Tougher than expected

That was harder than I expected. Because it was relatively flat, you were on the gas pretty much the whole time.

It was hard to carry a lot of speed through the corners because of the dust and quartz gravel made the surface really loose for much of the singletrack, and you ended up using the brakes quite a lot through the twisty bits. kiwiphil and I did a reconnaissance run of the first 25km loop on the Saturday arvo, and I had four or five half-loses, which was sobering. Phil told me later that he was the same. It took us 1:30-odd to do that lap, and we didn't hold back that much, treating it as a pre-race warm-up, so I was thinking that inside 3 hours would be a good time.

The following day the weather was great, and the 100km guys took off an hour ahead of us. I was expecting the track to be quite cut up but I found I was more in control. Not sure if that was because I was riding more within myself or the 100km guys had cleaned the track a bit - probably both.

The sprint was manic. I was on the back of a group of about 20 or so leaders. With the fine talcum-powder dust it was impossible to see. I heard someone stack behind me - I think it was the girl who lined up left of me at the start. So I let a small gap form and led the second bunch through the singletrack until we turned onto the fire road at about the 30 minute mark. I managed to get a gap with one other guy behind me but dropped my gel, and fumbled the thing trying to get it open without littering and the bunch went past and I slipped off the back.

There was a guy in a red shirt that I kept on swapping places with for most of the race. I'd get him on the climbs, he'd put 30 seconds on me in the twisty singletrack. So that's obviously something to work on. Part of that might be tyres, but most is probably technique. I finally got past and held a gap, but part of my plan was to stop at the 25km mark and top up the hydration bottle with more Endura, and at that time he went past me. Bugger!

In contrast to the pre-race reccie I only scared myself once during the race. I had a big front wheel washout on a long left-turn berm in the second half that felt like it went for a second and a bit. Somehow the front grabbed again and I stayed off the deck.

Red shirt appeared in the distance in the closing stages and I managed to reel him in just as we crested the last fire road climb. I'd felt the twinge of a cramp at the start of the climb but managed to keep it away by dropping a gear and keeping the heels down. Mission accomplished in getting into the singletrack ahead of him this time, but unfortunately he went past me again when the track opened out briefly, and I have no idea how he stayed upright in the loose gravel and dust as it twisted between the trees. The track leveled out and I tried to pull him back but bobbled on one of the muddy sections and had to dismount, so he got away.

Overall I'm quite pleased with my time at 2:35:30 (roughly, allowing for pressing the button 5 seconds before they said "go!" ). I didn't have a lot left at the end. Will be interesting to see where I placed in the field when the results are posted in a day or two.