A cold morning greeted us and while most of our crew decided to hang at the back of the start, Al and I had pre declared war :) Al taking his usual spot at the front of the grid, while I did my usual hang out at about 1/3 back from the front.
It was pretty cold at the start, but we were warmed up pretty quick, with a nice bitchumen roadie peleton run to the first fire trail. The elite peleton out the front (where I am sure Al would have been), and me in the "group b" peleton trying to keep up. The pace was pretty mellow, with the field contemplating what was ahead on a course none of us had seen before.
The first 50km went by pretty quickly, I rode and chatted with some interesting souls along the way, quizzing 29er riders and chatting with some hard core single speeders. The hills in the first 50km were tough and we walked most of them, a good chance to chat and recover. Al tells me he rode the lot, which is full on hard core! I walked at least a dozen hills in this event, they were just too steep for me, and I wasn't alone, as all those around me were walking too. That just shows up the difference between "group a" and "group b" riders to me, those guys at the front are strong bastards!
The course was well marked out, with over 1000 arrows, and excellent signs every 10kms with "80kms to go" and the like, which made the time fly by. The first 50km was over before I knew it and I flew into transition where I spied Al's empty water bottle on the ground, he'd already been through... dammit! ;) haha I swapped bottles and took off, abandoning plans for a red bull and chain lube, and heading off to chase Al down. Stupidly I had only had 1 water bottle to drink in the first 50km and it was starting to warm up, at the 55km I got lock up cramps in both hammies as a result. I felt pretty stupid :( I sucked down a litre of Endura as fast as I could and stuck in granny gear for 5 or so kilometers and my legs came good, it's miraculous stuff!
I then started to try my usual race tactic of chasing tired people down in the last 1/3 of the race, speed I have none of, strength for hills, I've got none of that either, but one thing I do seem to have on my side is I don't get as tired as some, so I can catch people up in the end when they get tired and slow down enough for this old slug to catch them. In the game of tortoise and hare, I am surely the tortoise ;) haha
The course from the 60km mark was simply outstanding, flowing single track with berms and jumps, it was awesome! I was starting to catch and pass people here, the hills were about 5% grade and these I can climb (anything steeper and I am far too weak to get up them, I end up walking), so I was laying into it and just trying to catch Al, as the kilometers went by, my chances were fading, which spurred me on to go harder and harder. I kept drinking heaps to keep the cramps at bay and tried to soldier on.
At the 80km mark, tragedy struck, my legacy of being captain mechanical was working it's magical charms as usual, my rear tyre blew like a shot gun going off! It was loud enough that when I walked up to an official a bit later he said he heard the bang!
I stopped and inspected the damage, the side wall of the tyre was ripped through in 4 places on one side and 2 on the other, with no spare tyre, the best I could do was put in a replacement tube and try and limp my way home. I did manage to get another 5k out of the new tube, which amazed me, but inevitably it went off with a bang too, as it was bulging out of the holes in the side walls of the tyre.
Defeated I walked and ran the last 15kms, I rolled on the rim down the hills where I could and ran across the line pushing my busted bike just as I had done at the Otway Odyssey, I was a little miffed, but had a good laugh with Al after I calmed down ;)
A tough event, but easier than the Fling or Otway Odyssey marathons. A beautiful location and winning course, which includes sections of the awesome Ridge Road tracks. I would highly recommend it, worth the trip down there and I know I'll be back next year, with stronger tyres (and more effort to avoid sidewall ripping rocks) ;)
UPDATE: So not only is riding on a flat tyre dangerous for crashes etc, but after closer inspection at the LBS, it turns out I split the rim doing that and now have to replace it ($350) :( Here is a tip I learned that would have saved my rim, and saved me a lot of running: Use cash (a note) or a gel/powerbar wrapper between the torn tyre and tube to protect the replacement tube. This is something I will not forget next time!
The crew:
| Simon | Cherry Bomb |
| Dan | Turner Flux |
| Jason | Giant Trance |
| Al | Giant Anthem |
| Mark | Avanti HT |
| Reedy | Merida Mission |
| Justin | Spesh Stumpy? |
| Dan | Ibis Mojo |
The Stats:
| Distance | 100kms |
| Result | 71st out of 271 (26%) overall, 37th in category (Open Men) |
| Time | 6:08hrs |
| Climb | 2370m |
| Speed | 16.3km/hr avg |