MTBO SS-3 Penrose State Forest

It was back to the Southern Highlands and Penrose State Forest and it was a perfect day for riding, sunny, clear and a slight cool breeze.

I'd ridden about this forest a couple of time now so I felt confident that I could put together a pretty good time today, but that bloody course setter had other ideas. What was scheduled as a 36km long course, ended up being closer to 50kms (without the self inflicted additional mileage). It start out easy enough, pretty open and nice long sections, some hills but nothing to stop you in your tracks (coming out of control 5 was a challenge). It wasn't until the later section that, the hills just wouldn't stop, and there was a lot of criss crossing tracks you had already done. I think that made the day seem longer too.

There were three critical mistakes i made that cost me time, but it was something that I'll know for next time.

for the record, I did finish and wasn't last (but not far off it :-) ).

23 Chan Peter MDN 252:33min

Official Results


Sorry, my camera broke this mooring so no pics for the moment.

Happy trails.

Dirtwork 07

The dew was heavy on the ground and you could taste the moisture in the air. At 5:00 my alarm went off, time to get ready. The day had finally arrived, “Dirtworks 07”, a century of dirt lay ahead of me. Now was this going to be a repeat performance of the “Highland Fling”? Was I going to blowup 40kms into the day and suffer the remaining 60km, only time would tell. I had a set myself 4 goals for today, 1. Finish in less that 7hrs, 2. Don’t come off, 3. Don’t cramp up and 4. Don’t cry :-)

The elite riders were sent on their way at 6:30, these guys and girls are machines, they just eat this course up, in gulps, where I just seem to nibble a bit here and there. With so many riders for the 100km ride they sent us off in groups of 40-50, I was sent on my way in the 3rd group. The first couple of km’s are always take a bit to warm up, it was not until the 13km mark we hit the first big climb of the day, and with in 30seconds, my heart rate went through the roof, so knowing that I had 80 odd kms to go I decided to just walk the bike up the hill, OMG capitulation already!, what will the rest of the day hold.

But once I got to the top of the hill, it was nice to get back on the bike and get some speed again, the first thing I noticed was how great the view was, we had reached the ridge line and were traveling along it. It was now a matter of riding along it for the next 50kms, undulating but ridable. Even if it meant getting into granny gear, I rode all those hills. We ended up on the “Great North Walk” for a bit then headed back down to the valley, and across a pontoon style bridge (72km point) Gary (MaxAdventure’s) had rigged together.

The next phase of the ride was to be the sting of the day, the last 25kms, was to include killer climbs and pinch turns, sand traps, more climbs and sand traps, did I mention the climbs? Here I lost about 30-40mins as my legs gave up on me at times. The last decent into the valley was a wild ride, not technical at all, but fast, very fast! I daren’t take my fingers off the brakes as I wasn’t sure I could have stopped or even slowed down enough to stay on the road/track. The last 8kms on the road seemed to take for ever, but when I saw St Ablan’s all the pains and aches left my body as I rode across the finish line in 8hrs 12min. Not quite under the 7 hours I wanted, but certainly less than the 9:15 of the highland fling and the 10:30 the last rider would eventually clock up. Anyway, it gives me a goal for next year :-)


100kms, 8hr12min.

FinalPos
455 (total 545)
RaceNo
393
OverallTime
08:12:55
First50K
3:32:35
50KPos
438
Sec50K
4:40:19
Pos
453

Official Results





More to come watch this space.