Davis_jnr is BIT

Well after months off the bike and pining for the dirt, i finally made it to Dirtworks.

With a little road time under my wheels i felt decidedly underdone prior to Sunday but in good spirits probably due to the great company at the church and a couple of nice Sat arvo beers.
Come Sunday morning an early rise was inevitable due to so many deciding to punish themselves with the 100km.

The race plan was to cruise and make sure I finished with no injuries and a back in one piece. By race start i was more than ready to get it over and done with, secretly i had been going over this ride in my head for some months. As the hooter went we were off and having done some time on the scummer the road section suited me to a tea, hit the big ring and put it down. The going was pretty good and managed to pass plenty ahead of me before we all hit that beautiful hill. Did i say beautiful, i think i almost threw up my heart on that one....again....same thing happened two years ago (mental note cross traning here would have helped). At the top of the hill a couple of quick stretches and i was back in good shape and off on the rolling firetrail. I managed to pass quite a few riders on the way to the 28km water stop, pulled up to fill up and reailsed that i had only had about 500ml of water....hhhmmm something wrong here! So i took on some food and tried to gulp down another 400-500ml....think i only managed about 200-300 though. Realising dehydration may hit me at any time i made sure i hit the water more regularly. The body at this stage was still feeling pretty good and with some good downhills coming along i was making ground on people hammering the downhill and using my momentum on the uphill. My uphills were gradually getting slower and as i passed a few other riders cramping my muscles started to scream, after getting off the bike once to try and stretch it out i realised i was more comfortable on the bike and less likely to cramp. More fuel and water was on the cards and i figured there was not long to go so i pulled back thinking of my ultimate goal....FINISH.
The final downhill came and back out onto the road, back in my pre race training grounds.....or so i thought....3-4km down the road my kness were feeling funny and before i knew it i was once again at the mercy of poor nutrition and my gun ho attitude. It felt like almost 10 mins passed while i paced up and down the road trying to walk off the intense pain. Back on the bike i was in self preservation mode, i figured that if i span the legs over and didnt push it i could make it....then by some miracle i came good again and was able to put some power down and within no time the St Albans was within sight.
Very happy to finish i crawled over the line to grab a well earned beer. Pretty happy with the result close to 7mins faster than 2yrs ago with no training.
Profile here for those who wish to have a look

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