The end of Capital Punishment.....

This event came at the end of a 3 week road trip that involved hitting up the trails and beaches at Mogo and Broulee, the Snowies MTB Festival, some high altitude training at Falls Creek, riding the East Gippsland Discovery Trail and then spending a week in the Victorian Alpine National Park, including a couple of shortish rides at Horseyard Flat and in the Wonnangatta Valley.

A good lead up from a riding point of view and some great travelling. Only downsides were a 10 hr drive out of the Wonnangatta Valley to get to Canberra on Friday and a very dusty bike that needed a bit of tlc on Friday night. Fortunately, I got a good night's sleep Friday night after noting at rego that we weren't going to climb up Dairy Farmers Hill this year......

As it turned out, we did. After shivering away at the top of the arboretum for the (unreasonably?) early start, we were told at the rider's briefing that the originally proposed tracks had some dangerous ruts and so we were going back up the hill. Sounded a bit like last year's story, and maybe they were last year's maps at rego. It was their last event after all.

Enjoyed the views on the way down to the start, with multiple balloons taking to the air down near the lake as part of Canberra's long weekend festival. Didn't see much of the views after that. Managed the hill better than the previous year and crossed the top about mid pack in the third start wave before settling down for the fire trail / bike path slog to Stromlo. Had a bit of trouble getting a rhythm on the sniggle once I got there (tired? dark tint glasses too early in the morning? poor technique?) and then got passed by a few on the way up Stromlo. I expect that, but felt I was going pretty good, keeping the HR in a reasonable zone for that early in the race.

Got passed by a few on the way down again, which doesn't happen so much. I figured that maybe yes, I was a bit out of rhythm, or maybe I was just a bit further up the filed than usual? The latter view was supported by the fact that there were very few folks stopped at the feed station, with most riding through and re-feulling on the fire trail slog up to the next bit of sniggle. Swapped places up and down for the rest of the race, feeling good on the flowy sniggle and even on the fire trail climbs, but still struggling with rhythm and technique a bit in some of the rockier bits.

Crossed the line about 11 mins better than last year, significantly higher in overall placings and up a couple of spots in Super Masters, in my last year in that category. However, the track seemed a bit shorter than last year (45km - though the Garmin does tend to under-read distance in tight sniggle). The winners were also a few minutes faster than last year. There also seemed a few less riders, so I'm not really sure how to interpret the outcome.

Other than to say that it was fun, and that I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to hit it up in Grand Masters next year. But 2016 is starting to look like the year of the knee replacement anyway.....