At the last minute the JUU crew had a glitch in their WildSide preparation after their support driver / crew Andy had to pull out due to work commitments. I offered to step up to the plate and help them out for the event and try and fill Andy’s shoes.

Friday 24th

We all arrived at Maurice’s place and packed 6 bikes, 9 people and all the support gear into a van and Amarok 4WD for the trip to Cradle. After a few stops along the way for supplies and extra gear we headed via ETC for a bite of late lunch and then onwards to Cradle Mountain to register for the event. Arriving at Cradle the rain started on and off and we headed to our accommodation to prep the bikes and ourselves. Some pre-event massage and a great feed of chicken and pasta compliments of Asha and we all hit the sack for day 1 on WildSide in the morning.

Saturday 25th

Day 1 of WildSide starts at Cradle Mountain with a short cruise stage to the start on private property for a 16km competitive stage followed by a 15km cruise, another 19km competitive stage and finally a 15km cruise to finish off the day at Tullah. Wes had a horror start to the event with a couple of flats and Maurice had a crash that lost him some time and damaged one of his shifters plus some leg damage. The mid part of the day was wet, windy and cold. The weather was Ok by the end of the day though and got warmer and warmer for the following days. Day 1 results are here.

Sunday 26th

Day 2 of WildSide starts at the finish point last night – Tullah. A short 5km warmup cruise to the start of the 14km Sterling Valley competitive stage followed by a lunch stop at Rosebery before the best stage of the event Montezuma Falls. A brutal climb followed by some great downhill runs and single track. There were some huge smiles at the end of this stage! After all that fun a quick 8km roll into Zeehan finishes off the day. There were some very tired guys this night and a bit of emotion but everybody recovered and all was good back at the Rosebery Top Pub, our digs for the night. Leanne and Ross dished out plenty of massage that night including myself.

Monday 27th

Day 3 of WildSide is the most brutal day of the event with the hardest stage from Trial Harbour to Granville Harbour notorious for breaking people and equipment. The day starts with a quick time trial around Zeehan including through the Spray Tunnel and then riders cruise 20km into Trial Harbour to recharge for a couple of hours before the main stage of the day. There is a decent climb out of Trial Harbour then onto the old road through to Granville that is not maintained any more and it’s little more than an up and down washed out granite and gravel 4WD / motorbike track with a couple of old bridges barely left standing. They close the road as the bikes leave and we just made it out with the help of a local after I left the lights on and the van had a flat battery.

Everybody was spent at the end of this stage with poor old Tony having a big over the handle bars crash (endo) onto his elbow. The doctor at the medical tent told him his event was over and to go to hospital and get it fixed properly. Blood was spurting a good distance out of it when he stopped and his shifters did not work properly due to all the congealed blood in them. He was in good spirits though. Steve also broke himself and quite a few $$$’s worth of bits on his bike crashing on the stage.

Due to Tony’s injury it was decided I would drive him back to Launceston LGH and pop home for a few hours sleep and then drive back down in the morning to get them all back. This plan worked well but I did a lot of KM’s driving in 24hrs. Tony ended up with 2 stitches and a week off work. Unfortunately he is not classified as a finisher as he did not complete all stages as the rules stipulate. I got Tony back to the LGH about 10:45PM and got to bed about 11:45.

Tuesday 28th

Up around 6AM, showered and fed I was on the road in the mighty Amarok 4WD (better than driving the van!) and I arrived at Strahan about 10:15AM, picked up Ross and Leanne from the accommodation and headed to the finish line of WildSide day 4 to take photo’s and see them come across the line. They did not leave anything on the course and everybody was exhausted at the finish. A great BBQ and presentations and we headed back to the units to pack and head for Launceston. Hobart people had to take a huge detour due to a bush fire closing the West Coast highway.
Back in the early evening a quick unpack and gear dish out and everybody went in all directions after a great event. Some even muttered they may come back again and some have  unfinished business and yet others might do their first next time in 2016.

Results

All the results for every stage and over all are here.

Sam Calow -11th, Maurice De Jersey – 75th, Steven Banbury – 117th, Wes Heckendorf – 119th, James McKee – 242nd, Tony Bagshaw – 374th but a DNF result.