Event:
| Rider | Overall | Category | Pos. | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gazza | 19 | Masters Men | 2 | 4:54:29 |
| Michael | 23 | Veteran Men | 7 | 5:13:26 |
| Wayne | 33 | Masters Men | 5 | 5:06:01 |
| Brian | 50 | Veteran Men | 11 | 5:22:15 |
| Paul | 67 | Super Master Men | 3 | 5:33:19 |
| David | 79 | Masters Men | 22 | 5:42:13 |
| Gary | 102 | Veteran Men | 38 | 6:07:26 |
I think the race organisers did a much better job this year. The track was marked better, race central work well, access the the RSL toilets and somewhere to keep warm in the morning was nice as well.
Also, thanks to the local club SCUM (http://www.scum.asn.au/) for providing awesome single track. It would be awesome to be able to link the trails around the massive bog holes because for me these we just too much.
Anyway, come race morning I lined up at the start with Wayne and Michael and my plan was to hold them as long as possible. I knew this would most likely cause me to blow up but for the enduros this year I've only been able to stick with Wayne for the first 10kms at most.
The gun goes and we're off, Wayne shot off and Michael was about 5 in front. For the first section it was just mainly trying to stay out of trouble. There were so many sticks I was just dreading them thinking you race could be over in the first 5kms. It wasn't before long and I plucked off a few riders to then be on Michaels rear wheel. We kept a steady pace and then it wasn't long and we had caught Wayne. From here we were together for a while when a rider passes me and lets me know my saddle bag is open. I pull over to find I've lost my multi-tool and a tube. Damn, with all the bog holes I wasn't happy as the drive train wasn't sounding good.
After stopping I put in a decent effort and catch the group again. We're climbing a bit of single track when Michael had to pull over with chain issues. By this time I was also suffering chain suck. Wayne and I were pushing on. I ended being able to stick with Wayne for about 50km when we had built a bit of a gap from the other guys in our group. I was having major shifting issues and it was a real pain as I was hurting big time by now and I like to really work my gears when I'm struggling. By now Wayne had taken off and i was left just mainly using big ring to stop the chain suck.
I got to the 60km water stop, lubed my chain, got water on was off. I held a decent pace but by the time I got to 80kms I had totally hit a wall and wasn't in a good place. I struggled back and cross the line in5 hours 22 minutes. I took an hour off last year so overall I was happy.
For me the mud baths weren't fun at all and personally I think I'll skip this one next year. At least, that's what I say now ;-)
