovered that they gave me number "one." My immediate thought was "Damn, I don't need this kind of pressure." As quietly as I could, I asked the lady doing registration if I could get another number. No luck.

The night before the race I didn't sleep for one second. I was up every hour or so heading to the port-a-pottie-something I ate wasn't agreeing with me. Fortunately I didn't let this get to me. I believe it's the sleep on the days leading up to the event that matter, not necessarily the night before. Being an adventure racer I am very used to no sleep before starting ultra-distance events, as we are usually up all night working on maps and packing for all the different disciplines.

In a 24-hour mountain bike race your crew is almost as important as how good a cyclist you are. My crew for this race was the best I've ever assembled. Team Montrail/Nathan ultra-runner Krissy Moehl was there to do everything except bike maintenance. Her experience crewing for other ultra-runners was invaluable and kept me moving fast through my pits. She somehow knew what I needed before I did. For the last four months my friend and mechanic Matthew Noell has been working hard to put together my two Turner frames, the beautifully fast Nitrous and the plush Flux. Full Speed Ahead made the great decision to sponsor our adventure racing team DART-nuun this year so my bikes were outfitted with the lightest of light FSA components. Helping out where they could were Matthew's wife Chantrelle and his lil' baby Wilder, who provided the cutest little smiles as I rode by.

From the morning of the race on I was basically treated like a piece of glass, or some kind of invalid. Matthew worked on the bikes; Krissy kept me eating and prepped gear while my DART-nuun teammate Glenn Rogers heckled me for sitting around and not helping them. Glenn is an amazing athlete who just weeks before had won the National 24-Hour Rogaining Championship with another teammate Aaron Rinn. He was racing in Spokane more as an experience and training session than for the win. I was there for the win, although I've become increasingly coy with explaining my pre-race expectations.

Bang! The gun went off and we took off with a 650-foot lemonds start, running in a circle with our bike shoes on. I started out feeling good, in the front pack. Then my bag, with tool, tire lever and tube bounced out of my jersey pocket. It was like trying to stop the running of the bulls as I turned into the flow of running bikers to head back and grab it. I was almost killed but managed to arrive at my bike still in a good position as we started our first lap.

The course was one mile longer than last year's and had more singletrack. At 15 miles with just 860 feet of elevation gain the course could be described as a "roadie's course" for how fast it was. There were two tricky sections, Devil's Up, a steep uphill with lots of loose rocks, and Devil's Down which was equally steep and three times as long with even more loose rocks. Riders kicked the rocks around as they rode up or down these sections, so each time you got there it was different. I was able to ride Devil's Down every lap, but Devil's Up I walked a couple of times at night.

My crew's first lap instructions were to "pace yourself." Last year I had gotten caught up in the race and gone out too hot. In a 24-hour race there is no need to go out like you would during a short course XC mountain bike race. Going anaerobic early will only hurt you in the long run. However, there is a need to get in front of the slower riders at the start of the singletrack, otherwise you are trying to pass them as the front pack pulls away. I started out with my heart rate around 160 bpm, way too hard but I knew the first lap would be faster than the rest. As I rode I was able to bring it down from 160 to 150 and then finally 140. Being in the 140s during my laps I decided would be a good place to race and I focused on that heart rate. I didn't know it but I was probably one of the front five racers and the first solo racer during the first three quarters of the first lap. This is when Reed Melton, a friend of a friend (professional adventure racer Rebecca Rusch) racing for Sun Summit South, passed me and pulled away. I wanted to give chase but it was the first lap, no need for that kind of thing yet. Reed rode the first lap in 1:01. I arrived just behind him at 1:02.

Page 2 »




IN THE NEWS