A bit of adventure finished off with some hot hills

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:

There aren't any hills in the fling, based on my new definition a hill is anything over 200m of climbing, this race had three.
The fling wasn't hot, 38 isn't hot 41 is hot.
The back end of the fling is only marginally tougher than the middle section, this race had a 600+m hill after the 75k stop and another 200+m hill after the 95k stop so the last 25k is brutal.
The majority of people finish the fling, in this race over half of the field in my age group got the dreaded DNF.
The descents in the fling are fast and fun, in this race the descents are on the scary side of weeeeeee.
The single track in the fling was fun but not that technical or challenging, in this race the single track is on the side of a very steep hill and is narrow with a lot of trees.
The double track in the fling was easy to ride, in this race the double track was at 1600m elevation and was that deep you had to be within 100mm of the centre to be able to pedal.

Now I didn't know all the details after the social ride in December however I did know that the locals were fast and it was tough to ride at altitude so I trained consistently over Xmas and thought I was in pretty good shape going into the race. I have no idea what Tom was thinking making this his first 100k race, its just not a race for newbies and i'm still not sure if you deserve my admiration or pity. btw Tom, who did you get your advice from before entering, did you even look at the course description and profile. As for Dion, you knew what you were getting into, why did you stop training over xmas, guess its just lucky your stubborn and tough.

We had a fun roadtrip down with Dion and Tom for company. For the record we used a towbar mounted rack for a drama free run and were able to stop frequently along the way to feed Dion's maccas addiction. I have never met anyone with such a detailed knowledge of MickeyD's food and the passion with which he explained the nutritional value of each menu item was simply awesome. Bottom line here is that if your ever on a trip to a bike race and want a guilt free maccas stop just take Dion along as he will have you believing its all good for you.

After the regulation beers and red wine for dinner we were up early for the trip up the hill to Falls Creek. We were registered and had finished all the last minute adjustments by 7:30 so had a relaxing warmup prior to the 8am start. A short road section through the resort led to a steep pinch climb that connected up to the first of the xc tracks. The scenery up above Falls Creek is spectacular and we did a loop round some tracks before heading by road across to the other side of the dam. Some more tracks along the plateau before we headed off up hill past the feed station to the highest point in the course. Was feeling ok at this stage and averaging around 18kph so tried to stay at that level of intensity which for me is about 5bpm lover than my hotlap pace.
Bounced back and forth past a few people before I started to consistently move forward around the 40k mark. Got to the start of the main descent and was still having fun. Not sure that I can do justice to the first part of the descent in words, its an overgrown double track with a lot of rock gardens and many many big branches and boulders scattered all over the place. The trees have branches over the "clean" line and there are a lot of shrubs concealing all sorts of challenges. The cleaner line was generally the side next to the cliff so when I say cliff I mean cliff, not edge of track. Every now and then you think your eyes are wide open and then you commit to a rock garden at 20+ and realise you eyebrows can actually go higher. Now we spent a while zig zagging down the mountain as it was too steep for the road to travel anything like directly down. This descent was rough enough and long enough to have your hands hurting and your arms tired.
Near the end of the first rough descent I caught two guys, passed the first without any problem and then moved to the rough line to pass the second guy. Got caught out by a large branch on an angle to the track and well concealed by the shrubs. By the time I saw it I just didn't have time to lift the front wheel so it flicked out to the left when I hit the branch. Got all crossed up and when I landed still not sure why I hit the front brake but unless someone has video evidence showing something else happened I think I did my first front wheel breaking mono and managed to wash off most of the speed before I slid to a halt with my front wheel, handlebar and right knee on the ground. After a quick smell of the lavender I unclipped, checked my knee to discover I hadn't even lost any skin so got back on the bike and caught the two guys again. Decided discretion was the safer option and waited until the the first bigh creek crossing to pass them. Did a climb or two then some smother faster descents before more creek crossings.
There was one dry creek bed that they routed the course down for a while that would have made the downhillers smile. It was like a giant rockgarden with the minimum rock size about 30cm as all the smaller rocks just get washed further down the mountain during floods. Rode this section with the mantra momentum is your friend. Passed some guys walking this section and was told afterwards that everyone except nancy boys and Yeti owners rode it. Wasn't sure if the guys I passed owned Yeti's or were nancy boys as I was just concentrating on trying to hit the middle of the next rock I needed to land on.
Somewhere around this stage my 2 * 9 started jumping out of gear and quickly became a 2 * 4. Took me a while to figure out that the rear derailer cable had delaminated and I wasn't going to see my favourite five gears again anytime soon. Tried to push on the best I could and decided to persevere for a while and try and fix it at the 75k stop.
Got caught by a few people during the next phase and on the road section as I concentrated on eating and drinking and wondered what I could do with my cable. Rolled into the 75k stop with an average speed of 18 and a few seconds after the guy who ended up finishing second in my division.
Asked the mechanic at transition if he could help with the cable and he just laughed and said if he had a couple of hours. Was feeling good so decided 4 gears would be enough, filled up with water and headed off on the next lap around big hill mountain bike park. My optimism lasted a few hundred metres where the track turned up. I could ride some sections of the first track however couldn't push 6th gear while seated on most of it so walked a fair bit. Got passed by a few people and then when it joined the public road was able to ride again. Generally I have done all of my long climbs by spinning up in a low gear so was really struggling with the cadence of 40-50. Started to get some minor cramps and was struggling to drink enough while pushing the big gear so I alternated between walking and riding for a while. Passed a few guys who were struggling more than I was. Still not sure why I didn't try the single speed approach for climbing of just standing on the pedals and churning out the low cadence. Guess it was just a combination of the 41 degree temperature and inexperience.
10k is a lot of hill and the top half seemed to be steeper so I spent most of it walking and wondering at each corner how it could keep going up. The descent was fun and the single track had a few techy bits along with the occasional uphill. Ran out of water on the way down but was pretty sure I was near the transition area so hung in there.
At the 95k transition sat down for a while in the shade while I drank water and tipped every second cup over my head. Filled up the camelback and headed out on the last lap. Not much to see or say on this lap as the climb was only 200m.

Spent a bit of time on the last lap wondering about a few questions:
1) Where was Tate, normally the mention of a hot lap is enough for him to turn up and smash out a time,
2) Would I have ridden the big hill climb if I had my 5 favourite gears,
3) Would I cramp at the dirtworks.
Not sure I will every know the the answer to these questions but it kept me occupied on the climb.

Two things I am sure about are:
Will I ever be able to climb hills on a singlespeed = no
What type of sadistic b@stard puts a 600m hill in after the 75k stop and backs it up with a 200m hill after the 95k stop. The answer to this one is Ian.

Got back just in time for the presentation. Van Der Ploeg won the open in 4:41 and the other two guys on the podium just snuck in under 5 hours. Everyone else was in the 5-8 hour range. Garry James, the reigning Aust 24hr champ and Worlds silver medalist for my age group won Masters in a solid time. All the other guys who went out hard blew up on the big hill and failed to finish. Mark Fenner was quickest at the 75k mark but blew out badly on the first lap of the hill.

Overall very happy to finish and despite taking over three hours for the last 25k ended up 7th in Masters.