Kona Otway Odyssey: Naomi’s tale

The Kona  Otway Odyssey is reputed to be the ‘toughest’ 100km mountain bike event in Australia and I believe it to be one of the best organized. The Odyssey is held annually in a quaint (aka. sleepy so don’t expect pre dawn coffee and the pub stops dinner at 8pm) seaside town in Victoria called Apollo Bay. The trails and the scenery are breath taking, that is if you have any breath left after experiencing them at race pace.

The women’s elite field is tight but very talented as it takes a very special psyche to actually register for this race. I can only muster the courage to ride the Odyssey alternate years, completing the Odyssey in 2008, 2010 and now 2012. I say ride as the girls that race and podium in this event are super strong and fearless, I am not so sure I can place myself in that category. I can climb but descending and smashing through single track at speed are skills I have yet to master. But as the first major race with my new Subaru-MarathonMTB.com Team – how could I resist?

The women’s race this year was nothing to be sneezed at with seasoned campaigners like last years winner Peta Mullins, Mel Jackson (sister to the infamous Adrian Jackson), local rider Jess Douglas, Rebecca Locke and the wild card, French AR racer and recent XPD world champion Myriam Guillot, just to name a few…No wonder it takes me 24 months to entertain the idea of googling Rapid Ascent and clicking on the Odyssey registration link.

This year was destined to be tough as Peta had a title to defend following her boost to number one last year, after Gracie Elvin received a time penalty post race. Jess was more determined than ever to claim a local title following her retirement from the 24 hour arena. I don’t think any of us expected the little French girl Myriam who, after a casual ‘when do we start?‘ at the base of the first climb then proceeded to take the women’s field to school.

Hill climbing 101 was delivered by the rider from the part of France that borders with Spain (the Pyrenees!). Needless to say the little French girl gained the QOM title, in style! The race was on with Myriam out of sight, Peta and myself chasing as best we can with Jess and Flick not far behind.

Now Flick (Felicity Wardlaw) turned about to be somewhat of an anomay herself. Around 18 months ago Flick took up mountain biking following a knee injury that thwarted her running and hampered her tri career, many would say a blessing in disguise. Last year Flick raced the Odyssey will all too familiar single-track riding nightmares, placing 9th in the women. A year of focussing on this weakness with some intensive white knuckle descending sessions and she is on the podium in 4th with views to the world 24 h in 12 months time.

So true to form I struck out on the descents and lost sight of Peta and Jess only to be joined by Flick and Mel, the womens’ elite field often elude to a very social race atmosphere. Mel is another mountain biking goddess with great genes for biking, mother Caroline Jackson and brother Adrian Jackson, but a job that is somewhat inhibitive. She should never be underestimated as she has the ability to climb and descends like a demon. Unfortunately while on the red carpet ride (after smashing past me with flick hot on her heels) Mel was startled by a random photographer and tacoed her wheel. I had money on her winning the timed descent, damn her!

Maybe this is a little lame but at this stage in the race I know I am no longer racing and resign myself to enjoying the trails and getting out of every other riders way. Ahead of me the battle was on as Peta managed a gap on Jess through the single track and took advantage extending to a 4 minute lead by Forrest. Myriam was not as strong a descender as she was a climber and drifted to third position. Flick grabbed a hold of fourth and did not let go while I ‘zimmer framed’ my bike through the remaining kilometers to the best of my ability making a real effort to stay upright!

So that was Kona Otway odyssey 2012 from the elite women’s field.