You Yangs Crazy 6hr

Another weekend, another 6hr race…at least that’s how it seems lately! This was not just any other 6hr race though. Held at the You Yangs, near Geelong about an hour from Melbourne, the mountain bike park offers some of the sweetest riding of anywhere. The first half of the track has some steep and tough climbs but the second half is all flowing singletrack with some monster berms to rail through and plenty of hard-pack that has your bike holding awesome speeds. Fun!

Niki and I entered in a two person mixed team and I was first up with 3 laps (about an hour and half). The race started at a relatively cruisy pace which was lucky because, with very wintry weather, my legs felt like frozen slabs of meat. I tried to pedal into it and gradually felt like I was getting some blood-flow going. After the initial steep climbs there was four of us up the front and I was happy to get a ‘sit’ on the few fire roads. We continued along, following the arrows until, a bit further along, we realised there weren’t any more arrows!

Apparently some course bunting had been pulled down and we ended up on the wrong side of a big hill before we’d realised our mistake. So we climbed back up and worked out where we’d gone wrong, having lost a big chunk of time in the process. But that didn’t really matter too much because soon enough we were on to the awesome second section of the course and the fun of the descent had me forgetting any previous frustration. Because we were at the front we lost the most time as those behind realised their mistakes earlier so we came around a fair way down in the standings and I’m guessing, a fair way down in our category.

I realised that I’d dug pretty deep that lap so knocked it back a few notches for the next two laps and tried to enjoy the trails as best I could.

Feeling a bit tired by the finish of my third lap, I was really looking forward to the end my first stint and was happy to see Niki take over the reins. I soon realised that, off the bike, it was bloody cold and soon enough I was in every warm bit of gear I’d bothered to pack with a blanket on and still shivering. My next stint came around quickly and before long I was out there, blood pumping and, amazingly, even working up a sweat.

So my laps came to an end and it was Niki’s turn to put in the last hour and a half. She rode as strong as always and we maintained our lead to finish a lap up on second place.

Despite the cold it was a fun day, the Geelong Mountain Bike club did a great job. And with a course like that, it’s hard to go wrong!

Anaconda MTB Enduro – Alice Springs

Anaconda MTB Enduro

The greatest trails out there, awesome scenery, sunny days and great event vibe. That’s what I was expecting from the Anaconda MTB Enduro this year and, for the most part, it didn’t disappoint. Although the mercury rarely got over 20 which was a let-down.

Alice is an easy place to like. The people are friendly, chilled and laid back and there are challenging mountain bike trails everywhere.

The race started on Monday and finished on Friday with a mix of stages including a 60km dirt and tar road race and a 45 second hill sprint!

Wrestling the flu coming into the race, I always knew it was going to be a struggle for me on the bike and Monday confirmed it. I started hard and maintained it for about 10 minutes before ‘puffing out’, drifting back in the field and generally feeling pretty useless. But, as the 250-odd riders will tell you who didn’t win, this race is about more than the results and I tried to keep that in my head as I struggled to maintain consistent pressure on the pedals.

Monday and Tuesday were hard work but by Wednesday I was finding my groove a bit and by Friday I was actually feeling ok, although the best finish I managed was around 12th. Matt Flemming, Adrian Jackson and Ben Mather set an awesome pace through the week with the rest of us just trying to limit the damage.

You’d have to have a lot go wrong to not appreciate how awesome the week is though. In fact by Friday I was getting into the groove of the race and just loving the trails, hanging on to wheels and sucking up that dull, fatigued pain for as long as I could. Sounds fun hey? But it was. The trails are insane, Alice is a wicked spot, if you haven’ been, go.

So I ended up 15th, rode my heart out and had a great week away. Few glitches aside – like a boring stage 4 and a few less-than-obvious course markings – the Rapid Ascent team put on another great event including a ripper of a Friday night post-race presentation.

Now where are those trails…