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I flew from Sydney airport to Launceston in Tasmania and was on the same flight as Glenn Stewart and Nathan Haas. These two riders, and
myself, made up 3 of the 8 rider National MTB Squad. When we arrived in Launceston, we were picked up by National XC coach, Damian Grundy
and Paul Brosnan, a head coach from the Tasmanian Institute of Sport.
Everyone was expecting a relaxed arrival in Tassie, but we soon figured otherwise, when we were told we had half an hour to get our bikes
assembled, and ready for a recovery ride. We got our bikes together, had something to eat, met each other and organized beds, all in half
an hour! The ride through Launceston was scary. Let’s just say the Tassie drivers are…confident around cyclists….
After our meeting on behaviour, we knew what was expected of us, and what not to do. We rode to the T.I.S facility which was 700m from our place in town. We met some of the people there and watched some track training in the velodrome. We were also introduced to a fixed bike which we thought looked like fun. It looked daunting in a way, with one ergo bike and some other equipment, in a huge white room. It was so clinical in there. Later that day, we all did separate tests on the ergo to gauge our ability/strength and endurance at increasingly harder resistance levels. Info was gathered throughout the test, like pedaling efficiency, heart rates, lactic levels and cadence. My cadence sat at an average of 110rpm throughout the test, and I lasted about 26mins. A fair way off one of the highest tested in the T.I.S with a time of 40 mins!
We did cornering and acceleration tests today, riding a big figure eight in a gravel carpark. The gravel was much like the surface at
Penrose Forest. We had to ride 4 laps as fast as possible, and the times were competitive, with top place changing nearly every set of laps.
The winner in the end was Daniel Hallam, or LDK (lil downhill kid) after the tests, we did a ‘lost in the bush with Damo’ session. Damian took
us out on some singletrack I’d found, and we ended up getting lost on a track that got narrower and narrower… It was pretty fun, and we got
to know each other in a more relaxed way too.
Today was an easy recovery ride, and the team of juniors; Danial Hallam, Jamie Paisley, Nathan Haas, Daniel Braunsteins, Cal Britten, Ben Grieve Johnston, myself and Glenn Stewart, rode thru the farmland, and local roads, before we packed and left for Straun, for the Wildside start!
Today’s stage was the first of seven stages over 4 days. It was very bumpy and the tracks were old and unused cattle trails, with mud bogs, rocks and bulldust (fine talcum powder like dust) it was back pounding hell. Because of the excitement, many people went a bit too hard, like me. I went way too hard for the stage, and finished 1 second behind Saul Britton.
Stage 2 was similar to the first one. Everything was sweet, until I saw a warning sign. I slowed down, and slid into a rock that put me over the bars and into some saplings at about 25km/h. I was okay, but kind of disappointed that it happened at 200m to the finish! The days racing totaled 72km.
We raced the well known Montezuma Falls stage today. We had to race the first stage of the day before the Falls stage. This first stage was through rainforest with slippery clay climbs, and humidity like you won’t believe. This stage also included a 7km climb that turned into mudbog hell, especially for the higher gear riders, who lost momentum quickly when hitting these sections up the climb. Being a higher cadence rider, I was able to ride the majority of the sections. The descent of this stage was also one of the most dangerous in the race, with muddy rock sheets, and mud covered wheels with no traction at the best of times!
The Falls stage was awesome, and suited me a lot. After we crossed the Falls suspension bridge, the course route followed the contours of the area, which was a constant low gradient climb, with a lot of red mud, and deep puddles. The descent of this stage resulted in a lot of crashes, because of the unpredictable nature of the race. It paid dividends to keep off the brakes and let the bike drift and slide freely in the muddy stage, and it also helped that I duct taped my shoes so the mud didn’t get into the Velcro.
Today’s stage was on more back pounding sandstone climbs and descents, with knee deep river crossings while on the bike! It was the stage I did best in, due to the climbing. I was also fortunate enough to ride with Johnny Wadell. I tried to copy his lines and style on the descents. It was amazing to watch him descend so smoothly and fast! He’s an amazing rider, and after riding the transfer stage with him, I found he’s also a person with a lot of awesome stories up his sleeve, and plenty of know how too!!!
The second stage of the day was a 5km ITT through and around a golf course. I did very well in this stage, and was 3mins off the lead time of Chris Jongewaard, and I placed 25th overall in the TT. This boosted my overall ranking in the event, from 30th to 26th.
The last stage of the four day event, and the only stage for the day. It was the notorious Beach stage today, and the start was only a kilometre from our accommodation, which was handy. The stage was very hard, especially if you were riding alone, and not with the bunch. I attacked to see if anyone would have a sense of humour, and chase me down. I was more than satisfied to see Chris Jongewaard powering up to catch me. (obviously it was no effort at all for him!) After that, the elite riders attacked hard, to get into the singletrack, and over the dunes and onto the beach. Today was my worst stage, and I felt the most fatigued on this day, than any other. I struggled to sleep the night before, which didn’t help either!
Overall, the stage was extremely challenging, more mentally than physically. I was working with another rider, but he failed to do much work to help us reduce our time gap, and did the majority of it, instead of getting petty about who was having their turn up front! I crossed the line, satisfied that I’d completed the race to the very best of my abilities, and had also gained experience from it in many ways.
The event was extremely well organized, and the food on offer was first class, with plenty of choices. The only problem encountered was the reverse start order on the final day. It was challenging for everyone, to have a very competitive and somewhat aggressive group of elite and u23 riders trying to pass the punters and the people in it for the fun. But the beach was big enough for everyone, and there weren’t any serious confrontations. All up, a great event and some incredible experiences, from day one to day 8.
Big thanks go to Damian Grundy, who organized everything for us, and serviced 8 bikes every night! Thanks also, to John Gregory, our sports scientist (and general handyman, helping with everything imaginable) and John ‘Broso’ Brosnan, for taking care of driving, and general organizational needs… Without these three guys, it would have been chaos!
(Thanks also goes to wsmtb, for their endless help, and encouragement!)