Mild 60

As others have noted, it was a mild to warm day in Wollombi for this race this year. The temperature had reached 28C by the time I crossed the finish line about 11.30am.
The format had reverted to the original one of either a 60km, a 30 km or a 15 km loop after a flirtation with longer distances last year for the XCM series.
I decided to do the full 60 (58) instead of the 30 (seemed hardly worth getting up at sparrows' and driving up there to do 30 km!), along with 215 others.
However, the 60km format meant that in addition to the two big climbs that were in the 45 km version last year, there were a series of little pinches from the top of the second climb through to the Finchley Trig area, making for 1600m of climbing all up (pun intended....).
I struggled a bit on the first climb, which was the steepest. When I first got down to granny gear, there was a woman walking in front of me who was walking faster! I walked a bit myself after that......
Once I got onto the second climb, it was a steady grind, followed by a section which seemed to involve a series of big ring descents, sand pits and granny gear climbs before Finchley Trig saw the road heading more steadily downhill, allowing me to keep a bit more momentum on the shorter ups.
Then there was the final plunge down into the valley, topping 70 kmph, before 15 or so kms in big ring along the valley back to Wollombi.
Was hoping to do about 3 hrs, so was pretty close to that and happy with the time.
A bit like the 3 Ring Circus, I think the 60 km distance attracted the 100km and 50 km fields. The front end was notably lacking in big names, but compared to the 45 km version last year I drifted outside the first 100 overall and blew out from 6th in category to 21st, despite being on only a marginally slower pace than last year over the longer distance.
Maybe I'll have to think about the 30 next year....