With a wedding reception to attend on Saturday night, I definitely didn’t have the best preparation for this event. Despite having only a couple of hours of sleep, I did manage to wake up on time and felt fairly fresh.
Of course, that didn’t really help all that much leading up to one of the hardest days on the bike I’ve ever had.
*yawn*
We arrived at Lysterfield pretty early to meet Victor, but as it turns out, he’d also had a late night and as a result overslept. No big issue. We rolled on to ensure that we got a parking spot and proceeded to setup. Supposedly, we had to get there super early to ensure we could actually get a spot, but as it turns out, we were one of the first 10 to arrive. Bah. Could have slept another 10 minutes. Sweet, sweet, precious sleep.
Progressively, the rest of the crew showed up with Victor arriving not long before the race briefing. Despite my earlier suggestions, Victor convinced me to ride first, since he said he was still feeling a bit hung over. Bah. Not too bad I suppose, since I could use the excuse that the first lap is slower, with the crush of people at the start line, after I pull a bad lap time.
Anthony also arrived late, when his bike started to misbehave while riding to the venue. I’d have to admit that it’s not cool having a bike that won’t get out of the big ring while riding up to Lysterfield. However, being made up of two bike mechanics, Team Bean Pole managed to get his bike sorted out quick smart.
Turning my pedals in anger
Down at the start line, I was quite surprised at just how many people there were. Honestly, it didn’t look like there were that many people and campsites up on the hill. I didn’t really feel any of the usual pre-race jitters that I normally get before crits. Maybe it’s because I hadn’t actually turned my pedals in anger for quite some time. It could be because I was getting ready for a long slow ride, not a short intense ride. Or maybe it’s because I was so cold and sleepy.
Not really sure.
But while I stood there contemplating this thought, the race began. Uhhh… oops. Off we go.
I stayed about two thirds of the way back and just paced myself. I figured that with 8 hours to go, I should save some matches for the afternoon. So while people sprinted off, I stuck it in a nice easy gear and spun my way through the prologue. Into Redgum, I found out that I’m not nearly as quick as I thought I was. I mean, I know that I’m definitely not FAST through technical stuff, but I always thought that I was a decent weekend rider.
Errr… hmmm… maybe not.
People seemed to be zooming past me at all too regular an interval and I was not passing anyone.
I did eventually find myself in a decent group of about 8 riders and we formed up a nice group cruising through the trees. The bloke in front of me was probably a tiny bit quicker through the twisty stuff, but my HR was feeling good, so I was pretty comfortable. On to the first firetrail climb and I cruised past him quite easily. Yay! Something I’m good at. Well. I would have been good at it, if I didn’t start to overheat halfway up. Since the campsite was right up on top of the hill, I’d put my leg warmers on. Great idea while you’re standing still, but once the blood got flowing, it all just got a little bit too hot.
While I struggled up the hill feeling more and more uncomfortable, Scott cruised past me. I was, at least, still passing people, which means that despite my discomfort, I still had some advantage over people. Down the next fast singletrack section in Middle track, I was passed by all of the people who’d just passed me, however that was short lived for them as I cruised passed again in the next section of firetrail. At this point, I decided that it was a bit too much, so pulled over to get the leg warmers off… Which of course meant that ALL of the people (and more) that I’d just passed, now passed me again while I sat on the side of the trail.
Back on the trail and feeling MUCH better, I pedalled quite comfortably through the top section of Buckle. Track conditions were great and with a bit more confidence and comfort, I actually started to pass a few people. Halfway through this section, the guy in front of me washed out and stacked pretty hard. I pulled up, put my bike up against a tree and stopped to help him out. He turned out to be okay, but a gust of wind knocked my bike over and broke my one week old saddle bag. Grr!
Back on the trail and now with my saddle bag in my jersey back pocket, I cruised through the next section of firetrail pretty smoothly. Started to feel a bit tired up Blair Witch, but was still feeling okay. The fenceline behind Blair Witch however was nasty. The headwind in this section was so bad that to keep my speed above 10km/hr I actually needed to pedal downhill.
Not funny at all.
I did however manage to catch a few more people (including yet another stop when the person in front of me had a saddlebag malfunction too) and cruised through to a lap time (including prologue) of around 1 hour 15 minutes, which was one of the slowest in our group for a dry lap. Oh well. With all of the mishaps, it’s not surprising.
Maybe I should have kept riding
As Victor went off, I headed to the campsite, feeling pretty good and layered up to keep warm…. well kinda warm. With the wind and smattering of rain, it actually turned out to be quite hard to keep warm. I reckon I could have kept riding, but our race plan was to swap on every lap. On reflection, given how strong I was feeling and how much I suffered after I cooled down, another lap could have worked. Of course, I say that while sitting in a warm, dry lounge room, with lots of layers of clothes, a mug of tea and a gas heater.
Despite passing me early in the lap, Scott rolled into camp after me, having had a stack right before transition and leaving most of the skin from his elbow by the side of the trail. Ouch. Anthony also had a run in with the ground after an OTB left him with a very sore wrist.
Some food and good company did take our minds off the weather slightly, but it also took my mind off the time and all too soon it felt like I had to head back out. Victor managed to smash a lap in the low 50s, which I suppose was somewhat expected… although not really appreciated.
It all started coming together
Back on the trail, I struggled a bit to get warm. As I rattled my way down Redgum, I heard the call of “TRACK!” behind me in one of the tightest parts of the trail. Two Torq guys blasted past me in a gap that I didn’t think existed. I almost tangled up with the second guy, but they got through and were off in a flash. It blows my mind exactly how fast they were through here and how hard they lean through the corners.
Once again, I found myself being passed in the technical bits, but I’d warmed up and was moving along quite comfortably. When I start to get lost in my thoughts, I actually get a bit musical. Usually it’s whistling, although sometimes, I burst out in song. Some might ask how I can be racing and still have breath to make music, but you have to remember – I was saving myself for the remainder of an 8 hour enduro (at least that’s what I tell people when we compare lap times).
Not sure what I was whistling this time, but I was feeling pretty good and humming along nicely. Then came the all too regular call of “Track!”, when a bloke in a flannel shirt blew past me. Err… hmmmmm. Maybe I was going a bit too slowly. I picked up the pace a little, but I have to admit – Flannel Shirt Man (FSM) was incredibly fast through the corners. Try as I might, I couldn’t hang on to his wheel.
BUT…
All was okay, as we turned up the firetrail. Ah-ha! I was on to him soon enough as FSM walked his bike up the firetrail climb and thus began a friendly rivalry. Maybe this is what I need every lap so that I don’t slack off too much, because I’m pretty sure I rode Middle pretty darn well this time. None the less, FSM passed me again in the singletrack and once again, I blew past him on the fast firetrail section.
No spare effort for whistling new, I decided that I was going to try to keep FSM behind me for the whole of Buckle. What happened to riding this at enduro pace? Err… hmmm…. shush, don’t ask. I did manage to keep him at bay for most of Buckle, with the regular climbs ensuring that I’d always have an advantage.
I considered things I could do to keep him behind me. Hmmmm… tacks in the trail? Nah, too obvious. Maybe I could knock a tree down across the trail. With his skills he’d probably bunnyhop it. Oh okay, I’ll just pedal harder.
Approaching the triple log rollovers, I spied Heather in front of me. Maybe it was because I was too busy scheming on how to stay ahead of FSM, but my brain told me to sit behind H until we were through the logs. Duhhh stupid idea. H is a relatively newbie MTBer and instead of going over the log, she stopped to walk it. With not enough space to go around her, I had to stop and walk to log too, which of course would have to be the moment when FSM blew past me and over the logs.
Thankfully we were back on the firetrail soon and I blew past FSM again, this time hoping that the climbing in Blair Witch would keep him off my back wheel. It was around now, when I realised that I should have probably stuck with my plan to ride at enduro pace.
Climbing up Blair Witch in the granny gear, I’m sure I could hear my brain telling me “Geeeez, shoulda stuck with the plan. Now we’re both stuck here for even longer while you crawl your way up this hill. Hey, can you turn around and see if FSM has caught up yet? I’m bored! Ride faster!”.
Stupid brain…
I did however manage to keep FSM away and didn’t go crazy talking to myself. There was a tiny bit of suffering going on here as I pressed into the increasingly strong headwind. The cold was starting to get to me and my knees were getting sore. Wasn’t all too bad though and I managed to pretty solid time of just over an hour.
We’re off to see the wizard…
Following this lap, I was starting to feel peckish and knew that if I was going to survive, I’d need to eat.
A lot.
Now, this is something else I’m very good at. I can consume large quantities of food very, very quickly. Some would say that I almost inhale food. This proved to be a useful skill since I wanted to eat as much as possible, then give myself plenty of time to rest before the next lap.
So in the space of about 15 minutes, I ate half a pack of rice crackers, two G-C rice cakes, a Torq gel, a handful of fruit jubes, a can of 100Plus and some Shapes. Talk about carbo loading.
Feeling pretty comfortably full, I settled down to wait for Victor. The wind at this point, got stronger.
And stronger…
And stronger……
Followed by a bit of sideways rain.
And the some thunder.
What exactly were we doing out here again?
Everyone hunkered down. Our neighbours lowered their marquee as low as possible so that it didn’t get ripped apart. H pulled up, reporting that she’d seen a large branch crash down across the trail.
At this point, I started thinking of ways that I could avoid going for another lap so that I wouldn’t crash, drown in mud or have to answer the question “If a tree falls in a forest and there’s a MTBer underneath…”. None the less, I was ready when Victor pulled back into camp and thankfully (for me), it looked like he was hurting.
Evidently, the conditions were getting to him too and he mentioned about leg cramps, plus the fact that half of the people were packing up already.
*phew* Got out of that one.
That of course, didn’t stop Steve and Scott, then David and Tim going out for more laps. Madness. Of course, they all came back covered in mud and in the case of Tim, some bruises after sliding out on a log rollover.
As we packed up, we heard that the organisers also pulled the pin and decided to cut the 8 hours down to 5.5 hours. There was also significant amounts of carnage up the hill, with several marquees left by the side of the road in twisted wrecks. No doubt, these people were on more exposed parts of the hill.
But you know what? I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get somewhere warm and dry.
The aftermath
Having only done two hours of riding, I was feeling completely shattered after this. I was dozy in the car, had a nap when I got home, slept my normal number of hours and was still exhausted afterwards.
Doing it again?
Yeah, sure, why not. We can’t get weather like that TWICE can we?
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