Tathra 100

It has been a few years since I last rode a 100 km mountain bike race. Obviously long enough for me to forget the pain you go through at certain times whilst climbing yet another hill! So with little long distance training, but with a new shiny bike, I entered the Tathra 100 km race on the weekend. 

The morning was perfect for a mountain bike ride, not too hot, dry with very little wind. The first 10 km involved a pretty sustained climb up singletrack followed by some wonderfully flowing trails. From there we headed into the National Park and spent the next 40 km mainly on firetrail and gravel road, with lots of ups! My rear wheel popped at about 30 ks, I had a slight tear to my sidewall but after replacing the tube it looked like the tube wasn’t popping out too much and that I should be able to get through the rest of the race. As I was pumping up my tube, Jason English, World 24 hr Champ flew past (he had started 30 minutes after me). It was as if he was on a motorbike, absolutely flying and somehow he didn’t even look like he had ridden the same course as me- while I was pretty much covered in mud, his Australian Champion jersey was still completely white. Maybe when you are going that fast, the mud can’t keep up with you! I think about 7 or 8 guys passed me as I was changing the tube and everyone of them, including the World Champ, asked if I was ok. I love the mountain biking crowd, super friendly, helpful and relaxed. What other event can you share the same trails with a world champ?

Getting back on the bike I went through a bit of a bad patch. You always do in longer races- legs begin to hurt, each hill seems to be getting bigger and you seem to be getting slower. And as usually happens, it’s when this is going on that you crash. My crash was pretty minor, the muddy conditions around a corner left me with my front wheel sliding out. The muddy conditions also meant that my landing was nice a soft. So after checking the bike was ok, I was off again.

The 50 km mark brought me back to race headquarters. It’s always nice to know that you are on the home stretch, so to speak, and the profile of the race suggested that the second half had less ups and promised some great singletrack. And on that it delivered. Literally on the doorstep of Tathra there are km after km of great riding, and the course seemed to take in most of it. My sore legs were telling me that they would enjoy the trails a lot more if they hadn’t already travelled 50 km to get there! My body was making it pretty clear that it would have appreciated a little more training before putting it through all this, and it is fair to say that the flowing tracks were the only thing that got me through the last few kms. 

So the 100ks (or more accurately, a bit over 90 kms) was done. It hurt, the bike was fantastic and my back is still thanking it for the plush, comfortable ride. The event was great- brilliant volunteers, well run, friendly crew and a hard course with some fun tracks.

Of course, I will forget the pain in a few weeks and look at entering another long event. 

Oh, that’s right- I’ve entered a 50 km race in Canberra this weekend!