Mugglechops wrote:Well the Fling was tough. I cut the last stage out as I was knackered.
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Still turned out to be 94kms and I improved my NPCCI score by 0.40
How did you go Shane?
Good effort considering a couple of weeks ago you where to sick to ride.
I was pretty happy with
my ride. My only problem was my rear tyre. Started the day tubeless and all was going well until a bit after 50km when I got a puncture. Stopped and put it to the bottom, seamed to seal so I continued on. Only lasted a few minutes before it opened up again so I stopped and gave it longer to seal this time but it didn't hold again. Decided it was time to put a tube in. Fitted a tube and pumping away for ages thinking this hand pump sucks, taking forever to get any pressure. Sure enough there was a leak where a previous puncture repair had failed so it was time for the second tube. My pump really did suck at getting decent pressure, not helped by the previous pumping wearing me out, but I thought I had enough pressure to keep going and maybe top it up at transition with a floor pump. Well I was wrong, the little creek crossing just before halfway hill I pinch flatted and things kept getting worse. With all the sealant now on the tube getting it clean enough for a patch to stick was difficult and I only got about 50 metres up the hill before I was flat again. Spent ages trying to get one tube to hold air. Ended up getting some elastoplast out of the first aid supplies to hold the patches in place. By this stage I'd used all my patches but was given another by a kind passer by.
That got me to within the last 10 km of the stage when the tyre went flat again. No worries, not far to transition and it's a slow leak, I'll just pump it up and ride on. Leaked faster this time and in another couple of kilometres I was pumping it up again.. and again.. until with about 5 km left it was leaking as fast as I could pump it so I rode on a flat into transition. There I was greeted with the bad news that they had no tubes. Thankfully another ride gave me a patch kit and I set about patching tubes to get one to hold air. A few more patches later and I had a tube holding air again and it was off into the last stage. Thankfully that saw me through to the end. So a couple of lessons for next time. Firstly no more patched tubes as spares. The one that had failed had previously been used on the bike for a couple of months without issue but within the two weeks since going tubeless it had come undone while sitting in my saddle bag. Secondly, it's time to get some CO2 canisters or a better pump, maybe both. Enough air in the good tube and I wouldn't have pinch flatted and could have made it without having to resort to patches.
So how was the ride other than that? The forecast rain hadn't come so the conditions where still quite dry and dusty. Made for some fun fishtailing through some fast sandy sections as well as bringing new meaning to the term "eat my dust" as at times, particularly in the early stages when everyone was bunched up, you'd find yourself riding into the dust cloud created by the rider in front. It took a few kilometres for the field to settle out and from there I set about trying to cruise through the early stages rather than push too hard to soon. Was working well and I was feeling comfortable as well as holding a faster pace than my initial plan. The course in the early sections was definitely faster than the Wingello section I'd ridden a few weeks earlier.
Through the first transition and I actually got stopped by the train that the 5 minutes to get between transitions was introduced for. It was still a cruisy ride to make it just under the 5 minutes and head into stage 2. It was some more comfortable cruising before the singletrack started. That's when I started feeling it, so much harder work in the single track but having plenty of fun and still comfortably ahead of my initial 10 hour target time, in fact I was sitting closer to to a 6.5 hour pace but I knew it was still going to get tougher from here and the average was sure to drop.
I reached the wall that had beaten me last time and did much better this time, I'd made it past the water bar and was looking like I could make it when I heard the sounds of the elite riders coming up behind. A couple of checks behind me and there was no way I was getting to the top before they caught me so I moved over to give them the good line up and that was my climb over. I'd made the hardest part but once I moved onto the rocky edge I couldn't straighten up and keep going. I was at least thankful they'd caught me hear and I was able to get out of the way without holding them up rather than in some section of single track where it could have been a lot harder to get out of the way.
There was only the occasional rider to get out of the way of on the single track then at the 50km mark and I was on a short section of fire trail between the single track when Jenny Fay made her way past on her way to make it 6 from 6 wins for the Elite Female in the series this year. It was on the next section of single track that I managed to get the puncture. Probably from moving into the bush one time to let a faster rider through.
The next challenge on the list would be halfway hill, a section that was closed on my last ride of Wingello. It turned out to be not as bad as I was expecting. Yes it was long and slow but not as challenging as some of the shorter but steeper climbs along the way.
It was in the final stage on the private property section that I would find the course most challenging. A section called the Roller Coaster saw me come to a sudden halt as I cramped on one of the uphill bits. Somewhere else in that single track a short sandy uphill also brought me to a stop as the front dug in and rear started spinning. Then Brokeback Mountain, a winding path worn into a grass hill was another slow, energy sapping climb. By the top I was pretty stuffed and just rolled through much of the next bit of single track while I recovered.
By this stage I was starting to contemplate what to do at Your Call and lost count of the number of times I changed my mind over whether to try the steep was or not over the next few kilometres. When I arrived it just seamed instinctive to go left and head up the steep bit, after all, if I could just crawl up it in granny gear it should still be quicker than the longer flatter way. It was surprisingly not as tough as I expected either. Apart from a loose rock causing my rear to slip sideways, bringing me to a brief stop I was able to ride it more comfortably than many other sections of the course.
That was the last major feature and from there it was a fairly straight forward run to the finish, with one final little bit of single track in the few hundred metres the only thing to slow progress other than tired legs.
So I crossed the line still comfortably under my initial 10 hour target with an official race time of 8:58:14.8.