07 Apr 2008

With Erin off injured, I was once again left to fend for myself in the state enduro series . Originally it was going to be solo effort but when I jumped on line to sign up there was in message from Duncan offering a spot on their three lady team, “Three Ladies, Riding a Bicycle”.

With the race starting at 10:30am I opted to travel up in the morning of the race with the Salsa Amigos, Simon and Carson. We arrived at Beachworth at 9:30, giving us plenty of time to get organised before the race, or so we thought. We were told that there was no parking at the race site and that we had to park 3kms away and use the shuttle service to the event. We unpacked the car and awaited the arrival of our limousine to escort us to our track side home for the next 6 or so hours. More and more cars arrived, parked and awaited the arrival of the shuttle bus, after 15 minutes we were beginning to wonder if there was a shuttle at all and began to think that this may have been an elaborate scheme our competitors had cooked up to stop us from racing, like something out of speed racer.

Some 30 minutes later after the planned start time we were off and racing up the prologue fire road. It was the normal battle at the start with the usually suspects riding off the front with me chasing them up the road. We had only been riding for maybe 500metres or so when were directed into the single track (a mistake) which was only a quarter way up the road. This entry point must have been halfway around the course and was the point where all the climbing was to be had. I worked pretty hard in the first couple of kms, riding in 3rd place until I ran wide on a corner letting a few riders pass, by the time I arrived back at start/finish line I had smashed my legs and had slipped further back in the field. At this point I noticed that there were no members of the three ladies waiting to go out for a lap, as that was considered the prologue circuit and I was now required to ride a lap of the normal course with my legs already shattered. About half way around the lap my body came back to life and was ready to race again so I worked hard to make up a few positions that I had lost in the first part of the lap.

It took me a little while to settle into the race, with a flat on my second lap breaking my rhythm, it wasn’t until the third lap where I got to have a clean shot at the course. By this point I was getting to know the course and really started railing the corners and picking fast lines through the rocky descents.

The other ladies, Duncan and Dave were smashing it, riding the course like the owned it, although Duncan was having some dramas with his stomach which resulting him bailing out of doing the teams final lap, leaving Dave and I to defend first place on our own. I was stoked to have the chance to ride another lap, as I was really enjoying the course and having an opportunity to ride one more lap was a bonus.

Results are here.

Thanks to Becs for the photo..

Posted by brett @ 12:35 pm

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