Luckily though, the course is stunning, even the cruise stages, and the organisation and timing are flawless, the event ran like clockwork and we were always looked after. Nature put on great weather for us, and the company was as it usually is in th MTB scene, friendly and happy. No one taking the race too seriously and always plenty of help on offer for the weary or broken.
I highly recommend doing this one, it's a good excuse to see Tassie (this my first visit to this beautiful place), the only downside is that it's a bi-annual gig, so quite a wait between drinks. It's bound to be a cracker when it returns in 2010!
The drive to Melbourne, Ferry to Tasmania and car shuffling in Tassie meant we were travelling non stop for 33 hours to get here, but we finally made it to our hotel at Cradle Mountain at 5pm on Friday, feeling a little travel weary, but keen for what is to come when the event starts tomorrow.
The drive to Melbourne was easy enough, we were early for the Ferry so got a decent dinner at Port Melbourne before driving the car onto the Spirit of Tasmania, an un-nerving feeling for me, I really don't trust boats ;) It's really well fitted out though, with great restaurants and a bar, so after a Kalua and milk we hit the hay and went to sleep. I figured I would sleep like a baby, but the boat was getting knocked around a bit and woke me up a few times crashing through the waves. It was a great way to travel though, by the time we woke up and had breaky it was time to drive off and around Tassie!
We drove to the race start at Cradle Mountain, dropped off our gear and headed for the race finish to leave our car there. As we drove along we could check out parts of the course and the reality of how big the event is started to sink in... it's a 2 hour drive, and has lots of hills! Now I am nervous!!
After an awesome local seafood lunch we caught the Wildside Support bus back to the hotel at the event start at Cradle Mountain and collapsed in a heap, two full days and a night of travelling, but this place is pretty magical so I am sure it will pan out to be more than worth the effort...
Incorrectly seeded into Group A (due to recent good ultra endurance racing performances, which in no way translates to good short course XC performance like this event!), the pressure was on to do well in this stage, and I gave it all I had, hitting 90% maxHR several times and I was feeling great, I had managed to hang onto the back of A group all the way to the 5km to go sign, we were nearly there... when the enevitable happened, living up to my 'Captain Mechanical' moniker, a stick got into my chain line and tore my rear derialuer off, it was left in peices, the hanger destroyed and the chain heavily twisted in 3 places. The bike was left unrideable, Game Over.
Desperate to hang onto what ever placing I could I ran the last 4 or so kms to the end of the stage, hoping for a mechanic... sadly there wasn't one. No mechanics until the lunch stop after a 20km cruise stage, which has time limits, so I had to get there fast. Neil offered me his spare chain and we jiggered up the Anthem in single speed mode, which should be simple I thought. It's not. Dual suspension bikes can't do this, as the rear is moving and stressing the chain the whole time. It was making foul noises. If I de-stressed the chain by changing to a gear that allowed some slack in the chain, the bike would automatically change up gears until it was fully tensioned, putting stress on on my bearings and driveline. This would have be livable if the cruise stage was downhill as I could avoid pedalling and roll, but it was all flat or uphill! I walked a lot of hills, and ran the flats. Drizzling rain added to my mood, and the endless stream of people riding past saying "bad luck mate" really started to drag.
Eventually I got to the lunch stop, emotionally destroyed and pretty much ready to quit. The mechanics were there though, and I had smartly brought a spare derailuer hanger, so they had the bike fixed up in no time while I gobbled down some much needed food. The spread was awesome, healthy rolls, cinnamon scrolls and mini mars bars were my picks :)
The delay had taken it's toll on my placing, it's really quite incredible how many places you can loose in one mechanical. I was relegated back from Group A to J for the start of the second stage, which added to my bad mood, but I tried to stay positive and laughed with Neil on the start line, trying to refocus some positive energy back into the day.
Right from the gun, I used the anger from the previous disaster in stage 1 as fuel and gave it all I had, hammering the bike for the full stage. It was a real lift to be at the back of the field, passing people the whole time and never geting overtaken, I'll admit it was a real ego booster! This stage was a rush, I felt great the whole time and we got to see some ancient Tassie rain forrest, green and covered in moss, it was beautiful. I flew into the finish knowing I'd given it all I could, it was totally elating.
To top the day off the final cruise stage was 20km of bitchumen downhill, cruising at over 60km/h most of the way, we rolled into Tullah happy little campers. It didn't take long for fatigue to set it, and the only time we had left in the day was enough to clean the bikes, ourselves, eat and then hit the hay exhausted. It should be interesting to see how we back up tomorrow...
This mornings stage was extremely technical, steep rocky descents that were wet and slippery, testing most riders, me included. I had to walk some of them. The technical descent led to some awesome flowy downhill sections through overgrown thick forest that completely surrounded us, it was like ripping through a huge leafy green tunnel at warp speed, awesome! I had moved up a couple of Groups to F (for Freaks, or so the organiser informed us with a laugh), and ran off the front of the group to chase down Group E, which gets to start 5 mins ahead of us. Eventually I caught up Group E and managed to get by some of them, but the climb was all tight technical single track and passing was difficult at best, so I gave in and made the most of passing opportunies on the downhill, where many a roadie was crashing, which always makes for an easy passing manouver :)
The lunch stop saw more fantastic food, and the "dash for cash" race, which the big name boys and girls out for a 3 lap sprint race at the local velodrome, while we normal folk spectated from the grass in the centre. It was inspriring to watch these guys tearing it up racing around us!
The afternoon stage was 38kms of the best mountain biking I have ever experienced, just fantastic! Montezuma Falls would have to be one of the best tracks I've ever had the joy to ride, we rode up an easy bitchumen hill, then continued up on an old decomissioned tram way, which was an easier gradient. I had nothing in the legs though and just could not get my heart rate up at all, which was disappointing. I decided to sit in with a group of 6 riders, 4 blokes and 2 girls from Group F. We were a 6 car freight train, cruising up the hill taking turns in front, and after crossing the frightening suspension bridge at the falls, we tore up some of the most magic downhill I've ever done, the tram way is cut into the hillside, with dirt walls on the left and right, and a canopy of leafy green rain forrest over the top, another tunnel ride, but this time ripped up at full speed for what seemed like half an hour in our little 6 car freight train peleton. Awesome fun!
Backing up for a 20 min time trial this morning proved to be too much for me, my legs hurt and I was tired as hell, a poor excuse really, because so was everyone else! None the less I could not find it in me to push hard for this at all. I did manage to catch and pass four riders though, but that was mainly due to them getting freaked out by the technical stuff than me putting more power down. Thankfully I wasn't passed by the faster riders coming behind me (the start was reverse grid), and we got to race through a 100m rock tunnel and finish on the motor cross track with big berms and table top jumps, wicked fun!!
One of the sponsored riders decided to do his time trial dressed in nothing but a Borat g-string, it was fairly funny to watch, until he turned away from us and got out of the saddle to climb a hill... eeeeewwwww! :)
The long cruise to Trial Harbour for lunch was 20 kms on dirt roads, it was undulating, dry and dusty. The support vehicles (maybe 100 cars and vans) drove down this road with us, which meant we ate their dust for an hour or so and they went by in an endless and dusty stream of irony (in that they were our own "support" vehicles blowing dust in our faces!), I was tired, sore, grumpy and in a mad mood from not being able to back up for the mornings stage, so this dust was the last straw for me, I rolled into lunch pretty unhappy and in a foul mood, a shame given the stunning location, a beautiful beachside town :(
After lunch, the afternoon race stage saw both Neil and I come amazingly good, out of nowhere after the bad start to the day, we were both riding really strong and feeling like we were back in form! The course was rated at the maximum for technical difficulty, giving us some advantage over the roadies, and it was a 20km session of hill repeats, rocky technical descents followed by steep technical granny gear climbs, over and over. I really found it quite a challenge and enjoyed ripping past the struggling roadies that were forced to walk and struggle on the techinical descents. I made up heaps of places, passing mates I had made from Group C (it was a challenge to work through E and D to catch the C class crowd). This stage really lifted me and after we drove to Strahan for the night, I pondered on why we suddenly came good halfway through Day 3, when it has started so poorly, it was bizarre, and welcome :)
The final day turned out to be a let down for me, no cruise stages and only one 36km race stage. The race stage was out from Strahan, along 8km of beach, back through a pine forrest and home on open hard packed exposed fire roads. The entire stage was flat as a tack, with only a few small hills in the short pine forrest section, nothing technical. Being stuck in Group F turned out to be a big problem in this stage, the best way to tackle the beach and fire roads is in a roadie bunch, sharing the load and working in a peleton.
Stupidly I did my usual break away from the group at the start, getting the jump on them in the lead up to the beach section, so when I hit the beach I was alone, Group F behind me and Group E five minutes in front. I could see Group E in the distance and made the very poor choice to try and catch them up alone. For 15 minutes I grit my teeth and gave the pedals everything I had, it wasn't enough to catch the boys in Group E that were ahead of me working together though, and then the inevitable happened, I started to tire and the front runners of Group F caught up to me, working in a 10 man peleton of fast rotations at the front, they steam trained right by me like I was standing still. Working alone out here was suicide :(
I jumped on the back of the group and stayed with them for a while, we caught and passed stranded solo riders that had fallen off the back of Group E, but eventually they dropped me, I was too tired from sprinting the beach alone. Soon after the next peleton came by and I was able to work with these guys as they were a little slower, taking my turns at the front and working together we got to the end of the never ending beach and into the pine forrest. The little hills and some boggy sand sections in the forrest were helpful for me and I was able to catch back up the front Group F peleton and tack back on like a leech before we broke out onto the exposed fire roads, where working together is vital again.
As a group of 10 riders, we worked together in rolling rotations, which was something I had not done before, usually a rider takes 30 to 60 seconds at the front, then we rotate and fresh meat takes the front, with this 'rolling roatation' techinique, the left side was sprinting to the front, then immediately pulling off to the right, backing off and pulling in at the back for another sprint on the left side. It was like a rotating wheel steaming it's way forward and it seemed to work really well, we caught and passed other crews and things were going really well, but it was taxing on the body. I'm not sure how long we could have held this up for, but it was long enough to get to the end of the stage, where we crossed the line, finishing the stage in around 70 minutes.
The stage was a bit boring for me really, over in a hour and nothing techinical or challenging in it, and being forced to mindlessly pump the cranks non stop, exercise bike style (or is that roadie style? ;)), wasn't really engaging, nor was it "mountain biking", but hey, I realise most of the field are roadies, and this is what they love to do, so power to them. They all enjoyed working in the little peletons and it was a great finish to the event for them. For me though, the highlights were Montezuma Falls and Trial Harbour.
The event was closed with a fantastic BBQ lunch and a chance to catch up with newly made friends and "rivals" and share stories. The vibe was really good and it was a top way to finish such an amazing journey, truely on the Wildside.
The crew:
| Jason | Giant Trance |
| Neil | C/dale Scapel HT |
| Jenny | Scott Dually |
| Luke | Scott Dually |
The Stats:
| Distance | 230km |
| Time | 8:00 |
| Climb | 3365vm |
| Speed | 18.5km/h avg |
| Date | 19/01/08 |
The Results:
| Stage 1 - Cradle | 151st out of 171 (mechanical) |
| Stage 2 - Que River | 39th out of 171 |
| Stage 3 - Stirling Valley | 51st out of 171 |
| Stage 4 - Montezuma Falls | 52nd out of 171 |
| Stage 5 - Spray Tunnel | 48th out of 171 |
| Stage 6 - Granville Harbour | 42nd out of 171 |
| Stage 7 - Hells Gates | 72nd out of 171 (damned roadies!) |
| Overall - Veterans | 56th out of 171 |
| Overall - All Classes | 112nd out of 425 |