Lach's blog

Underestimated the number of sandbaggers again and missed the 2nd wave start, but got away OK with the last bunch. A few exciting moments in the "peleton", with ridiers switching lines without so much as a look. The mud stretch for the 200m or so before the first climb was a real mess, but after that the track was just soft and pretty leg sapping (us clydesdales tend to sink in a bit further than the whippets). Usually one or two lines in most sections were well worn, but it was still too damp for it to have hardened up. Walked a few of the hillier bits.

Category was actually "super" masters, but for some obscure reason it's not on the drop down menu

This year's version almost lived up to the original hype about linking up the best of Canberra's sniggle into one great 100km race.

Arrived in Perisher Jan 1, hoping to fit some rides in between walks with wife and friends. Staying at a private ski lodge as there's not much going on in Perisher in summer.

Rides have been:

Great event. Track was good, with plenty of fire trail to sort everyone out to start with, then a good deal of interesting single track and plenty of little used fire trail that was fun to ride. No major hills. Only negative was a few serious bog holes which meant another mud dunking for my newish shoes. There were some seriously deep sections there (4WD wheel ruts under muddy water) but not too bad if you walked along the edges. I saw one guy behind me go in up to the top of his front wheel.

Only time I've ever ridden Canberra single track and wished it would end.....

Knocked almost an hour off last year's time and only moved up from 36th out of 43 to 33rd out of 44. That same time would have made 27th in 2008, 13th in 2007 and would have been one off the podium in 2006! Seems you've got to get much faster just to stand still in Super Masters these days.

Anyway, I felt I had a good race...

Entered the 80/ 75 km version, but the climb up Mt Stromlo got the better of me, resulting in my first DNF.

May have had something to do with arriving in Canberra at 11.45 pm Friday and sleeping badly, but I think it was more likely the usual issue of dragging 100+ kg uphill for extended periods. And that climb up Mt Stromlo is an extended climb - not steep or particularly difficult, but it goes on and on. And then on this course there was a couple of km's of pretty techy downhill, so not much chance to "relax" until the last third of the loop.