Prestigious
Longer than most
Festival
End of year catch ups
Paddocks
Creeks
Hills
Bagpipes
A weekend away
All spin around the minds of all mountain bikers when the words ' The fling' are whispered.
Months out from the race MAGELLAN my sponsor and also the major sponsor of the event offered me a ticket to race with for free. Knowing my story of my stolen bike well I still agree to race and hope the planets align in all other areas so I can race on the day.
Lucky for me I get to ride the Rocky Mountain Element again, which I picked up on the Friday before the race.
Once I get away from work on Saturday I head for the m5 to escape the city only to realise at the airport I had forgotten my helmet, my new helmet so I'm forced to turn around to retrieve it. 7plates of sushi later I'm back at the airport enroute to bundanoon. 30mins before rego closed so it was quite easy for the ladies to know my name as I was the last one to do rego in my category. Now to find my tent..... Luckily I bump into Wilson tent building pty ltd on my way in and we head over to camp to share many laughs and set up bikes before game day, to the disgust of one fellow camper who thought it was necessary to yell SHUTUP..... It wasn't even 1030pm, it's quite a different atmosphere within this camp compared to the Convict marathon where I feel people are a lot more chilled.
We awake to bagpipes at 530, at 535 I attempt to drown it out with john butler tunes to the joy of James. I'm mr calm then James is mr stressed as he can't find his cycle knicks.. One hissy fit later and a few laughs I'm mr stressed as I'm not organised and rush off to find my support crew, with the help of the event microphone. Maybe some free advertising is always helpful but it solved the problem in a place with no phone reception, let's just hope Tim Stubenrauch could find my eski and meet me at the feed station, he's a guy that gets shit done and he's word is as reliable as steel. But the what could go wrongs went through my mind. On the start line I had a small look around to see who was here, but really didn't get involved, I was deep in my own thoughts in my own zone. Pretty happy I left the leg warmers on, looking silly compared to the Canberra guys. There is no tough points up for grabs if it fatigues you and you don't finish the race.
In usual 2013 mountain bike race fashion, the drone goes up and the racing gets underway, with big dog (Xc specialist) charging off the front, I'd see him again at the 75km mark packing his bike into a car. No matter how fast you are, it can come down to how long you can hurt for. I was ready for a lot of hurting. The 110km category riders swarmed around us as we slowed the pace, it was nice to have more MAGELLAN riders around for company, but I know the fitness of these guys and I know I brought my Diesel engine with me, not my V8 so I knew it was not a smart idea to try and hold their pace.
Looking at my strava I have done 400kms in the last 4months, I'm up against guys who do that midweek. My staying power is my best weapon, so I settled into my rhythm ready for a day on the bike.
We approach the free bike wash, I trudge through and it's only 15mins into the day. I would never feel my toes again from this point onwards, my thoughts where ' I don't need feet... I just need legs' back to the job at hand.
Get through stage 1 without going to deep into the hurt box
Stage 2 survive it so you will want to do it again.
Stage 3, let's just assess that when we come to it. But knowing if I had come that far surely another30km is possible.
Entering wingello everything was under control, stopped for a quick feed from tim, and I was on my way over the rail line and into the part of the race track sets the tough from the weak really fast.
It's been a couple of years since racing the fling and was caught out by the extra amount of single track, it felt quite slow and loamy and the rocks and tree roots were to get wetter and quite tricky as the day went on, as they had no grip compared the dry sometimes loose single track. Up and over the wall and further away from anywhere, passing the feed station you begin to descend a long way down. It's plenty of time to think about the impending doom of halfway hill and everything else that hurts from here to wingello. In the past the elite boys would come charging through not far from here, my fondest memory is while I was grobbling on a climb I had Gordo come past me in the big dog, and further on the late James Williamson came by and I got to work and ride with him and one other ride for close to 15kms together that day. And then shared war stories and burgers after the race.
In the distance on a climb I spot a familiar sight, the rock solid form of a great friend of mine and a long time training buddy. A guy that helped me build a lot of fitness on a bike, Crawford!!!! Each other's company super charged our legs and we really got stuck into the climbs and once hit the dirt road to wingello, a place you do not want to be alone. He offered to help me along as it's rude for a Mile'r to pull the 110k riders, but the conditions where really cook crawfords legs. He worked on the flats, I worked on the climbs. With sleet coming sideways at us, it was a tough jaunt into Wingello. Breathing was difficult as when you sat behind a rider dirt would fly into your face, at times I was shielding my mouth with my hand so I could breathe with an open mouth and not have a mouthful of dirt.
Coming into wingello I was quite cooked, I went to hard but hey I enjoyed the company so we gave each other a high five and Crawford wished me luck.
Once at the 100mile lounge Tim was frozen to the core, I was hurting but ready for more. Here comes the moment that all riders today fear. You roll through timing down some single track if you go left it's 30km home. You go right it's 80km. 50km of which you are most likely to not even see another soul. You picked the 100mile option chops. I go right....!
With a few harsh words to and with myself I get to work on finding my physical limits on this one day in November. It's now not a race but a ride, it's a ride that I want to achieve in under 8hrs so it's a race then? It's always a race, maybe not always for first.
I hit the loamy single track again the rocks are now super slick. I feel super slow. Come on chops your average speed is dropping, so I really get stuck in and try to smash through it. 90km in I'm having the time of my life. At 98km in, I'm in a world of hurt but out of the single track and looking for the feed zone. I'm thinking I am doing ok, I go to talk to the feed zone ladies and all that is produced is some dribble.. Ok so maybe I'm in a darker hole than I think I am, so I take more time than I had planned so I can pull myself out of the dark hole. By wearing a vest and a camelbak it's impossible to get food from my pockets so I stuff what I can in my Knicks and get back out there. I'm chewing hard on my stem up the climbs not that it will satisfy my appetite but now all roads point towards home.
Back onto the dirt road to wingello and now all alone memories of hours before fill my mind to take the pain away.
Tim is now really frozen to the core. Poor support crew had it real tough. I try to make this stop real brief so I don't get to cold. I get rid of the camelbak take everything I could and stuff my pockets and get back on the saddle. I cross the rail line and head for home, most of this journey will be new to me as the course has changed a bit since I have raced the Fling. But far out it was full of slow, well I was going slow single track. My sub 8hr goal slowly slips away from me, my legs totally destroyed. I keep turning the pedals over and over knowing every revolution is getting me closer to the fire bucket and hopefully seeing some friends at the finish line if everyone has not gone home.
Through the free bike wash again the rest is all a blur, I remember the ' my call' section, I talked myself into the long way around option but as I soon the sign I just went left for what ever reason I'm not sure.
Ok sweet we hit the dirt road home, WRONG. We are now directed off the road and into a farm, it now really starts raining. I'm alone I'm hurting I can barely see through the rain and splatter and I'm really cold. I yell to the power from above " is that the the best you got" and charge through the shit to finally see the finish line. 8hrs 14mins. I pretty damn happy.
All my closet mates come to congratulate me and it was so good to see Wayne, James and Joel as we take shelter in the Magellan tent.
I'm all smiles as I soak up what I just achieved off the back of not owning a bike or doing any training.
Except spin classes and Altitude training at Altitude88.
We all mop up from a days riding pack the tents and escape the shit cold weather of bundanoon. The fling really missed out on the festival atmosphere after the race, but the 2013 edition of the Highland fling will go into the history books that's for sure.
Once again thanks to Magellan for race entry GPS equipment and the bike, James for setting up my tent and pre race entertainment, Joel for always making sure I ride hard. Wayne for getting all my camping gear to James and the good chat afterwards.
A huge thanks to Tim for being my go to man on the day and toughing it out all day to give me food when I needed it. Couldn't of done the race as well as I did without you.
So folks that's a Wrap on racing in 2013.
Now to find a bike sponsor and to race again next year.
JUSTCHOPS :)
http://www.magellangps.com.au
http://www.altitude88.com
http://www.theathleticclub.com.au
http://www.cyclestudio.com.au
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