The first stage has a distinct theme when looking at the course profile: up. Although everyone refers to the Croc as a pretty flat race, that’s not the case for Stage 1. The race gains the main plateau at about 20km, then hits another long climb from the 70 to 80km mark.
Well that was the original plan.
Rain of biblical proportions came in over night – repeatedly. The vibe was pretty low around breakfast. Thankfully our host Struan Lamont showed us that his valley gets more rain than the rest of Cairns, and the plateau where Lake Tinaroo is.
Pre race brew - even Graeme got one in!
Neutral out of town was pretty cruisy – really slow actually. After the regroup partway up the climb, the flag dropped officially. From here it was ok for a while. Then the pace lifted as uber Huber hit the front. The rain had increased again, and it was single file up the front. I lasted a little while then flicked Maddog through so I didn’t leave too much of a gap. I wasn’t completely toast, but a full redline effort on climb one, day one, after a week off with a viral infection seemed foolhardy. I settled in for a chat with Rene Hasselbacher.
At Morris Lake we were directed into the undercover area near the closed cafe. The Bridal Creek trail was a mess. Despite the Rangers insistence to not head up – a race vehicle was stuck. The lead group of about six were ahead, but the rest of us were neutralised. We joked, we had some tea and coffee, some euro’s wrapped themselves in paper towels, then a lot of us put garbage bags on as we got really cold. Really, really cold.
By 1pm we were off again, on a slightly modified route that would take us to the Kennedy Highway. The pace was pretty neutral for the most part. And we started off two abreast on the highway, which was silly due to the traffic. So then it went single file, then it got windy. And then echelons were forming.
Even amongst the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team opinions are mixed on this. We weren’t actually racing. But the tail end of any echelon over 4 people was out in traffic. Roads weren’t closed, and locals would not have been notified that a race would be on their highway. It was concerning too – plenty of Europeans were sitting out in the traffic coming from behind. Unfortunately most Australian drivers don’t take too kindly to that. We’ll see what the feedback is.
Coming into Tinaroo was a grateful end to the day, and it made for a long one, as we came in about 4:30pm. Pete had been around for ages, and even organised us a cabin. This a a lovely way to spend tonight, with a real bed and warm showers! We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but we’re all pretty tired after today’s neutralised stage.
Martin Wisata. Race Organiser, racer, and negotiator for riders needs