CONVICT 100

It's that one day in May. It's a race so many people begin their marathon racing adventures on, it's a race that people measure their fitness against. It's the only race that gives you sweaty palms in the weeks leading up to it. It's usually a race you buy a ticket for 6months before the event knowing you have all summer to train for. Yes this race is iconic. If we held the state of origin in mountain biking this would be the battle ground for such an event.

For someone who lives on the central coast it's the 'local' marathon being 85km from home, in which you ride 50km of that during the race through the bush back towards mangrove mountain, its literally out the back door and over the fence to go and practice on the race course. With plenty of wet weather in feb and march we rarely got out there to check the condition of the course, the main deterrent being its destructive nature to bike and body and also how remote the course is. We must make friends at that buddha temple one year.

So with just a few days out from the event the crew at Magellan organise me a race ticket, I rush back from uni and we make the dash to St. Albans on the Friday arvo, stake our claim of ground race to put our tents up and head straight to rego. Once me and Wayne made the rounds of the event centre we rugged up and headed for a feed at the local pub. The 3rd oldest pub was looking pretty modern for Wayne, now he is either that old or just from the UK.
Neither of us were smart enough to pack anything for breakfast and I was already borrowing gels from Wayne, I think I stole 8. A warmish night was broken by people in snoring competitions and the early or late participants to the event, but once out of the tent we were greeted with an awesome sunrise. Some avocado on one slice of bread was breakfast, far from ideal but if you are going to let this beat you then your already beaten before you start the challenge of a race.

In the starting hold of the race plenty of big breathes were taken and the race was under way before you had time to think about enormity of 4-5hrs of hurt. In the back of my mind I had the result from the Rockytrail event in my legs, so I knew I had a good 4hrs in me.
Starting in elite with more coasties then I can ever remember the 3 of u, knowing they were so keen to knock me off my perch was a concern, to see big benny split the peloton was an awesome sight, that breakaway stuck and 5-6riders cleared the climb ahead of the main pack. On that climb young max left me behind as well, to only have a flat day, maybe my turn on the front was not a wise move, but I just get frustrated being blocked in and need some fresh air, so I took off out of the pack and my legs hated me for a long time after that.
It can be a very lonely race once over the big climb, but this year I was just concerned in keeping a solid pace and finishing with no injuries. 30kms in and my legs are still feeling crap I've also had some gearing issues which seem to fix themselves as well. I remember passing the 60km to go sign and really enjoying life, then looking at a rocky section thinking, oh shit wrong line wrong line wrong line, if you are to crash here not even a helicopter could get you out, (partically hate this part of the race) I'm giving the option to hit eject, knowing it may cause a shoulder dislocation or everything is going to hurt, or hang on an crash with hands on the handle bars. So I'm sliding down the embankment into trees but still attached to my bike.. The heart rate was really pulsating now! I get back on the track and continue on to the 50km mark with my legs getting better every kilometre I ride.

This part of the race is now the most deadly, riding smooth and safe is all I try to do from here to the canoes. With shepards gully the final technical section all senses must turned up to the highest of frequency to negotiate what goes from a flowy decent with a smooth line to what looks like a waste dump of bowling balls. You must hang on for your life through here.
Now rolling down the road I consume another gel, looking at my Magellan GPS unit I'm consuming a gel every 20km, I never had a moment of 'oh I need energy'. The heart begins to beat faster as the canoe crossing enters my vision, it's neck to waste deep this year. I ride through the grass section clearing my mind. I look at the bridge shake my head, and roll onto the planks.

The trick is to relax your grip on the handle bars and the bike just rolls straight. With cameras on the other side and everyone wanting you to ride your bike into the water, I refrain from taking my hands of the bars to salute and be ready to negotiate the sand trap and try not to make national tv for crashing.
Yewwwwwwwwwww. I survived.
Across the paddock to the road section I look back to see some guys from the masters category absolutely smashing it, they were to far back to wait for so i took on the road alone, well until I had a sheep dog wanting chops for lunch, he came very close to getting me.. Heart rate peaks again.
Onto to the switchback climb it is as brutal as rewarding but it's the home stretch. Climb after climb if your going to suffer for 25km on a bike this is not the place to do it. It will be the longest 25km of your life. On one of the peaks I see a black and red jersey, I try to contain my excitement it's big benny. I up my tempo to close the gap, hoping to sneak up on him on the next climb but a stick in my rear derailer blew my cover, I have to dismount to fix that and catch him on the next one, it was important cause the chances are slim on catching him once the altitude began to drop. Hey benny
Hey chops
" can we call a truce on this battle" I ask. Ben agrees, the company over the next 15-20km was really going to make the race more enjoyable. So we kick on together the mojo went up for ben and my legs where hungry for more. It was only bens second time across the ridge so I had fun being his tour guide on how far we had to go, the distance to creek, the distance after the creek. Because he kept asking are we there yet?, where is the descent? I discuss what we had left and the decent is where you will next see some volunteers/marshals. They appear about 2kms later and we let out a cheer, and start slip sliding and flying down the steep descent, once out on the road we take turns all the way to the creek, unable to ride through the creek we trekked through it and on the other side I wait for ben to chugg his way thru the sand. Once out on the dirt road, I give another time check, which has been constantly talked about for 20kms, after we round the right hander I suggest we have a crack at making 4hrs15min, so we smacked it so hard to the finish with me on the front, we over take another 100ker on the last corner and roll over the line at 4hrs 18min, two very happy mountain bikers doing PB's. 11th place in elite.

The one day in May comes to a close with a free beer and a presentation in the beer garden with podiums filled by local coasties. A road trip back with Wayne to hear about his battles of the 100ker and we all feel sore the next day.

This race is loved by all.

http://app.strava.com/activities/52217431

Enjoy the pics.

JUSTCHOPS :))

Rocky trail 4hr, James estate winery.

Race preparation delivers results, if its training, or nutrition, the amount of sleep one can get and the levels of stress all have an affect on the outcome, you can have these effect your day or you have the choice to overcome adversity and prove to your body that your mind is the game changer on game day!

My Friday began with a biomechanics class at uni (Olympic park) and after Adam Scott winning the masters I was keen to film and analyse my golf swing. The afternoon was spent at the Australian health and fitness expo, exciting on so many levels, being my 6-7th visit now it still gets the blood pumping, but getting to take mates from uni who had never been was just like when you introduce someone to mountainbiking or a friend to the biggest descent you know and seeing them smiling so hard it hurts their cheeks, mix that with all the free pre-workout and protein samples you can handle and your drunk on exercise!

I make it back to the central coast for dinner, a feast of vegies, chicken and quinoa from memory and load up my friend charli's (who is part of the Rockytrail timing crew) car, grabbing a carton of milk and loaf of bread on he way out for the journey.
Charli had the route sorted out as we drove in darkness the whole way, neither of us had been out this way before. There wasn't much to see, apart the well lit what look like coal mines.

We arrive very tired and ready for bed, and that was very well sorted by caretakers of the winery inside the homestead two comfy beds awaited us. Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Race day:
I lumber out of bed feeling very drained, unfortunately this has been a regular occurrence this year and for a couple of months, I'm not sure why, hoping its nothing to serious, I take my time to find first gear and put down some muesli. And jump on my bike and pedal the few Kms over to the event centre. Riding around event centre learning the course through the pits and the first couple of Kms into the vineyards to warm the muscles up, or the while hiding under a jacket and in a new race kit for 2013. This year I'm riding for MAGELLAN, A company that is making a huge impact in the mountain bike industry with their range of GPS units. Already well known in adventure racing, I was very happy and proud to be wearing their kit to represent them in the endurance side of mountain bike racing.

Vineyards, natural bush, dirt roads and a distillery is where our 9km battle will take place. It's the first race on this home built course out in the hunter. I loved all of it, I can't wait to go and race at James Estate Winery again.
We roll down to the massive shimano start banner, I look across the start line, and see a mix of Euro faces, but the guess of who was in a team or running solo had me baffled. I didn't even know where my own fitness was, I have bottles in pit lane, gels in my pockets and bike attached to me and 4hrs of racing, I was frothing just to get riding!
The gun goes off and in Euro fashion (or at the croc trophy) riders take off like Usain bolt running for gold. I do my best to hold on but they blow me to pieces. I had a sense that the 'flat road' was far from flat, and in the 500m before the single track I pick off at least 10riders who went to deep.

Into the single track we go, and few early casualties as people try to ride the course like where they are from, and hit the ground fast into the loamy dirt. Never seen this track before I take the fastest cautious approach possible, keeping myself upright is my number one priority(I don't have the time or funds to be injured) when I came up for air after 4-5kms of cool single track a lead group had formed, making lots of dust in the distant with about 7riders, one of them being stu Adams, who I knew would be doing solo, and is on fire at the moment, but if he is being pulled along by the Euro guns, it will be a miracle for me to close the gap(I will try though)
We pop out of the bush into the vineyards and up a long grassy climb for which I would attack out of the saddle on every lap of the race. The legs just preferred it that way, who's to argue with your legs?.
Through the massive tanks of the distillery and through timing, before you knew it, life was back on the 'flat road' that would make you explode when you reached the singletrack. I was never to have a riding buddy on that road, I did get to chase troy glennan through the vines and up the dirt road on one lap, trying to hold is back wheel was not a good idea. So I was cranking the pace for at least 90mins before cramping pains in my glutes would start to affect my day(a regular pain in the arse occurrence) it's all about management and just blocking out the pain for the rest of the day, at times it will really zap power from the pedal stroke, stretching when I can and just battling on is all I know how to deal with this problem (that I hate).

I keep cranking out the laps, trying not to explode on the dirt road, so I'm quicker through the now very chopped up single track, I thought it was mad fun riding through the powdery soil. Conti X-Kings where loving it. I kept it strong on the grass climb that everyone grew to hate. Doing some maths in my head when I was looking at the number of laps I would complete, 9 or 10 was going to be the finishing amount I really started to eat more. With the pain in my glutes/hip flexors I was just out there to finish what I had started at 9am.

I was on my bike under blue sky's riding unseen mountain bike trails pedal eat drink repeat, life s grand when life is simple.
"Chops your 2nd" is screamed from timing. I ask how long to go.. it was like an hour, i screw up my face.... i hear the laughter of a lady as she was amused by my reaction.. well i was just having fun riding around, now its a race again, where i have an hour to catch first and an hour for third not to catch me.. sooo... Pedal faster eat faster drink faster live faster, knowing there was at least 3laps to do and possibly 4, I started eating like I had another 40km to race. 2laps later I come through timing I'm now informed I'm in first place. And it's my last lap. Hooooraaaa!
I catch up to some coasties on the flat road, after some exchange of banter I get the jump into the singletrack to rip it one last time.
I cross the finishline just over the 4hr mark to see stu Adams being interviewed, lucky for me he was in the older gents category, he still smoked me! I then had my I interview with martin, proceeding that I took the reins or the microphone rather to be the MC for the remainder of the event.
The return trip home was much like the journey to the race, carton of milk and bread for the trip home, as Sunday was to be an even bigger day, with a fitness course in the city till 4pm and a mad dash to was the central coast mariners kick some arse!
BEST WEEKEND EVER!!!!!!!!


So begins a day in mountain bike folklore where we rode through vineyards with passion driving our legs and smiles leading the way to another happy Rockytrail day.

The myth of did the MC present first place to himself, well that story would only be in the minds of who was there on the day.

Huge thanks again to MAGELLAN & SCV IMPORTS.


JustCHOPS.