A great day on the bike

Very relieved the weather had dried out to allow the event to be held with the trails at their best. It was however very chilly and the forecast wind worried me a bit - my slight 64 kg build doesn't fare too well in the wind.

With the temperature around 6 C I (like most riders) delayed getting ready till the last minute, I mean how do you "warm up" in these temperatures? So I lined up at the start with no warm up.

With the gusty wind I took off and tried to find a wheel. This wasn't such a good idea because I found myself chasing down the lead group of riders and I promptly blew up. I then watched most of the field pass as I wondered when I was going to start feeling ok.

Slowly I got into a rhythm but then after about 10 km started getting gut pain, probably from eating too much prior to the race. This continued until the end of the first lap and didn't slow me down so much but made it a bit unpleasant.

I totally enjoyed the second lap and felt like I was flying. Nice tracks had worn into the fire trail downhills meaning you could take them with total confidence, and if you got it right the momentum would take you half way up the next climb. I was moving through the field, overtaking 100 km riders and riders in my category, particularly through the climbs and single track sections.

With 10 km to go I looked in line for a sub 3 hour time, my aim for the day. I built the intensity for the rest of the ride, and with the garmin telling me 1500 m to go I thought I had it made.

But of course all of these 50 km events have a bonus few km. Passing the 50 km mark and still some way to go I felt the "bonus" was a bit like a dentist offering you a "bonus" root canal therapy. Got over the line in 3:02 so the 3 hour barrier remains. 29th in the category so I am happy about that.

A great event and particularly like the seeding. Lets face it self seeding never works. Although at first I was worried that My category started behind all of the 75 km riders, but in reality by the time I moved through the back end of this field they were dispersed enough so that it wasn't too difficult to pass.