Tough Fun

This race certainly lived up to the billing (from punters) as best race of the year. For Sydney siders of technical riding persuasion this is surely the case as it's only an hour up the road and while Can'bra tracks are smooth and flowing Ourimbah also has a nice dollop of technical stuff to keep everyone on their toes. The work done by the local club on the track is awesome - in the Graveyard especially which now has some nice berms.

I was riding in the same team as last year (with Cupcake & Junkie) but think all three of us were on much better form and the team managed an extra lap. In fact, it's satisfying to ride the same course to compare with last year as it shows my first 4 laps came in 2h38 versus 2h56 from last year.

Didn't start as well as last year and had a bit of traffic to begin before getting in a convoy with a number of similar speed riders, which although I could probably have passed was happy to sit with and conserve energy.

Cupcake and Junkie smashed out their laps, so much so that I wasn't really ready for lap two when Junkie showed up. A bit flustered I guess didn't have the best start here and ended up sliding off the approach to the big dipper and lost a bit of time climbing back up to the top to get over on the course proper.

Aside from that mishap though, was having a ball all day. Think it was later that lap that I was caught by Dr Eggs at the top of the course and we whooped and holler'd down the Roller Coaster and the sniggle following. I somehow managed the best turn ever on the green carpet corner that lap... pulled an endo into the corner and flicked the back end of the bike round in the air before dropping it and powering off. I'm thankful Eggs was there to see it - think this is a never to be repeated feat that I wasn't even trying to do!

So this course is pretty tight in places, but the trees were mostly well behaved - had a single shoulder barge from one resulting in a little scuff on the right shoulder, and a bit of bar end action on the left (think both lap 2) but that's all. In fact, it was quiet satisfying at many points to round a corner and hear the brief rub of my pack on a tree being rounded - as I commented to Buck, how cool is it to be able to take such tight lines?!

As the race progressed it was clear a bit of rivalry was developing between our team and the Lap Dancers. Whisperer had about 30s a lap on me, team Steve was taking quiet a bit of time from Cupcake but Junkie was smashing John's times so the lead was exchanged as each of these respective pairs was on track. Thanks to the pace one from each team was going to have to ride a 5th lap and due to the order this meant I'd have to go the extra. A little unfair since the first lap (also me) was longer - but Cupcake was having none of my suggestions he go for it. So I rode the last lap thinking Whisperer or even Steve05 if they were being nasty would be on my tail any second and our little duel would be lost. Thankfully though the cramps stayed at bay for just long enough to see me home, where I almost collapsed into Hugh as he handed me a beer on the finish line. I'm not meant to drink beer, but bugger that, it went down pretty dam nice!

So it was an awesome day out for sure, but a very tough day for me. Ended up riding that extra lap after giving what I thought was everything the one before so at the eventual finish I was absolute toast. Don't think I've ever been so smashed after a race. Which is the luxury of a circuit race I suppose - you're never too far from home so you can give it your all. Out of interest, I really was trying... of the 3h19 spent on course was in zone 4/5 for all but 13 minutes. Laps 2, 3, and 4 account for only 29, 26 and 35 seconds of that! The rest is mostly on the last lap as the legs just couldn't push hard enough by then.

For the record, here's the laps:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view....
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view....
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view....
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view....
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view....