Is this a first?

So where's installment 2?

Make sure evertything's good for next weekend mate.

The short story -
Both well and no bodily parts broken, though Gary tried pretty hard... Retired middle of the field after 6 laps (of a probable 10) of the 13k course due to Gary's technical issues and I couldn't be bothered to do another lap or two... I was average for 4 laps, Gary was a legend in adversity for two!

The long story -
Ahh the joys of getting up at 4.30 am in the morning, there is something wrong with your brain if you can say that without irony, luckily for me you may insert irony at will, getting up at that time is f$#@ed up ;-}

So starting the day grumpy, car loaded with all the gear, me loaded with small brekky, set off for the two hour drive north. Drive some, discover that it's hard to drive when your windscreen is completely fogged, twice, on the freeway, solved only by sweat inducing air conditioning! Add two hours and I'm waiting on the freeway off-ramp for Gary who can't go without his latte and is still at the motorway servo...

..which was lucky for me as I had time to look down and spot that my right rear car tire is very flat and wouldn't cope with the drive to the course! A quick stint with the track pump and all is well again. Thankfully that was my only technical issue all day, Gary on the other hand... Back at the off-ramp Gary turns up, having lost his coffee down his shorts, poetic... cut to Killi.

Coin toss at the parked cars decides that I'm first up, which in hindsight was a good thing. Isn't hindsight great! Proceed to registration, say hello to a few acquaintances and discover a mammoth queue, the race is never going to start at the scheduled 8, ends up starting at just before 9 and finishing early at 4.20, though that wasn't going to worry us, no siree.

Gary and I decided on doing two sets of two laps each and then doing alternate laps, so I start off for my first two laps in reasonable fashion. This is the first time I'd seen Killi and for a race course it's pretty good, think 13k's of the same sort of singletrack you've got at Ourimbah and you'd be pretty much spot on. Lots of switchbacks and dips, only a couple of very short hills and a couple of fast downhill bits, my only gripe being that there wasn't anything really technical, not that there ever will be on an 8 hour course I suppose, I'd give it 8/10 as a XC trail.

So my first two laps are pretty standard, average pace, I was saving myself honest, 43mins 'ish, no offs, no technicals, cut to Gary's two laps while I refuel and grab a change of clothes and a water refill. Oh and keeping the grumpy theme I really have to do something about my sore back, at the end of the second lap my lower back was really starting to hurt, I might just have to bite the bullet and go to pilates with all the bl00dy ponces...

I can't say too much about what happened to Gary, not having been there, but apparently on the first lap he was pushed into a puddle by a big kid who then stopped, kicked sand in his face, laughed at his hairy legs and ran off... Or it could be that an aggressive XC rider got a little too close and Gary had to divert left into said puddle which proved deeper than expected, whence Gary ends up face first in the mud! Still he was smiling as he passed the start line the first time. Hat's off to him too as his time for that lap was faster than my two by a good minute or two, great work!

Cut to 45 minutes later where I'm waiting at the transition area a bit concerned as to why Gary's taking a while this lap. And the reason? All became clear upon seeing Gary running down the finish straight with bike in one hand and chain in the other! Seemingly Gary's bike had decided he wasn't doing it hard enough and so broke his chain for him, twice!

OK so I'm in for another two laps while Grumpy gets his bike fixed, again average pace and another couple of 43's I think, cut to finish line an hour and a half later and no sign of Gary, wander around like a child in a department store for what seemed like minutes but was probably seconds and spot a very glum looking Gary without a fixed bike...

Gary's problem was a middle ring that would have been great for slicing through a phone book but not so hot for keeping a chain in one place/piece! And did any of the half-arsed bike shops there have a middle ring, you bet they didn't! At that point we called it off and headed home for much needed food and sleep. Admittedly I could have put in another lap or two but you may feel free to call me a lazy b@st@rdand I will take it as a compliment ;-}

Overall a pretty fun experience, if we could muster up a three for the next one I'd definitely be in. My highlights were:

- The expression on Gary's face as he stormed into transition and hurled his busted chain to the ground in disgust in front of all the onlooking racers!
- Great weather, good course, great attitude and just doing something different,
- Best team name if you're a "Deadwood" fan: (might have the place name wrong but I think it was) "Picton Soft Cogs"
- Cheers from CBD's Adam every time I passed the start line, ta mate!
- Having the biggest suspension travel, brake rotor and front tyre of any bike on the course, bigger IS better...
- Seeing the solo riders having done 7 or 8 laps in the time it took us to do 6! Including our own alchemist and a deceptively fast Hugh Flower of CBD who was running solo 5th last I saw, who knew eh?

Here's to next time,
Ta,
Matt.

first of all, sorry you had a bad day gazza, a very expensive outing

me and my mate had a fairly good day overall. We ended up doing 10 laps i think, ranging from about 42mins a lap to over an hr. We had 1 flat tyre and 1 broken chain, broken chain was so bad could not be repaired and resulted in a 3km walk/run back to the finish (hence the over 1hr lap), we had a spare bike between us so was onto the spare bike for the next lap.

I really enjoyed the course, i had it at 12.2km, it was fun flowing single track which begged you to go faster and dip the bike harder into the corners (some of which were slightly bermed), couple of shortish climbs but nothing that was painful or took too long, then when you got to the top you knew you had more single track to enjoy. No technical bits to speak of apart from a few rocky sections and a small log or 2, all the course was rideable and did not require walking. overall its definately in my top 5 course ive ridden on.

Track congestion was good once the first lap was done, slower riders moved over quickly and did not hold you up too much.

I had one stack, tried to get the bike out of a wheel rut at 25km/h and the front wheel refused, the front kind of tucked in and went down for a bit of a slide, brush myself off and away i was again, no harm to bike or body.

My mate did well considering he is lucky to ride more than 10 times a yr, and he is keen for the next one.

We did it as a pairs team, was god but you couldnt push hard as the recovery time was not long enough, so it wa s mixture of pushing/cruising etc on different parts of the track. With 3 you could go hard every lap and would have over an hr to recover for the next lap. Maybe next time.

Our transitions were poor, we were too lazy to wait at the transition zone so we waited at our gzaebo, so this added atleast 5mins a lap, or more if we werent ready to go out, we could have squished in 1 or 2 more laps if we were serious, we didnt care much as it was more comfortable for us to do it this way, and we didnt care what our finishing place was.

Overall i had a good day, atmosphere was great, all people seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Rego was shocking (was not fun waiting for 30-40mins in a queue in the cold and then the race staring over 30mins late)
Maybe they need more people doing it, only saw one person at one point, anyway it was not a big deal.was just annoying.

I should be at the next one, its at yarramundi so should be an enjoyable track there also.

Heres one of my laps late in the day (about 3pm)
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2908725

Don

I've never seen so many broken chains in a race, too much shifting under high stress on some of those pinch climbs perhaps

I'm sure I caught wiff of a conversation that someone was looking to import components.
Maybe it's me just hoping... =;o)