Capital Punishment 100km MTB Comp, Canberra
Sat. 6.30am. Pouring rain and long umbrella queues outside the portaloos... 7am. Elite riders (def not me) start on the gun. By 7.30am another 880 riders have started tearing up the already muddy and waterlogged track. What joy. Hit a tree 10km in after going blind down a muddy track. Sunnies useless, didn't wear them for the next 8hrs. 35km. 1st water stop. No water to wash bikes only to drink but lots of wet lollies, bananas and muffins. Many stories of chaos, crashes, bike problems. 60km. 2nd water stop. Not much conversation. everyone is wet, cold, tired with bikes just hanging together. Jude bounces up all happy - I had the grumps. Good to see her tho'. Support is SO important.
Riding through Canberra is a bit easier now as it's only drizzling. See Mt Stromlo in the distance. Fantastic feeling. 10km to go. Suddenly there's 2km of calf-deep walk through mud - all sucky and slippery. Very depressing. Lots of swearing by everyone (except me, coz I'm a nice person). Last uphill to observatory then a sick, flat out, 2km downhill, with huge berms and swoopy corners.
I'm yelling and whooping with another guy who's pinning it too. I've never met him before and we're best buds on the downhill! It's worth 98km of hell to get to 2km of downhill track. Sprint to finish to beat 2 other guys - why did I do that after 8.5hrs? Happy smiling Jude there with towel. hose bike down. Jude says I've turned blue with cold. Shower with clothes on. Coffee. Back to hotel. Go horizontal. Happy. Next 100km at Callala Beach, South Coast in 3 weekends. No rain please.
