With one more race to go before heading into winter, it’s time to have a look back at the first part of 2013 and my first 6 months on the Subaru-MarathonMTB.com team.
I started my season in Australia with the Kona Odyssey in Forrest, Victoria. Amazing race, well known and loved by many mountain bikers all over Australia. A 100km event with over 50 km of amazing flowing singletrack and some long, steep climbs that left many gasping for air. I finished somewhere around 100th position, not a great result but not bad considering I left freezing cold Europe only a few weeks before the Kona. Two things I learned from this event; first, I need to work on my technical skills. In a 100km race, you need to save your energy for when it really matters but I was wasting too much energy making up for all my mistakes on the single track. Second; my fitness level was good. I felt pretty strong and kept on feeling like that all through the race, I just needed a few more big days on the bike to prepare myself for the second event, Bike Buller.
The Bike Buller MTB Festival is an event over three days with a 50km XC, a 6 hour brake burner enduro and a 20km XC on the last day. Needles to say the brake burner was my achilles’ heel with riders flying past me on the rough Buller downhill tracks. I did manage 21st in th 50km XC and if it wasn’t for a puncture in the last km’s of the 20km XC, I could’ve had a top 20 on the closing day.
In April the team had pointed out two big events, the Wombat 100 and the XCM Nationals. The Wombat 100 was a great race, I enjoyed every bit of it. My technical skills had gotten so much better since the Kona and a 20th place was a nice reward for all the training in the weeks coming up to the events. Only a week after the Wombat, I joined my teammates up in Tropical North Queensland to race the XCM National Championships. Atherton was a great location to see Australia’s top marathon riders battle for the green and gold jersey. Is was a hard race though, riding three laps of 34 km each in a tropical 34 degree heat. Unfortunately, the heat got to me and halfway I had to pull out when riding around 10th position. I had some mixed feelings after my first DNF. Sucks that I didn’t finish but I felt much more confident on the single track than ever before.
At this moment I’m training for the last race for a few months, the Dirty Gran Fondo here in Victoria. It’s a 90 km race on the dirt roads around Wandong. I’ll probably take a few weeks off the MTB after that one and start preparing for part 2 of 2013. As I write this, I’m planning my training and race schedule for June to December 2013. I know I will need to work harder on my skills over winter and I’ll need some big rides on the roadie to give me a good basic fitness. I also decided to start working with a coach again. I’m pretty good when it comes to making my own training schedules but I just need that little extra and a coach to motivate me when I need it most.
My key events for the rest of the year will be:
– The Tour of the Great South Coast road race in August
– The Flight Centre Epic and the Kowalski Classic in September
– The Melbourne to Warrnambool road race and the Surf Coast 100 in October
– The Highland Fling and the 12 Apostles MTB in November
The Tour of the Great South Coast is a five day stage race from Mount Gambier in SA to Melbourne. It should be a great way to boost my fitness levels and prepare me for the mountain bike events over the next months. I’ll also be racing at the Westgate Dirt Crits here in Melbourne and if I can get my hands on a cyclo cross bike, I might even give the Dirty Deeds Series a try!