For years I have read accounts of victory and misery provided by unicyclers who have attempted the famous Karapoti Classic Mountain bike race in New Zealand. It is a 50km course of unrelenting climbs, river crossings, man and machine eating bogs, technical downhills and on occasion- weather so dismal you wonder why people would willingly subject themselves to such strange and intense punishment.
In the last year I have been increasingly enjoying the challenge provided by various marathon mountain bike events here in Australia and decided it was time to give the Karapoti a go. The course record for the event is a blistering time set by world renowned NZ distance/endurance rider, Ken Looi, back in 2005. The 4hr 11 minute benchmark was something that had occupied my mind during my training rides and preparation for the race. Such is the often solitary life of an endurance unicyclist that I wanted to go and race, not only for the racing experience itself, but to see how I compared to another rider- at the top of their form- on one of the hardest courses around.
The race is renowned as an equipment destroyer, and mechanical failure would definitely put any hope of getting close to the record mark out of the question. As of such, in the lead up to the race my pedals got re-greased, I replaced my lovely and light tubeless set up with a more robust but heavier down hill inner tube, and my 2 speed geared Schlumpf hub was put on a dialysis of new and expensive oil. I also followed my eating and nutrition habits formed from previous races throughout the year. The day before pasta bonanaza with jugs of water, GU satchels in the camelback , and dual bladders for water/electrolyte sports drink, all returned for the running of the Karapoti.
In a field of 1100 riders there would be 7 unicyclists participating. Current record holder Ken Looi (NZ), James Amon (US), Shaun Bennett (AU), John Bradley (AU), Peter Goodman (NZ), and Rox Price (NZ) and myself. Rox would be the first female ever attempting the classic on a unicycle, a massive feat considering her very short experience with mountain unicycling (about 6 months!).
Upon arriving at the wet and misty start point for the race I met my companions, many of them for the first time and discussed race tactics, the course, and equipment. There would be 4 geared unicycles racing and 3 ungeared, all with slight variations depending on the riders preference. I was on my Geared 24 with 125mm cranks and custom handle, Ken on a ungeared Ti 29er, also on the course were 2 geared 26s and a geared 29 (all on 150s), another un-geared 29 and an un-geared 26.
As we lined up on the edge of the fast flowing and deceptively deep Akatarawa river among the single speed and retro category riders I started to get nervous. Had I trained enough? Was I going to cope on the shorter cranks? what was my race plan? Thankfully the start gun went off before I could over analyse too much and we were away. Despite forecasts of a dry and fast race this year, persistent rain in the days before the race had raised river levels, turned the clay descents into slick, traction optional roller-coasters and made the puddles and bogs trail wide and unpredictably deep. Afterwards, race organiser Michael Jacques would confirm the conditions so challenging that in his opinion the 26th running of the Karapoti was the “toughest ever seen in the 26 year history of the race”. As we climbed up the short section of asphalt that delivered riders to the beginning of the battle ground I was tailed by Ken, legs buzzing away like the wings of a hummingbird, and James with his slower loping cadence generated from a 29er in high gear. I decided then to start fast and see who would follow, so up the gorge road I ground away in high gear, skirting the trail wide muddy brown pools of water and sludge.
The main field of weekend warrior riders (non-elite) were let off 10 minutes behind us and mid way though the gentle climb they started to crowd the trail, often forcing me to take a line straight through the unpredictable bodies of water- some were deep, others shallow, some with sludgy bottoms, others were rocky. It was hard to get in a rhythm in this section because of the conditions, and I knew that my time would suffer for it. I knew Ken and James would not be far behind so as I reached the ‘warm up’ climb (2km of very steep and gravely 4wd trail) I put on the pace only to discover that my regular climbing speed on 125s is a bit faster than your traditional mountain biker in granny gear. Because it was relatively early in the race, and the trail had lots of traffic I would often creep up on bike riders in situations where there was no real overtaking opportunity. I would have to slow down, and then with the momentum lost from my cadence the climbing became impossible so I would have to dismount and walk. In the initial phases of the race I walked more of the climbs than I wanted to but tried to make it up by bombing the downhills and false tops in high gear.
After breaching the summit of the warm up climb there was a 2km steep and rocky downhill to Cederholm Creek where the flowing river becomes the trail before popping out the other side and starting up the looming mountain for the second big climb of the race-“Deadwood”. Mid way up the ride/hike of Deadwood I heard the unmistakable voice of Ken Looi behind me. He was hopping up the trail like a pixie on speed and he took the lead from about the half way point of the climb. I made a point of keeping him in sight, knowing that at the top the extremely technical rock garden awaited- and so did my chance in catching up with and hopefully putting some time on him. As it turned out his speed faded slightly towards the top and a re-caught him and entered the rock garden with a small advantage.
The rock garden is 4km of increasingly technical trail awash with large rocks, waist high drops, erosion channels, drainage channels, and walking mountain bikers. Its the sort of trail I could spend hours on, picking different lines, and possibly clearing on a good, dry day with fresh legs and no walkers to populate it. As it was I only probably rode a bit over half of the really technical bits- other sections were just too wet, or busy to safely negotiate. I managed to put a little bit of time on Ken during this section of the race but he was still lurking as the trail headed up in the most demoralising climb of the race- ‘The Devil’s staircase’.
The Devil’s staircase is too steep to ride, sometimes its almost too steep to walk. Its 3kms of calf splitting, shoe swallowing mud, rocks and bogs. It is here that carrying a unicycle over your shoulder instead of a bike is a small advantage (although a nice XC bike weighs less than my Muni these days). It peaks at 613 meters, awaking competitors from their fatigue induced trance of foot in front of foot and then presenting them with a 10km long descent of service road that is frighteningly quick and, in the conditions, devoid of traction.
This ‘Big Ring Boulevard’ was full of fast sweeping descents, off camber corners and wide slabs of greasy clay. By now the field had spaced out to a more comfortable density of riders, and the soon to be passing bikers could be heard 500m up the hill from the squealing of their disc brakes. I had a few scary moments as my wheel slipped and wafted over the terrain regardless of what my steering was telling it to do but in all it was fun, fast and only only occasionally terrifying. I pushed really hard in this section to gain a little time because I knew that waiting just up the road was the final climb of Dopers Hill, a heart breaking monolith that could make or break a good Karapoti race.
If it were to be located at the beginning of the race, I believe the climbs that make up this final section would be completely ridable- but after the 35km or so of punishing terrain preceding it I was off and waddling on the steeper inclines. My legs started to twang and tighten with the beginning of cramps as I tried to keep a competitive pace up. I still managed to ride about 3/5ths of the hill but towards the end it was more a matter of pride keeping me on the unicycle instead of an effort to gain time. Finally, like a mirage appearing from the haze of false tops, the fabled jelly bean and water station materialised from around one of a seeming thousand of corners. I knew this was the top and my spirits lifted as the trail descended in steep switchbacks that had me going faster and faster until it plunged into a wide and fast flowing river. From here the trail retraced the gorge back down along its brown, pond ridden path until it rejoined the ethereally smooth asphalt that swept down to the Akatarawa river and the finish line. My legs were like jelly by the time I attempted to recross the river, slippery and shifting stones on the bottom having me take an early bath before I could get my footing and finally extract myself. A quick remount and final grassy uphill to the final timing point and the race was done.
As I crossed I could hear the race commentator reading out my details over the loud speaker. 4 hrs, 21min 27secs. I was 10 min short of the record but still exhilarated at completing the race in such challenging conditions. After a sit down and a stretch and lots of cups of water Ken crossed the line in 4hr 39min 40sec. After a bit of a recap of the race our thoughts turned to the 5 unicyclists remaining out there on the course, where conditions were deteriorating and the failing light would not aid their endeavour. Soon after we had got changed out of our fetid race gear James crossed the line in 6hr 30 min 52 sec. Next in was John Bradley with 6hr 55min 17sec, and the last to complete the race was the only female to ever have attempted, let alone complete the undertaking, Rox Price in 7hrs 1min 49sec. Unfortunately Shaun was pulled form the race at the top of the last climb (they let him do all the climbing but not the DH! Outrageous!) and Pete was pulled earlier on at the top of the Devils staircase (after the hardest sections of the race).
It was a great experience and a very fun race to compete in- I would highly recommend it to anyone who considers themselves as a competent XC muni rider. If the conditions were not so horrendous I think I might have given Ken’s record a better run for its money, but the way it is now, I have a great excuse to return to NZ in a few years to take on the Karapoti once again!
Mark
