The Convict 100 course is in the beautiful Hawkesbury area with Old Great North Road as its key feature. The road was built by the convicts in the 1800’s to link Sydney with Newcastle, although it was never really used which is good because it’s not the smoothest piece of road around…. Over the last month many Sydney siders were seen at Wisemens Ferry practicing the technically challenging course and making themselves familiar with the many rocky descents and climbs they had to overcome. I was lucky to be one of those riders and managed to ride 80km’s of the actual course twice before the race and was looking forward to race day.
St Albans is the home of the Convict and was invaded on Friday night by many mountainbikers and their friends. As always in these types of races the atmosphere was awesome and compensates for the ungodly early start time… 7am race start so awake at 4:30am for food and prep…
When I arrived I was happy to hear the familiar voice of Tim commentating with his sharp and witty one liners. He managed to keep me highly amused at the Highland Fling last year and it was clear he would do the same at the Convict (even if some of the jokes were recycled!!).
The female elite field was strong with Naomi Hansen and Imogen Smith travelling down from Queensland and local Jenny Fay here to defend her title. The only hope I had was if the morning chill would freeze the thighs of the Queenslanders….
Imogen Smith and Naomi Hansen, before presentation.
Soon it was clear that was not happening. We started with mens field and the pace was incredibly fast, I felt I had only just woken up all it took was a brief lapse in concentration as I looked down at my bike only to look up to see that I was being dropped… damn… I sprinted to try get back on just as one of the elite guys made an attack and I knew it wasn’t going to happen. This was going to be a long day for me. It took me a while to get back into a positive mental space but once I decided I would just try to execute the race to the best of my ability I started to relax and enjoy the riding. To the point that a stubborn puncture didn’t get me down.
In the females it was only Jenny and Imogen who managed to stay with the front pack until the first climb, very impressive. Naomi Hansen is never beaten until the finish line and managed to catch Imogen at the kayak bridge roughly 30km from home. Awesome riding from my teamie!!
Fay, victorious again at the Convict 100
I found the convict to be quite a unique course, the technical side of it comes down to having the ability to climb and descend some serious rocks which can buck you off the bike if approach wrong. The kayak bridge is another key feauture for the race – after 70km of hard racing in the legs, it gets quite tricky riding over a narrow bouncy wooden platform held together by floating kayaks to cross the river… Fortunately I had done the skills course just last weekend and managed to stay dry!!
My 3rd marathon and I was happy with how I finished, managed to eat and drink during the race and wasn’t half dead by the end, I had to be happy with 5th place. Great day out with great mates and great racing.
Many thanks for the organisers for putting up another awesome event!!
Full results are online
Results Elite female
1 Jenny Fay
2 Naomi Hansen
3 Imogen Smith
Results Elite Male
1 Shaun Lewis
2 Jason English
3 Brendan Johnston