Tate Dogan rolling across the line.
The 7th edition of the Briar’s Highland Fling was everything I expected it to be: hilly, hot, and hard. Whilst it was warm, temperatures were significantly more bearable than last year, which made for more enjoyable riding, especially at the back-end of the race.
I had set myself a plan of a sub-5h time for the Full Fling, which would have been a nice improvement on last year’s result and hopefully enough to take out the XCM Veteran category. Unfortunately, it appears as though everyone came to Bundanoon with the same goal, including eventual veteran series winner Jason Morgan. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to hold off the big man as he thrived in the cooler conditions as well.
Whilst I was pleased with hitting my set time, I was less happy with my position. I would like to say that some of the disappointment of my own race was due to some trouble at my second transition and also a flat tyre in the last stage but as they say, that’s racing.
Whilst trawling through the results post race, I did make an interesting observation. The elite winners stormed home in a super quick 4h11m. Whilst impressive, this was only marginally quicker than in years gone by. It was the times of the rest of the front end of the field that surprised me.
In every year since 2006, a time of 4h15 would be close enough to be on the podium, if not the win. Similarly, 5 hours would have placed 10th overall in 2007, and 20th in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Fast-forward to 2011, and 5 hours was not good enough to hit top 40.
Is this a solid indication that the sport is increasing in popularity including attracting more international riders, or did the inaugural XCM Series attract more of the Nation’s elite? Regardless of the reason, more competition is never a bad thing.
Bring on summer, the start of a new training regime, and another crack at the Fling in 2012.