cape epic stage 1

i left work earlier than expected and headed down to stromlo with what seemed to be some kind of mild stomach bug. it had been around for a couple of days but wasn’t enough to be a major issue.

en route the weather was pretty warm for once and the traffic was manageable due to the earlier departure. i was lucky enough to arrive with a very small amount of sunlight left – just enough to set up camp exactly where i wanted to on the front straight after transition.

after basecamp was full established i made my way up to the event centre and ran in to sasha and bigdog. they were both tinkering with their bikes. after lending sasha my fork pump i ended up not going to bed till around 11:30 which in hindsite was way too late. my stomach was feeling pretty average from dinner but i luckly fell asleep almost straight away.

fast asleep and comfy as – at around 4am i suddenly woke to water spraying onto the tent. totally confused i rose to find out i had set up camp on the lower running field where the freakin’ sprinkler system was. i rolled back in to bed and crashed again just ignoring the water.

50 minutes later i was woken again by noise, lights, talking – a hustling and bustling of people. i totally forgot the 100 Mile racers were starting at 5:00am. SHIIIIT. as they rode past my basecamp i heard one of them yelling, “some fuckers parked here” … sure enough that was ruben. about 10 minutes after they rolled out i rose, and moved the car to a more “race friendly” position behind transition.

luckily i did end up falling back to sleep again and had about another 1.5hrs sleep before getting up and prepping for the race.

breakfast was good but the stomach still hurt slightly. i plowed through it and set up some video shots [as seen above] churchy, trieu, alex and ryan turned up as i set everything up for the race. – this race was really to be a focus on transition ready for the first 7hr, eating properly and just seeing how the training was coming along.

9:00 came pretty fast as we rolled up to the line, churchy and i made our way to almost the front and were away without to much of an issue. the first section was a little nutty but i settled into a spot that was behind two riders who were both a little slower than me. it took me little bit of effort to pass them, with a focus to sit on churchy’s wheel up the 8km climb. once caught i held his wheel till the 6.5-7km mark or until i looked down at the garmin only to realise i was fully in the red zone – 171bpm. it was time to back it off or my race would end very soon.

after completing the climb i passed the observatorium and started the descent. carbo felt a little weird at this point and it wasn’t until about 2-2.5km into the descent i realised i still had my fork lockedout!!! NOVICE MISTAKE. i had to wait till there was a small gap to reach down and open up the chamber. i can even see on the garmin training centre a direct increase in speed. its that kind of shit that i need to eliminate from races.

the rest of the lap was ok but i still wasn’t really feeling the bike. i could feel i hadn’t ridden the MTB for way too long. as i passed through transition i felt strong and comfortable without any real issues apart from a small pain in my stomach.

transition was good – really good. i had a plan, i executed it well and was in and out really quickly. i drank a cup of water, swapped bottles, ate a banana + a fruit cup + a gu and opened two bars for out on course. after take off i tried to drink more but leading into the 8km climb again i did have a couple of small up-chucks in my mouth from over eating/drinking. i also realised i had carried two full bottles for the entire course on lap 1 and only drunk the front bottle so 650grams of excess weight was a bit of a fail.

i climbed well on the second lap, finding a pace and just sitting on it. i had started to settle in a bit more with the intention of a consistant lap leaving a bit in the tank for the last lap. i’d been in a bit of a ding dong battle with another rider [eric] in my category who i was starting to pull away from as we both hit the climb which was a great feeling. part way up the climb i rounded a bend only to see trieu replacing a tube?
WTF?
HE WAS IN FRONT OF ME?
i was so confused so i stopped, turned back to talked to him. he explained he had taken a wrong turn on the first lap and had made a shorter lap. during our conversation eric passed me and that spurred me on to get back into the race. i left trieu and continued the climb, caught eric and passed him – dropping him before the top of the observatorium.

i hit the descent but for some reason i just still hadn’t hit my full MTB mojo. i could have been thinking to much about everything. i was pretty concerned about fluids and food as stromlo is not an easy place to find time to take on either.

as i began the climb on the second part of the course everything went pair shaped. i don’t remember riding over anything special but a loud hissing started coming from the rear tire – the latex tube. i immediately started to think about sorting it out successfully and quickly.
i pulled over under shade first
took my gloves off and the garmin
tipped the bike up
took the wheel off and began the change
i placed the tube in with a few little hiccups trying to align it all
grabbed the C02 and set about inflating it
it went up ok – i felt the pressure
i thought it was enough but thinking back now it probably wasn’t
i tipped the bike up – mounted and started to pedal
pssssffffffff – AGAIN!
NOOOO
so i started the exact same process, this time using the tube off the seat post and this time i checked the entire tyre for any kind of spikes, thorns, sticks etc.
nothing.
i used my second C02 and began to inflate the tire but it just didn’t work, i could hear it had a hole in the tube somewhere and the air wasn’t holding.
FARRK.
i then tried with my little roadie micro pump. what a joke – i realised then my day was over. being a fair way away from transition i decided to just call it a day and walk back.

when i reached transition jarod was there with liz his wife. he looked at my wheel and couldn’t find anything wrong with the rim or anything protruding through the tyre either. then he checked the tube, and he found it did have some kind of issue at the seem. it was a dud tube.

DNF! race done. bugga

now, looking back over the last day i am really happy with where things were headed on the day. i didn’t finish but going through GTC [Garmin Training Centre] i have worked out i was 1.08km behind churchward on the first lap, then on the second lap up until the triple flats i was gaining time on him really well. i had almost halved that gap and had gained 400ish metres on him. at the time of the flats my legs were really strong. i was def going to have to eat a lot at transition for the final lap but i knew i had a fair bit in the tank to smash the final lap.

could have, would have, maybe’s etc doesn’t really matter but i was on track for top 10 position which is all i was aiming for. i also had transition down pat – apart from a bit of over eating/drinking. a great day in all with positive results with only mechanical issues.

i have ordered a full quart of stans for the rear. that bitch is going to get sorted. i’ve also ordered a full pedal rebuild kit for the girl. the speedplay on the left is kaput with o-ring hanging out and sir clip dislodged. thankfully this is a recovery week. i’ll swim and if no stans by the weekend make my time up on the MTB sat & sun with a tube in the rear.

with the DNF – i’m even more pumped. i still have the one goal of a true podium this year and seem to be on track.

ps. i LOVE stromlo
still my favorite race track of all – mornings are amazing, sunsets are as well and the course is so demanding but ever so rewarding when your in the zone clearing double jumps etc.