ever since i came to australia i have been looking for an opportunity to race enduro – on a motorbike. while i arguably was never any good at it i always liked that kind of race. firstly it (mostly) a race against the clock, not against a bloodthirsty mob of other guys with apparently nothing to lose. secondly it always required a level of skill and endurance, with the races being 4-6h hours long and the lap being between 50 to 70 km long. i never found anything like what we used to run in europe here in australia.
however, in the last couple of years something like this has evolved in mountain bike racing. the uphill pedal stretch is not timed, there is only generally a limit time (you have to make it up by a certain time).
then the downhill section is timed, and these timed sections are added together to a total – the person with the lowest total wins. As an added challenge there are also some pedal parts in the timed sections, as an added fitness challenge.
the last mountain bike race i’d been on was the salzkammergut trophy more than 10 years ago and that was more of a cross country race.
i have had my eye on the races organized by the rocky trail guys for a while. the great thing is that they are all in new south wales and not too far from home. i really did not know what to expect but how bad could it be?
so i registered and showed up for the race. registration until 0900, then practice between 0900 and 1200 and 4 runs (2 shorter ones and the longest one twice) and then the race from 1200 to 1500. the trails were dusty and slippery, it was difficult to hold the line through some off camber turns and there were a lot of rocks through the lines; nothing that would upset the nomad (i backed off the low speed compression 2 clicks after the training) but definitely worth picking a good line through.
the biggest issue of the day, especially for an … elderly and unfit person like myself was the temperature: 30+ degrees and not a lot of breeze. i really enjoyed the ‘bed’ in the back of the disco after the training.
(picture of me hanging on to the nomad down a rocky section, copyright outer image collective).
the result is … disappointing. I lost 2 minutes to the quickest in my class and ended up 7th (out of 8!). not where i’d like to be. i have to be honest though: i did ride very carefully and was never in any danger of dropping the bike. i think i lost mostly on the pedally bits of the timed section and in a way that is the good news: 25 seconds to 6th spot and 1 minute to 4th.
should be a nice challenge for round 2 – in thredbo!