3 Ring Cricus

We decided to camp out the night before and I wish I rode the 20km night ride - looked like heaps of fun.
Come race morning it started drizzling and continued to for the whole race.
I was initially thinking that somewhere around 2hr30min was possible after 2hr32min at the Husky. I had a good few weeks training and was feeling good. After looking up some past results from others on here, I changed that to 2hr45min and ended up with exactly that.
Why was this race harder (or slower times) than other 50km races? I had ridden Wingello before and put in around 60km solo so I thought it was all pretty straight forward............
I didn't realise how much of a toll the hills take when pushing harder than normal.
After a pretty bad start and getting caught in heaps of traffic, I finally got a bit of clean air by the end of the 1st loop but had really pushed trying to get clear.
Had a pretty good run through the red loop and made up a few places but just got a few twinges of cramp on the last climb before transition.......didn't manage to ride the wall either.
First climb on the yellow and the cramps came - managed to still ride everything but I was slowing down big time. Rode the whole yellow loop solo - was passed by a couple of groups that I tried to hang on the back of but couldn't keep up. Picked off one rider right at the end - he looked terrible but rolled over the line.
Track was in good condition considering the rain.
Good organisation by Wild Horizons.
And I managed to put 4 min into my mate who thought he had my measure!
Will be back for sure.