Ya shoulda been here last year....

I think I must have been born a year too late…..

I missed last year’s initial reverse Convict due to a prior travel commitment. I had given up doing the 50km version a few years before due to it feeling a bit boring so I knew I had to give the new 68km version a go this year. I would have been a few months too young for the “Grand” masters last year, but after looking at last year’s results in the 68km version, I thought that if I could get in under 5 hrs I’d be reasonably competitive in my new age category. But that was last year’s results….

This year, I got all serious and made a couple of trips up to the area to suss out the Jack’s Track climb and the Sheppard’s Gully climb and the techy section, which I hadn’t ridden for a few years. I also did a bit of training, especially on hills, which are my weakest point.

I did a reasonable warm up, so much so that I was stuck at the back of the start chute for the off. This wasn’t too much of a problem given the timing system, and I was able to get up into the front 20 or so of the last bunch without too much trouble and keep a good pace on the dirt road, until the river crossing. This was the first of many sand encounters for the day. Despite a slow crossing, I still hit the bottom of Jack’s Track with an average speed well into the 20’s and, although I had a few walkies on the way up, I crested the summit and turned onto the Womerah Range Track with an average speed still above 15kmph. I started to think that if I could keep the average up over 15 I could get well under the 5 hr target, so I stopped for a quick gel and then pressed on pretty hard. There were a few hairy little downhill sections, but mostly this section is pretty quick and generally trending downhill.

After my walk of shame through the water at the Canoe Bridge in my last Convict 100 km version (in 2010 – the rule that year was ride the narrow bridge or walk the water), it was great to hit that wider bridge with enough margin for error to enable a confident crossing. There were still a few interesting bits towards the end, where the planks weren’t well joined, but I cleared it OK and headed off on the washboard corrugations towards Sheppard’s Gully. That climb was just a slow steady spin for the most part, with a bit of a levelling off in the top third. Stopped again briefly for a gel before hitting the last pinch and the white gravel climb along to the best bits of the OGNR.

I was reasonably happy with how I went on the techy sections. The slightly damp weather meant that sand had been tracked over many of the rocky bits, but the reduced traction in a few areas was more than offset by being able to see a much clearer line that when I’d been up there the previous week. Still ended up walking a couple of uphill sections where my tech skills (and / or strength / fitness) weren’t up to the level required to negotiate the ledges and gaps. Managed to pass a few people on some of tech-ier downhill bits, at least partly due to scoping some lines on the previous week’s recce.

Stopped at the 8-mile turn off feed station as I was feeling a bit hungry and was not liking the idea of another gel. Wolfed down a couple of bits of banana and took off again. There were quite a few frustrating little uphill pinches on this section (with plenty of speed sapping sand at the foot of each), but soon enough the track pointed seriously down and the brakes on the Niner got a real good workout. In a few places it was a bit like skiing in powder snow with random loose rocks. Once we hit the bottom, it was frustrating to be heading upstream for quite a while before crossing a bridge and linking up with the 100km track again for the run back downstream to Settler’s Rd and then back into St Albans. A bit like the City to Surf finish that is being changed this year!

Was able to keep a pretty good pace on the road sections and hit the finish only a few minutes over 4 hrs. I was pretty stoked with that time, but of course things had moved on since last year. Despite smashing last year’s Grand Masters winning time by about 40 minutes, I still only managed 6th in this year’s edition. Only just over 6 mins out of 3rd place mind you, but well behind the legend that took out the category.

Time for a rest before thinking about some more races…..