My Fling

After a Winter of constant colds in our house thanks to the ankle biters I finally managed a 4 week uninterrupted lead up to the Fling. All was good until the day before when I took the bike for a shakedown run before we left for the southern Highlands only to find a piston in my rear calliper wasn't retracting. Hardly surprising with all the wet weather training I've done lately but definitely not ideal so close to the race. After a trawl through the garage panic set in when I realised I didn't have a spare handy. Eventually I found a solution and off we went to a mates place on the other side of Sydney to rip a brake off his bike then off to the Highlands.

My race strategy was to spin the first loop, cruise until I got over halfway hill, then smash it. My mate Ant had been training hard and was out to beat me so my plan was to have my wife keep an eye on him at the transitions and to keep plenty of fuel in my tank to nail him over the last loop. I was also conscious of the need to not turn myself inside out as I had to rush home after the race and get the family on a plane for our holiday in Noosa.

The first loop was so uneventful I can't even remember it. My wife confirmed Ant hadn't come through yet and i decided to abandon my water bottle strategy at this point and throw on a Camelbak as it felt like it was getting a bit hot. Off I went into the 2nd loop and was caught in the single track by a hard charging Matt Flemming. He had quite a gap on the following group of elite riders as they didn't catch me for another few km but when they did they sailed past like my brakes were on.

My race strategy paid dividends when I got to the big climbs in the 2nd half of the loop. There have been times these climbs on fatigued legs have reduced me to lay down in the foetal position sucking my thumb calling "mummy" but not this year. I smashed them and stepped up the pace. My only incident occurred in the boring 'outer limits' section while out on my own I came across a large red bellied black snake. I rode past his tail within striking range and he had his head raised giving me a good look. I screamed like a banshee as I rode.

At the next transition I refilled my water and was comfortable now that I was still in front of Ant and had plenty left in my legs. This last loop is normally just a sprint to the finish and quite boring but this year a whole heap of excellent single track was included with some decent climbs as well as the 'roller coaster' run in reverse which meant some good pinch climbs. I was so glad i had taken it easy early on as these sections would have been a nightmare on tired legs. I made up a ton of places in the last 20km as there were bodies littered everywhere on the hills. I had a grin from ear to ear riding the roller coaster and the new single track.

The Wild Horizons crew put on another great event and I believe this was the best course yet and my FRM performed flawlessly. My only disappointments were that I had taken it too easy early on and finished knowing I probably should have done sub 6hrs and Ant was a big letdown finishing in over 8hrs. I can only assume while he had been training hard he must have stepped up his Coke & chocolate consumption which offset his hard work.