Irate intern 50k:)

Race: Irate Intern (50km)

Originally I was going to do the Angry Doctor (100km) but after discussion with my coach we decided I would compete in the Irate Intern (50km) for a more intense race.

After a long car trip down to Batemans Bay we arrived at our destination on Saturday.

On Sunday morning we (the 50km riders) got to have a sleep in as when we got up the 100km riders had already left. The race started at 9am for us.

I started off with an aim to get top 20 (outright) and under 3 hours time.

The race was off...

we statrted off by going up a bitchumen hill then into Old Mogo town, this was realy cool to ride through here. Straight out the otherside, only 500m into the race, was the first hill. When I got to the top of this hill I had lost alot of positions putting me back in about 30th place.

As we flowed into the first bit of single track I found myself stuck behind lots of people slowed right down. As soon as I could I overtook a couple of people and tried to find a rhythme I could sustain for the 50km to come.

I found a rider who I could stay with, he was quick through the single track so I could follow him, then along the fire roads we would work together like a road race.

Around 15km into the race I hit a huge hill, so I chucked it into granny and cranked up it. When I got to the top I was very tired and needed to rest so I just let my legs roll over and lowered my heart rate.

Up untill the 30km mark it was very hilly but had some very nice flowing single trail to rip up. My 30km mark time allocation was to be around 1 hour and 50 mins I came through in 1 hour 37mins and I was feeling fresh.

At this point my bike was going great after some help last week by Blackman Bikes, who also helped me out with my Scott Scale 35 which is just a dream to ride...light, great response and looks a treat. (www.blackmanbicycles.com.au) Help me and other juniors out so please support them too.

After a nice bridge crossing it lead into a very harsh and long single track hill climb which lead out onto a fireroad, here you could see a massive climb about 500m ahead and I'm sure everyone had the same thought..."I hope I don't see a rider go past in the distance".

After another couple of single track kilometres came my favourite fire road, this was where you came down off of the ridge, I was sitting on 65km/h and having fun on the waterbars. It only took three minutes to get to the bottom and then see another climb, but I knew this was to be one of the last climbs.

In the last 5km I had no idea how far away the finish was but I was in 15th place outright and could see a big group of people ahead, at first I thought they were just 100km competitors taking it easy.

When I went past them seven of them pulled away and tried to stay with me, these were 50km riders who didn't want to loose there positions. Trying to pull away from them at this point would just let them catch me back so I sat in behined as we pulled out onto the main road.

There was one more hill, the top was the finish, everyone was going hard. I went for an attack and as I pulled put the guy infront of me noticed and was about to do something but I pulled back in behind. As soon as he turned back around I went but this time I went 100%
and before they knew it I had broken 100m away from them. Then I just went straight through the finish line.

In the end I forfilled my goals and that was 9th place outright and 2nd in my category, but also a time of 2hrs 43mins.

This was a great weekend and I would like to thank Blackman Bicycles and Scott for helping me out with my Scott Scale and non stop support. Also to Aroc sport for running a great event, I can't wait 'till next year.

Alex.