Jacks Ridge XXX, in northern NSW’s coastal town of Nambucca, has been steadily increasing in popularity year after year. The lap-based marathon takes in almost all of Nambucca’s Jacks Ridge trail network, a 13.5km loop repeated 8 times for a total of 108km race distance (or 90km if, like me, you have a GPS unit that prefers to straight line almost every switchback on the course).
The course itself cannot be described as particularly hillacious, with around 100m elevation per lap it’s not a course that separates the mountain goats from the flat-landers. What it lacks in elevation, however, it makes up with sheer amount of RPM’s required. The longest climb is easily less than 2mins, and the remainder of the course is undulating climbs and descents, with around 90% singletrack punctuated by short sections of blisteringly fast fireroad. Without any climbs—ergo long descents—the whole course was an exercise in cornering and pedalling with the occasional pinch climb to punch you out of the saddle. Despite the distinct lack of recovery, the course was fast and flowy with nary a technical feature, but with so many corners it would be easy to come a cropper after weaving around the course at near-threshold for several hours.
Race time at Jacks Ridge XXX
The Sunshine Coast’s elite rider Ethan Kelly (aka the most travelled full-time working mountain biker in Australia) made the trip down from the Sunshine Coast off the back of his World Cup debut for 2016 in Cairns last month, as did the posse of Two Wheel Academy riders, making for some blistering lap times and stiff competition.
A small field of elite women meant I ended up spending the whole race riding with the blokes. After the start bell was donged, the pace was cracking, soon becoming unsustainable for a few of the riders I was racing with for the first few laps. Smooth corners made for less pedalling and ‘free speed’ and by about lap four a couple of riders had pulled away in front with many more blowing the doors off behind. I found myself in the place no-one likes to be in: no man’s land.
With the iPod dead, the mid-race experience was just tolerable. Being acutely aware that eating only caffeinated gels was probably not going to do me any favours, and with a sparsity of food packed in general (due to my lacklustre organisational skills and realising last second that we had run out of race food), I began to feel the hurt about lap 5. A quick shot of espresso had a deleterious effect on lap times as during lap 7 and 8, the lack of food, the excess of caffeine, the cold I had been fighting, and a blister the size of a ten-cent piece had chipped away at my morale more than I would like to admit. On the plus side, the legs were ok!
In the last hour the gut cramps began. Dealing with snot, a blister and sore legs would have been manageable. Dealing with snot, a big fuck off blister, a lack of food and epic gut cramps was not.
Going into the pain was ineffective this time, I simply had to keep the legs turning over and distract myself to coax myself around the corners while trying to restrain myself from vomiting. Lapping the remainder of the women’s 108km field on the last lap I just had the thought “get it done” going through my head. It was one of the less pleasurable experiences I have had in a race, but a win regardless; a smidgen under 5hrs and a solid day of hurt into the legs in the lead up to XCM World Championships.
Congratulations to Ethan Kelly on his win in the men’s event in a time of 4:33:56, 12-minutes ahead of Kerrod Parker in second, followed by Peter Marshall rounding out the podium in third. In the women’s race, Gympie’s Anne Alford fought valiantly for second place in front of super mum Rebecca Stone; it looked like a close race until Rebecca took a forced baby-feeding break mid-race.
The organisers put on an exceptional event; fun, family-friendly and accessible. There was a huge array of riders in attendance: from Australian champions, and elite riders to and mums and dads and little tackers, all out for a bit of a hoot on some fun trails. A coffee van and sausage sizzle meant that all the important boxes were ticked. A myriad of local bike shops and businesses were at the event and supporting with prizes.
Jacks Ridge XXX was an unarguably soul-destroying course even with the lack of climbing; a definite test of toughness. The relaxed, friendly atmosphere that tends to accompany club-based east-coast mountain bike events meant that though amongst the sandy coastal singletrack, I was far from a local yet still felt at home.