Love the Fling

I love the Fling
I love driving into Bundanoon with the bikes on the side of the road, I love looking at all the bikes on rooftops, people cruising on bikes and people excited to be there for the event.
I love the way the town seems to be all focused on the bike race for the weekend.
I have camped for the past few years and it is also such a nice relaxed vibe, set the bikes up, have a few beers, get a burger or something from the soccer club bbq.
I also like it because its usually something I ride with my brother, who is more of a triathlete than a mtber but he gives it a go.
We got to the start with plenty of time, and looking back I ended up riding most of the race in or around back and forth between the same group of people.
It was a great start through a compressed cattle run with a lot of people lining the sides, so many other races do the staggered start. This one is great because it doesn't.
The plan....was to take the first stage nice and easy and the second stage nice and easy, push a bit in the single track and have something left in the tank for the last.
I reckoned a lot of people really hammered that first stage, as i was getting passed left right and centre on the flats, it was tempting to try and keep up but the fling is such a long day.
What I really love about the Fling is the mix of terrain, some of it sucks when you are on it but it is a real tour and in this world of enduros flying around a flowing single track circuit this stands out as proudly different. I like cruising through the paddocks, the single track in stage 2 is really fun and fast, the stinking halfway hill climb and the kick and subsequent climbs that follow are pretty brutal especially on a day as hot as the one we had. The wild west and the outer limits are fun and fast.
Noone has yet mentioned the guy with the hose coming out of Wingello, he was a godsend. Maybe he was an apparition.
I kept going back and forth with the same guys, I was riding generally with my brother until just after the kick. On a single speed you tend to keep your own speed and it is hard to ride with people, he popped on the kick and I had to leave him to deal with his own pain. I sure had mine.
Rode back and forth with a mate Jos right through Wingello, we worked together for a while back into transition but he dropped off a couple of kays short.
I will never complain again about bottlenecks at the start, I think Huw in his cruelness took those complaints to heart when he planned the course (no bottlenecks this year mwa ha ha ha). There was nothing as heartbreaking at turning right out of the free bike wash rather than left and home, the worst part was my clock showed about 85 km and I thought it was going to get up to at least 112km. A long way to go.
The singletrack and then the roller coaster were tough, still yo-yoing with the same group of guys and from some of the other blogs put up a lot of those guys were nobmobbers. I could not have communicated with any sense at that point anyway.
Cramps took a hold massively climbing out of the creek at the end of the roller, duelling front thighs moving to the back when i stretched them. I had to stop on that hill and stood and watched my thighs contract and release.
I have nothing to add about the rest that hasn't been already said, now walking the climbs mostly as i couldn't stand and crank any more.
The turn out of the paddocks into the great sandy desert which was smooth as was a relief but for some stupid reason i decided to change up and do the short your call this year, clambering over the tree and having to walk the top two climby bits.
Then head for home on the bitumen, I expected something at the end and given the previous torture I felt the finish was pretty ok, I was following a guy ahead for some time and caught him on the last rise to the finish. I didn't want to pass him though, so i yelled him some encouragement and he finished strongly.
It was a brutal day out, I remember there was a post last week asking about hills in the fling, someone said there wasn't many I recall. they must have been joking.
Well done to everyone who had a go on the day, there was a really nice atmosphere on the course.
I've done 5 of these now and that was the hardest, it might have been the heat, or the way the finish was structured I don't know. I reckon i will be back.