The basics of the chart below shows my fitness over the last 6 months in green and the training stress in orange.
I'm sure that I have meantined in several of my past blogs that I love to ride the trails in Taree and it is always special riding with all the locals that I know so well cheering each other on around the track.
The race started off great as I went into the first single trail in maybe the top ten places. I was following a guy in front that seemed to be having some trouble with his chain bouncing of the chainring every now and then. I rode at a safe distance so when it did bounce off & I had time to brake hard & avoid hitting him. Unfortunately not all riders think the same & as we rode up a steep pinch over some roots his chain came off & I was hit from the rider behind me, bending my rear derailer, putting my gears way out of sync. After stopping several times on the first few laps I ended up bending it back close to where it was meant to be & the gears were working near fine again.
The track had been dry & dusty days before the event and a little shower of rain the night before racing making it grippy and fast for the first few laps.
A few hours into the race the track was gradually drying out and loosing its grip, making it quite slippery into some of the corners. A few times I found myself sliding off the track narrowly missing the trees until around half way through, where I was told that I was in second spot with the leader just in front, I started to pick up the pace, until next minute I come into a corner a little hard and slid all the way to the ground still clipped into the pedals and holding onto the the handle bars landing on the hard packed ground in the middle of the trail.
With three minutes to go as I passed the start/finish area I could not pass up the opportunity in going out for another lap as light rain was falling and making the trail grip again. I made the most of the last lap by taking all the B lines to see what they were like, as well as riding over a car that was ramped on the side of the race track that I had missed checking out every lap.
Congratulations to Jason English & Alissa Rogers for the overall solo wins
- Heed the day before to load on Carbohydrates and keep hydrated
- Perpetuem during breakfast 3 hours before and in the car to the event
- A Hammer bar and Hammer gel 1 hour before start
- 12 Hammer Gels and two Hammer Bars during the event washed down with 5 bottles of Fizz endurolytes
- 2 more bottles of Fizz endurolytes after the race and a Hammer Vegan Protein bar
- A Chocolate Hammer Recoverite with dinner at home
- Check out the sponsors links on the side