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Taking the long route to the coffee shop

Mt Perry 6-hour: that was good, damn that hurt

Climbing on the first lap of the six-hour

The Queens Birthday long weekend was the time and Mt Perry, about an hour’s drive west of Bundaberg, was the place.

This was a new experience for me, and one of my planned highlights for the year: The Mt Perry Six-Hour ‘Gold Rush’. I was entered as a solo competitor. This is the fourth year the event has been run, and it is steadily gaining the reputation as one of the highlights of the competitive mountain biking calendar in Queensland.

Last year, a couple of my friends (Jody & Graeme) did this race in the mens’ pairs. When I originally pencilled it in, I was hoping to convince someone (Dean or Emma were my prime candidates) to join me to share the pain. But both my candidates turned out to have other commitments. Dean went road racing at the Battle on the Border, and Emma jetted off to South Australia to go to the Melrose Fat Tyre Festival.

So I took a deep breath and entered solo. As it turns out, I did not pay close enough attention, and missed the fact that I could have entered as a solo 40+ male. No matter, I wasn’t going to be racing for prizes. I would be racing against myself and the course.

In the lead-up to the event, my training was going OK, I thought. A couple of off-road rides to Mt Nebo and I felt fine. I was still going with the fast bunch most Saturdays in the South Bank ride, and during the week at Donuts, I would win the sprint up the hill as long as Dean wasn’t there (n which case I would be second!).

So I felt my fitness would be adequate for the six-hour event. I had no illusions that I would be “racing” for the whole six hours. I was sure that at some point I would be just cruising around in survival mode.

About a month before the event, I also began negotiations to buy a new mountain bike frame. I was sure that I would have the biike built up in plenty of time for the event. One delay after another, and a sequence of incredibly damp weather around Brisbane meant that I finally picked up the new bike (it’s a Haro Sonix) only three days before the race, and rode it off-road for the first time on the morning of the race.

Really, in retrospect, that wasn’t very smart.

On Saturday morning, I thought I could still get in my usual road ride with the South Bank bunch. Then I would come home and finish packing and hit the road around 11am.

So I eventually got going around 11.30. Still within tolerances, I suppose.

But the drive to Mt Perry took about an hour longer than I had guesstimated. So by the time I got there I had missed the start of the Saturday afternoon Dirt Dash, the short course “dirt crit”. My camping pals Graeme and Jody were all set up, so I found a spot for my tent on the fringes of their camp. Jody had brought along with wife Jo and their delightful little daughter Lily.

So I watched Jody and Graeme take their turns in the dirt crits. Jody got through to the semi-final, but said afterwards that he probably went too hard for the evening before a big ride.

Anyway I had also missed the chance to do a practice lap of the famous Mt Perry cross-country course. So the next morning I was up and ready bright & early. With the race not due to start until 9.30am I had plenty of time for a practice lap. I had looked at the profile which said 235 metres of vertical ascent per lap, but had not reallt taken in what that meant.

What it means is that just about the whole course is either climbing or descending. The course is a cracker, which scenery and awesome single track and great descents, but it is tough tough tough.

So I got around my practice lap just going steady in around 45 minutes.

And my first lap in the race proper was about the same pace. My seat came a bit loose, so at the end of the first lap I stopped in transition and borrowed an allen key at the For The Riders tent and tightened up the seat clamp.

I was feeling like I wasn’t yet comfortable on my new dual-suspension bike. The bike itself was performing superbly, soaking up the big hits, and I was really enjoying the downhill sections and the excellent brakes.

But going uphills I felt like I didn’t have a comfortable climbing position. It felt all wrong.

Then on the second lap, on a steep section, I felt a twinge of cramp. I had already decided that as I wasn’t feeling strong on the climbs that I would walk some of the steep sections, to save energy.

But the cramps began to dictact how my race would run. Straight away I abandoned my ambitious plans for doing 8 laps. I would just try to keep ahead of the schedule for one lap per hour, and do six laps.

So I struggled around the third lap, with the cramps getting worse, and then stopped for a rest. The fourth and fifth laps I was hurting as I pedalled, hurting as I walked the steep bits, trying to enjoy the scary downhill sections while riding as smoothly as I could, and locking up in agony on the flat sections after the downhill. I tried everything I could think to eat or drink: Gatorade, Nuun, muffins, coffee, bananas, muesli bars, gels.

The cramps were still there. I headed out for my sixth and last lap with about 40 minutes left of the six hours. Regardless of what happened on my last lap, I would get around it and finish. Six laps was pretty respectable, I thought.

As I was coming into the last couple of kilometres of my last lap, I saw a friend up ahead, Aaron. I gave it everything I had left in me to catch and pass Aaron and stay ahead of him through to the finish. We crossed the line, and stopped to chat, with another couple of MTB Dirt forum members. It turned out that Aaaron had done 7 laps.

Jody and Graeme, racing as a pair, had done 9 laps.

But six laps would have to do for me this time. I must confess to being slightly disappointed, not in my effort, but in the mistakes made in preparation. Riding a new bike for the first time in a six-hour event, with a new set-up, just was a boneheaded move, and I paid the price.

Had I raced on my old hardtail, it is quite possible I might have done seven or even eight laps. It would have hurt even more, however, as the course was rough enough to be very tricky on a hardtail.

So, onwards. I have the Noosa Enduro, the Coffs Harbour 100 and the FLight Centre Epic still to go this year. Hopefully I can get the Haro set-up so that I am comfortable for a long-haul ride.

Coming over the bridge. This was halfway through the highly challenging but superfun downhill section.

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