Sorry about the delayed race report! Things have been a bit hectic lately, with an impending European racing trip and Cairns world cup within the next few weeks. Two weekends ago I set up a double race weekend with a Melbourne Northern Combine road race on the Saturday and the wombat 50km mountain bike race on the Sunday. Things weren’t looking good earlier in the week. With heavy rains, it was looking like the wombat might be drowned! Luckily Maximum Adventure decided that slight changes in the course would be achievable and the race could go ahead. That was one obstacle down, now I just had to get through the road race!
This paragraph isn’t going to be long. My ‘race’ was over after about 30km when I meandered off the front on a climb and was subsequently dropped after being caught by the bunch and stuck out of position. Then it was time to team time trial 50km home with another guy. Not really a good ‘race’ but was still good training.
I was eager for Sunday’s race, with people posting pictures of swimming pools where the Wombat tracks once were! The race was delayed slightly after some locals moved some track signage to exert their dominance in the area.
This meant the rider on the front lead the pack the wrong way and we did an extra 5km start loop. The rider may or may not have been me…
Due to workers needed elsewhere there was a lack of officials at the start, which meant arrows from the 100km start were still up. This meant the rider on the front lead the pack the wrong way and we did an extra 5km start loop. The rider may or may not have been me… We were now warm at least. Unfortunately we had to wait for 2 waves of 50km riders to start before we could go back to the start line and go again. I had a much more reserved start the second time around. Slotting second wheel until we hit a climb/rise/undulation where I attacked. Yesterday’s road efforts had taken the zip from my legs though and a select group brought me back. I upped the pace a bit coming up the single track and made sure I entered first. We had already started to catch the back of the 50km riders, and the next 15km went very slow as we made our way through the crowds. The track was very slippery and there were conga lines of people walking. I attacked a few times but would have to sit up as we entered the single track again to get around yet more riders. It was unfortunate that the main section of single track was ruined like this and I felt for the organisers as it would have been a very fun section to race.
The lead group had formed as we entered more open tracks with Sid Taberlay, Russell Nankervis and me. Sid and I were the most active with Russell sitting on – was he a coiled viper or sitting on an elastic band being stretched to its capacity? Underestimations on the racetrack usually end badly. Sid starting setting the pace on the main climb of the course and I was getting to my limit. The pace didn’t rise too much more though and onto the rolling dirt roads we were all together. Tactics started in earnest now, I knew if we were still together after all we had gone through it would probably stay that way to the line. I was also too fatigued to really do anything anyway so the next 15km was all about false tempos and sitting on. The last section of the course had a lot of big 4WD ruts that were filled with water and very hard to gauge. You would come into the section very fast and have a split second to decide to go left, right or straight through. Sid had a few goes at going straight through and would gain a gap over us as we slowed down to go around. One particular rut had very dark water and I decided to go right and Sid went straight through. Or to be more exact straight down! He was alright though and we carried on. At the 5km to go sign we entered our unofficial start loop that we had done earlier, which turned out to be a bit of a blessing in disguise as it gave us an idea of the finish. Up the last climb Russell lifted the pace, I got on his wheel and we left Sid behind. I knew I needed to be in front coming into the last corner after watching a previous edition of the race. But of course these things are easier said than done at the end of a race! Russell held his position and took the win with me in second and Sid third.
Overall it was a fun weekend and even with the misfortunes for the race organisers, it was still a good race. It was great to meet up with my teammates and look forward to racing with them again when I get back from Europe.
Things are about to get very busy for me, with the Cairns World Cup coming up very fast, which can be seen on SBS 2 over the weekend (April 25–27) and of course on Rebull.Tv, and then onto Europe!
http://www.strava.com/activities/129743616