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A race in reverse

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My intention was always to enter for the original date but work schedule has been nuts of late so I only got my entry in a week or so ago.

The crowd was well down on previous years and the event centre buzz was not the same, I really hope it was the reschedule that caused this and not the start of this race’s slip from popularity.

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A little tale of a bike packing adventure.

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I have been meaning to get out and do some bike packing for a number of years, I even went as far as seeking appropriate approvals/justifying and buying a Salsa Fargo, bike bags, light weight camping stuff and a small hiking tent.. that has spent the last couple of years gathering dust and taking up valuable N+1 space.

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Not as fast as I expected

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I really like the Dirtworks/Convict race for a number of reasons, the spectacular scenery, the course (no matter how many times you ride it, there's some pain in them hills) and its the race that I use to motivate my rides and fitness for the start of the year.

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Somedays you eat the bear, somedays the bear eats you.

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Coming back for my second 100 Mile fling I was very ready, I had trained much harder than last year and was confident that I would smash my last years time, I had also talked a couple of reasonably fit guys into entering as well.. So with my training and bike fitness looking good I was all set to have some fun racing a couple mates over 100 Miles.

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What!! No beer means better times???

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I raced out to StAlbans after work, registered and settled into the bunk accommodation that someone offered up at a property at the bottom of shepherds gully.

No beer and early to bed means that I got into St Albans early but stuffed around so then got to the line a little late, so I couldn't get into the first group.. Gotta love self seeding starts Sad So I started in the second group.

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100 Mile Fling on a hard tail? Tick that box!

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I can’t exactly explain why I signed up for the 100Mile, there are many excuses that mask the complete lunacy of doing 100 (it’s actually like 165K’s and 3500M of climb) miles on a mountain bike, but I think the best reason is that 100K events just seem so “yawn” and don’t represent any real challenge Smiling

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mud mud mud mud mud mud mud.. husky

what they said...

tough race and happy to finish this one.

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A nice day for a bike race

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Ahh the dirtworks.. over the years this has been that “one” event for me, as it was my very first race of any distance just after I changed my life by losing a real lot of weight and got into ridding mountain bikes, the first year I did 8:10, next year I did 7:10 and last year I wanted 6 hours but ended up with a DNF.. so this year I really didn’t care who beat me or who I beat as long as I worked to my time of 6:00 I’d be super happy and as an extra bonus if I could finish the race without needing an ASS transplant, as I was riding a hardtail this year, I’d be super double happy.

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a heater would have been nice..

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As always a fun event, if a little cold!! (more than a little cold.. it was f%$#ing freezing)… seems that if it’s not raining then its freezing, at least we didn’t get the “raining and freezing” as that would have been horrible.

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An interesting ride at the back of the field

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Last year I rode with a mate who pulled out at the half way point, so in the ensuing year I’m pretty sure that I bugged him on no less than 1000 separate occasions that he had unfinished business that needed to be completed and that I would see to it that he entered and barring terminal mechanical or physical failure that he finished this race.

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