Second time fail...maybe next year

The forecast for the weekend was for 30+ temps. Tien and I were saying to each other the night before that this was a bad sign for us. The last time we rode in high temps we really struggled compared to the rest of the group.

I lined up at the start line with Sean, Junkie, Cupcake and Tien. Off we went up the hill and we quickly separated as we climbed towards the first single track. I just went at my own pace and felt fine for now. I walked a few of the steeper hills. I then caught up with Sean and Cupcake at around the 20km mark. We rode together for a little but Sean quickly dropped us on the next hill. Cupcake and I went along at a nice social pace and chatted a lot. He also did his best to make dust screens by locking up his wheels for me! We pulled into the first water stop and lay around for 10 minutes or so. On we went and Bruce was already thinking of excuses to pull out at the 50km mark. His prayers were answered when he blew the seals on his fork! We then bumped into Junkie standing around near at the 45km mark. We stopped also and had a good chat and rest for 5 minutes I'd guess. On we went to the end of the first 50km in around 3.5hrs. I thought that was a reasonable pace given all the stops we made.

At the 50km mark, Rob, Junkie, Cupcake decided to call it a day. Wise decision in hindsight! I continued on after lying around at transition for around 20min. It was starting to get really hot now and I was really struggling. Tien caught me at around 65km. We lay around in the shade for a while and wondered why we were out here! We were both struggling and walked most hills. Granny gear was used almost everywhere! The 80km water stop was a very welcome sight. I lay there for at least 20 minutes. We eventually got up and pedalled off slowly. There was some great fast downhill sniggle in the last 20km. It's a shame I wasn't in better shape to enjoy it more. Walked more hills and eventually got back to the finish. It was good to see the rest of the Nobmob crew cheering us on over the line.

I'm just happy to have finished given the difficult conditions. Hopefully I'll do better next year!