2010 100 Mile Highland Fling

For the last few years I have been lucky enough to race the 100 Mile Fling, it's an awesome event that has always kept me coming back year after year. The Wild Horizons crew always run slick events and this one is no exception.

The forecast was for rain, so I switched bikes to my Giant XTC 29er hard tail, and fitted a Schwalbe Racing Ralph to the front wheel for added grip. In previous years I have always had gremlins visit me at this race, chain rings falling off, full leg cramps, flat tyres. So to be sure I had a clean race I went over the bike and checked everything was 100%, I even went over every allen key on the bike with a torque wrench. This year, there would be no problems...

The vibe on the start line was very quiet and serious. I just wanted to start and get the first stage out of the way cleanly, so I was relieved when we finally started, but as we are rolling out of the narrow start area, an over zealous 100km rider that thought the race could be won in the first 10 meters decided to push past the 100 mile racers in front of him, shoving me into fellow 100 miler Arran, nearly taking us and the 800 following riders down in a spectacular road race style peloton pile up. I was as pleased about it as you might imagine, but decided to use that anger as fuel, and made sure we beat him to the end of the first stage.

Fenner and Blanko were pushing an awesome pace at the front and it wasn't long before the bunch split into two groups with the Torq/Anytime boys taking a dozen or so 100km riders with them to gap us by 30 seconds by the end of the first stage; this didn't worry me at all though because our bunch was half a dozen riders strong and included my training buddies Andrew, Gazza and Tommo, we all wanted to work together and what could be better than chasing down the leaders together, this was working out to be my best Fling ever!

We refuelled and headed out for stage 2, cleaning up 100km racers left, right and center as we flew along in a group toward the awesome Wingello State Forrest singletrack. The trails in here are heavenly and some of my favourite in the country so I was hanging out to hit them up with my crew. We headed into the first single track and over the first jump and the gremlins of Flings past come back to haunt me, I land and hear a *snap!*. Both my crank arms are pointing toward the ground and I can't pedal.

Thinking the bottom bracket had broken internally, I pulled over and watched my buds ride off into the distance, my golden ticket was gone, my race was over. I got off the bike and started walking back to transition. Before long Brendan Den came along and pulled over to see what was up, I told him to keep on trucking, but he stayed and took the time to help me out and explain the quickest fire trail to take to walk back, what an amazing guy, taking time out of his 100 mile race for me, pretty generous.

While we stood there I saw the rest of the 100 mile field catch and pass and me. I should have cheered them on, but I was facing my first ever DNF and was emotionally shattered and walked off the course and down the fire trail back to Wingello.

As I was walking back, the crank arm completely fell off on to the ground and I realised, it wasn't snapped, the crank arm bolt had come loose! I carry a multi tool, but mine doesn't have a big enough allen key for the crank arm, so I did it up with my fingers and rode back to the course, but it came loose again. Time for some bush mechanic work; I grabbed a stick and forced it in the allen key hole and did the bolt up and tried to ride the bike. It didn't work very well, but it was rideable at least, maybe I could finish after all!

After 10 minutes the crank came loose, but this time I was lucky enough a passing rider saw my plight and stopped to lend me his multi tool which had the right allen key on it, and I was able to tighten the bolt. After thanking him a thousand times, I took off, able to ride a fully working bike again, woohoo! The celebrations were short lived though, another 10 minutes down the road and I realised in my haste to do it up, I had meshed the crank incorrectly and it was tearing itself apart every pedal stroke. I stopped again and yet again I got half a dozen people offering help, luckily one of them had the right allen key and I could take the crank off, fit it correctly and tighten it up again. I was blown away that this guy stopped to help me, but it was when he offered to let me keep his multi tool in case I needed it again I realised just how awesome mountain bikers are! I couldn't accept his offer of taking his multi tool though, what if he needed it himself. Completely humbled I offered him praise and thanks and we both set off, this time, the crank was fixed.

After dropping 15 minutes with all that drama, I was well off the back of the race now, but kept telling myself .it's 100 miles, there's still time to make things good., and I really started digging deep, reeling people back in, slowly but surely. Every time I caught a 100 miler back up I mentally ticked them off the list and knew I was slowly working my way back to the front.

At the end of the stage, 50 miles into the race, I screamed into transition where the gorgeous Kylie was waiting for me, we got out a proper allen key set and checked the crank, it was loose again! This time I tightened it as hard as my skinny little arms could manage, skulled some coke and asked Kylie for a damage report... where was I in the field? Incredibly I had already clawed my way back into 5th, but the bad news was that the front 4 boys were working together and were 15 minutes up the road. Deep down I knew I had no chance, but I told myself "we don't quit, do we?" and rolled out for the lonely 2nd loop of the Wingello forrest. Last year I was lucky enough to ride this loop with Pat for company, but this year I was well and truly on my own, the only motivation to go faster was knowing I would catch the tail end of the 100km racers soon and the quicker I went, the quicker I would have some people to chat to :)

The Wall and Tangles were great sections of trail as always, and it was here that I caught the 100kers and I can't explain how much it lifts you to catch and pass people, it's like a game, you spot someone in the distance, dig deep and catch them, like a greyhound after a rabbit. I played this game for a while, but it wasn't long until the biggest rabbit of them all appeared in the distance, a bright orange Torq jersey. I could see it from kilometres away and the adrenaline fired; Shifting into the dog, it was time to chase!

It didn't take long before I caught a very broken Mark Fenner, he was struggling with stomach problems and looked like hell. He asked for Kylie to wait for him at Wingello and I figured he would roll in there and pull out of the race, leaving me in a safe 4th place and full of hope that maybe more chaos had ensued in the lead group and maybe I could catch more of them. I took off like a man possessed and sprinted for the Wingello transition.

At the final transition Kylie told me the 3 leaders were still 15 minutes ahead, a gap too big to close with only an hour half of racing left. Behind me, Fenner was not going to be chasing and there was a 15 min gap back to Pat in 6th, so I resigned to cruising to the finish having done my best.

It was really awesome to cruise along with the 100km racers around to talk to and I was loving this final stage until I sensed someone ride up behind me and hold my wheel, I knew straight away it was no 100km racer, this was a 100 miler. I had been caught!

It was Fenner, he had an amazing recovery in transition by drinking plain water and committing to never letting me beat him ;) I pulled over and let him go, he had well and truly earned his 4th place and I was amazed with his recovery. Not quitting when he was in such a bad way earned (more of) my respect, big time, and there was no way I was going to fight him after that come back.

I cheered him on as he rode away up the hills and continued on my way to the finish, pretty happy to be top 5 for another year at my favourite marathon event in Australia.

Thanx

Number Fun

A look at the finish times of the top 10 each year shows how the race started as a fairly slow affair and has gotten faster with more finishers every year, this year being the fastest so far across the top 10.