BMC 100 Race Report Part 2

Ready to race in the early morning fog and rain.



So as I hooked into the tight lefthander at speed the tyres held and I rode out the other side, however something had happened to my rear brakes which now seemed to be 'on'. I pulled the lever on thinking they might reset then dialled them out as far as they would go but they were still on. I had to pull over and see what the issue was.

On inspection I could not find any reason the calipers seemed tight and straight, so I rode on. The brakes being "on" lasted about 3 or 4 kms, after that they were just rubbing. Fortunately a good portion of this 4 kms was downhill so it was not like riding uphill with the brakes on.

So seemingly having this problem fix itself I plodded on and on, there was plenty of climbing in the final 25kms or it seemed that there was, perhaps it was my fatigued state. However what I did notice was that on a fast descent where I had to use the brakes they would lock "on" again for a period of time. Rather than this being a huge physical road block it was making the last part of the race harder mentally. As it was becoming really frustrating.

It was at the 70km sign that the lack of fluid I had taken in, in the first part of the race would come backto bite me, and I would pay for it big time. There were riders constantly going past me that I could not hold there wheel or even get on the wheel as they went past, as each rider went past the race became more of a test of survival than a race. I would say that about 30 or 40 riders would have gone past me in this time.

I basically suffered along like this for the last 30kms, still enjoying the single track, which was mainly downhill and pushing as hard as I could on the fire road climbs.

There was one rider who I was leapfrogging from the 80km mark, so I made it a goal to try and stay with him, he would open a gap and then it would close down again and then I would open up a gap, I guess it was about who was feeling good at the time. With about 2 or 3 kms to go he opened up a gap on a climb which had a switchback in it, as I got to the bottom of the climb he was already 50mts ahead, but as I changed gear he was past the switchback, as he heard me change gear he looked over his shoulder to see who it was and how far back I was.

In my spent state and with not having been able to race hard for the last 25kms or so I knew that I would catch that rider, its always a tell tale sign that you have nothing left when you start looking back. So I dug as deep as I could on that climb, and made some ground and then there was a small single track descent before we headed out onto the fire road which took us around the lake to the finish, as we hit the road at the front of Cammery Waters I just rode as hard as I could, went past the rider and then just gave it everything for the last km. As I crossed the line he was nowhere to be seen so he would have been at least 200mts back.

So after a disappointing last 30kms I managed a small win at the end.

So overall I finished in 92nd place which was about 60 places worse than last year, but a much hotter field attended in 2009. My observation on the race was that the tracks out at Woodend are 1st class, I would just like to see a bit of the fire road climbing substituted with some single track climbs. Having said that the course was well signed and the event well run.

So my focus now turns to the Dirtworks 100 on the 3rd May. I have entered the Double Centurion category, which combines both times for each race and has an overall winner, and was hoping to find out where I sit in this field but it looks like it will remain a secret, until the completion of the Dirtworks