2008 Vaude 100 Mile Highland Fling

I went into this race with a goal, to "race the race". I had never checked out the competition, or indeed ever raced a race before, so this would be my first go at racing properly, usually I just go and do my own thing and whatever result I get is what I get. That's how it went last year, but this year I was going to try and earn a good placing. I had spent a bit of time scoping out the field I was going to try and beat, and mentally focusing on the big day. The lead up training had gone well; I'd tapered nicely and was raring to ride for the two days before the race and had fresh legs on the day.

The pace was much hotter this year, I was 19% faster to Wingello this year, a fairly hefty improvement and credit to having done two solo 24's this year, they sure do make you fitter! It was also due to the fact I was pushing it hard to keep up with the leaders.

Into Wingello and I was struggling to keep on the back of 100k bunches, I kept dropping off the back then having to bridge the gap to get back on. Once we hit the single track, BMC rider Pat, who I knew nothing about, cruised by, I let him go, and he rolled up to Craig Armour who was just ahead of me. Pat attacked, and Craig went with him, I wasn’t sure what to do, but as I was already pushing it pretty hard and struggling to keep up, I thought it would be foolish to push myself over the limit so early on and get burnt out, so I let them go.

It didn’t take long for Pat to pull away and Craig gave it a couple of goes to catch him, but it took it's toll on him, as he slowed dramatically after those attacks and I rolled up next to him and asked how he was travelling, "not feeling so good" was the responce, so I figured I would ride with him for a while and maybe we could work together.

Craig lifted the pace again, not a full blown attack, but I am sure he was trying to pull away from me, and pull away he did. Gradually he dropped me in the single track sections and I struggled to ride them well. I was tired and pushing it too hard to try and keep up. So I backed off a little, to my surprise so did Craig and I caught him up on the fire trails.

He was clearly hurting now and as we approached the two big hills of the race, with 1300 vertical meters of climbing, I decided now was the time to attack and see if he would follow. I flew up Halfway Hill and into the The Kick, clearing them 13 minutes faster than year (22% quicker). At the top I finally looked back to see if he was chasing, there was no sight of him.

Still worried he might be there, and knowing Pat and Crawford were not too far ahead, I kept the hammer down and broke out onto the fire road to Wingello alone, there was a rider a few hundred meters ahead so I put in a bridging effort to catch him and sat on his wheel to recover.

It turned out to be James, who was in 5th place, and when we figured out we were both 100 milers, I suggested we work together in a two man peleton and we brought it home hard all the way to Wingello, catching and passing several 100k riders as we hammered for transition.

We flew into Wingello, where my awesome best mate Neil was waiting for me with supplies and a welcoming happy face. Pushing too hard for the last 4 hours meant all the blood was going to my legs and none to my stomach, so solid food was no longer an option, I couldn't face the thought of it. So I went for Red Bull hoping the fizz of it would help my bloated stomach, then grabbed some Gels and a banana and turned to see if James was coming with me so we could work together to bridge to Pat and Crawford who were in 3rd and 4th and only a few minutes ahead.

James was cooked though, he decided to have a big rest and munch some food, leaving me to head out alone for lap 2. I kept the hammer down, fearing at any moment James would catch me back up and drop me from my newly acquired 5th place back to 6th. Thankfully though, he never came, but the motivation from that fear kept this lap at a solid pace, it was done in the same time as the first lap of this stage, no fade (last year I faded 10 minutes on lap 2)! I'd also started catching the tail end of the 100kers here, and last year I'd walked up the Kick and Halfway Hill, this year I motored up them a couple of gears of granny. It felt good to be fitter this time and I knew I was going much better time wise.

I'd not drunk enough water in the first half of the race, only half of what I took out. This turned out to be a big mistake as the day was heating up now and I was really hot in the climbs. The obvious result started to happen, I started to cramp. Every time the cramps came, I sprayed in some Cramp Stop spray, and to my amazement, it seemed to work, the cramp would subside and if I went to granny gear and spun for bit I got better and I could then start putting down some power again.

Drinking as much as I could stomach, I managed to keep the cramping under control, it only took me off the bike for a stretch once, and once I was past The Kick, I new it was a flat ride back to Wingello, so I brought it home hard, knowing Kylie would have finished her Half Fling and seeing her smiling face was all I could think about.

With about 500m to go I had the head down barreling along the road in the dog when I glanced up and saw a red belly black snake crossing the road, about a foot in front of me, I swerved hard and just clipped the tail end of him, thankfully I hadn't hurt him and he didn't turn back for a strike at me in revenge, instead he slithered off the road as fast as could, I guess he was probably just as scared as I was!

Into the final transition and Neil, Adam and Kylie are all there, my favourite people on the planet! I love these guys, their tireless support of my racing this year has been incredible and I owe a lot of my good results this year to their efforts and encouragement. Adam got to work on my driveline, Neil fed me up and Kylie was running back and forth for what I needed and feeding me intel on race positions, it felt like we were a pro team (and these guys do run my support better than some pro teams we've watched, they rock, thanx guys!).

Watching the stopwatch I kept the transition short and flew out of there, knowing the last stage is all flat, fire road and fast. I pumped in a gel every 15 minutes and chased it with 1/4 of my water bottle. To be sure I was full of energy and hydrated. The clean driveline performed much better now, but sadly, I was getting tired, I started to fade, but with my goal of 20km/h and my average speed reading of 19.8km/h, I was motivated to put in as much as I could. I'd given up on catching Pat and Crawford at this point and just wanted to put in enough effort to make my speed target and not get caught by 6th place. I guess mentally I had shut down and stopped racing, which is not what I wanted to happen, but I'd put in a good effort and was happy with the result I should get if I just made it back to the finish intact, so with no need to hurt myself, I backed off and went into "insurance mode".

The finish came up fast though, 15 minutes faster, I was amazed by how much quicker I was this year. I crossed the line with a smile, a stark contrast to how I crossed the line last year, in uncontrollable tears, a broken man.

It was super fun to actually race some people and try and keep up instead of just motoring along at my own pace; I could get addicted to this new style of racing and am chomping at the bit for another crack!

Results

Last year I missed out on 3rd place by 11 minutes, or 1.9%, and guess what, this year was no different, I missed out on 3rd by a tighter time margin of 9 minutes, amazingly, that is 1.9% off the pace, again! I feel a tiny bit ripped off to have lifted my game so much higher, only to have the bar lifted, but that is racing, and it's all fuel to lift my game again next year!

Thanx

Number Fun

My average speeds through the 4 stages of the race compared to last year reveal I averaged 17.8km/hr last year, but this year I lifted that to 20.4km/hr. Sadly I faded toward the end, getting my biggest improvements of 20% early in the race, but they had dropped to 10% by stage 3.	My heart rates are pretty interesting, I started out going a tiny bit harder in stage one this year, but for all the other stages my HR was lower than last year. How could that be given the higher speed this year? Freaky!

A quick comparison of all the race finishers shows a convincinung win by Dennis, Jason English was never going to be caught (no surprises there!), and a 5% split between the next 4 places, showing there was some close racing in the mid field (especially between Pat and Crawford for 3rd spot). For me I see I'm 17% off the win, 9% of 2nd and 2% off 3rd. If I picked up 15% over the last year, can I lift it another 10% in the coming year and get that longed after prodium in 2009? Only time will tell...