ps's blog

Went into this race not knowing what to expect as I had been suffering from a head cold during the week. Seemed to get better towards the end of the week so decided to do the race as I hadn't ridden much lately.
Ended up feeling OK and was able to push on in the second half of the race. Happy to finish with an average speed of around 20. The single track was perfectly groomed and as grippy as usual. More hills on the fire trails than I remember but when its only 50k its not that hard to push on as the climbs don't last that long.

Unlike Gazza I turned up and raced. Wasn't sure about the weather so went with long knicks and a woollen undershirt and ended up being warm despite the 13 degree day. It stayed dry the whole race and we even got sunshine for the last hour so the track just got better and better.

After all the recent rain the track conditions varied from damp to wet. The clay sections were not too bad when I went through although I am sure they would have been slipperier for the riders starting in the later waves. It was pretty easy to pick the good lines through the rock gardens, just a matter of following the orange line.
I found the road section down to the first hill bloody dangerous. Lots of people changing direction and trying to get 5 places forward before forcing their way back into the pack. Just plain stupid.

Did this race 12 months ago. Was a pretty easy day on a newbie friendly course.

After watching AROC fail to do anything right at last years Angry Doctor I didn't have great expectations for this race. There were a couple of substantial changes to the course in the weeks leading up to the race so it was hard to tell if it was just going to be lots of commuting on roads and bike tracks with some token single track thrown in or a good course.

A well organised race run by a group of people who should be very proud of the event as it was a great way to remember the impact Willow had on so many people.

I now have a new benchmark for hot. My first 6+6 so was keen to see how I backed up on Sunday morning. The Del Rio forecast was for temps in the 40s and thats what we got.

First club day and it was a lot of fun. Followed Logan on the first lap and had no rhythm so decided to slow down for a while. Started to get smother on the second lap and really enjoyed the third. Its amazing how much easier things are when your in a good rhythm with the track, even the hills are simpler and you go faster with less effort. Well thats how it felt for a while until Hatton & co came past and reminded me I was 10+ minutes a lap off the pace.

Will try and make as many of the CCOTMB club days as I can.

I decided to do this race as it was the only 100k race left in 2010 after I cramped badly in the fling. Having done two 100k races and cramped in both I was keen to try some different approaches and hopefully get through without cramps.

When they postponed the race in December due to some flash flooding I got a first hand appreciation for the level of challenge in this race during what they called a "social ride". To try and put things in perspective if the fling gets a 7 for difficulty this race is a 9 out of 10. Don't get me wrong, I love the fling and its a great race however:

With all the flooding in the lead-up to this event I was skeptical about getting to the start line. When a storm dumped 100+ ml of rain on Wednesday evening before the event the organisers sent out an email Thursday morning saying they would check the course and make a call the next afternoon.