Round 1 of the Chase the Sun Series was cut short due to crazy winds and freezing temperatures. Lysterfield Park, East of Melbourne isn’t renowned for its summery conditions! I missed the second round in favour of the warmth of Alice Springs so for this, Round 3 of the Series, my expectations – weather wise – were understandably low. They dropped even lower when I saw the black cloud hanging over the region on the trip from Melbourne.
But we got to Lysterfield and were greeted by clear skies and smiling faces, lots of them, apparently there was over 400 competitors on the day. There was cold wind but hey, this was Lysterfield, we were doing well! The 3rd Round was to be a 6hr race, starting at 9:30 and finishing at 3:30.
My Team Giant team mate Murray Spink was assigned first lap duties as I hung out in the tent and got ready for my time to hit the trails. It came around soon enough and I did my best to stay with the Team Torq rider – Brenton Jones – we were sharing the lead with but towards the end of the lap we hit the final climb and my legs told me enough was enough. So I dropped back a bit and the Torq guys opened up a slight advantage.
Muzza was next up with a double lap and during this time the Torq guys weren’t showing any signs of slowing. So the trend continued. I gave it all I could over my next double but the gap grew to over two minutes to the front guys.
In the end we consolidated our second position and came home happy with another fun day on the trails. It has to be said too, everyone seemed very happy to be out there that day – whether it was the great weather or fast trails I’m not sure, but the atmosphere was really something with plenty friendly chatter out on track. Congratulations to the Torq team of Luke and Brenton, those guys were flying.
The final round of the series is in a few weeks and Murray and I are going to get back there fitter and more fired up so it should be a cracker.
Forrest, about a two hour drive South of Melbourne near Apollo Bay has been promoting itself as a mountain biker’s paradise for a while now; it was time to take a look for ourselves!
We got up early, packed the car and were away by 7am for the two hour drive to Forrest. It was raining as we left and continued for just about the whole trip – it was going to be a wet race! Although when we arrived the sky was clearing and the ground drying.
With a 10am start we had enough time to register, get changed and for me to do a very short warm up before getting on the start line. Frustratingly, the organisers decided to start every solo rider before the teams, meaning that we had to get through about 100 solo riders on the trails before we could actually race!
It was annoying to say the least and meant that the first lap was a bit of a joke. Still, by the end, Luke Fetch and I managed to get a small gap on the rest as the traffic thinned. I came through fairly stuffed from the effort jumping past riders all lap and headed out for my next with a cleared track and, hopefully, a bit more fun ahead of me.
It was more fun and I came in at about the 1hr mark, two laps down and feeling ready for a rest. Niki took over then for two laps and I stocked up on food and tried to not get too cold. A big, dark rain cloud was heading our way though and as I got ready for my next three lap stint it started raining pretty hard. I was shivering hard and keen to get some blood flow going!
The next three lap stint was tough. With the rain having fallen, the track turned to a gooey mess in sections and was super-dead to pedal through. Even on some flat sections it felt like if you stopped pedalling you’d stop, there wasn’t much momentum out there. Having said that, the downhill sections were still a whole lot of fun and the general friendliness out on track was awesome. So I started the triple feeling feeling sore and finished pretty proud of myself for pushing through it. I was getting tired after that stint though.
So Niki went out for another two and I crammed more food in and lay in the back of the car with my feet up. The sun was even starting to shine through by this stage and, with only another single-lap stint to go, I was feeling good. Niki came through in flying style and I downed a can of Coke and headed out for my final lap.
This lap was the most fun of the day. Whether it was because I knew I only had to do one lap, or because the track had dryed up and was feeling faster, I’m not sure. But it was a great lap. I felt like I was flowing through the trails better than ever and I (almost) didn’t want the lap to finish.
But it did and Niki headed out for our last and to take out the win in the mixed pairs.
It was a really great race, one of the best 6hrs we’ve attended. There was absolutely no agro out on track, the organisation was slick and the atmosphere of the day really was impressive. We’ll certainly be back for more next year!
Thanks to Benjamin Culton for the pic.
Thanks to Rapid Ascent, here are some great pics from the recent Anaconda MTB Enduro held in Alice Springs
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