[Closed] My First Multi Day Race

Sitting down and nearly recovered now...

Foolishly in the back end of last year me and the missus entered Bike Buller [url= http://www.rapidascent.com.au/BikeBuller/eventdescription.aspx ]Info[/url]
At the time I was riding heaps and getting nicely fit, come december and a broken thumb the fitness was being maintained on the turbo and Christmas was taking it's toll. I got on the road bike a month ago and the mountain bike a few days after that. Between then and the start line I was in denial 🙂
So we packed up the car and took the ferry out of Tassie and roadtripped to Mt Buller - I packed the awesome light XC bike but somebody swapped it on the boat for my overweight heckler.....

So Day 1 a simple 50km loop round the mountains
[url= http://app.strava.com/activities/43667379 ]Map of the ride on Strava[/url]
I had a plan that I would endure to 25/30km the give it everything as it was mostly down to the chairlift, that went out the window and I ended up thrashing it to 25km and surviving the rest including the best single track decent of the day. The fire road descents were brutal Peak District style with rock everywhere and lots of bad tyre choices going round (and down) survived the punctures and there was just me and the cramp left out there. Finally rolled in with a short chairlift ride (part of the course) in 4hr35 a mere 2hr05 down on the the winner. My first 50km in Oz and what most were calling their most brutal.

Rest pasta and a couple of beers soothed the legs that night before the Stage 2, the one I was looking forward to the most. Billed as 4hr45 of chairlift laps then a super D it sounded much more me, they just managed to add loads of climbing into the lap than I expected.
[url= http://app.strava.com/activities/43927466 ]Strava Map[/url]
Feeling good at the start especially after scoping the Super D it all started to go a bit wrong as I had a soft tubeless in the queue for the staggered start, the fastest tube fitting and blowing it up far to hard!!
Rules for the race were 3 laps and the Super D to count for the overall time, the stage win was going to be down to the most laps and the super d in the shortest time. Doing all three evens it made sense to [s]be conservative and do 4 laps and head down to the valley[/s] smash it.

Lap 1 was sighting for the full lap and working out how much f'in climbing there was, clipped a pedal and hit the dirt so went with flow for the rest of the lap.
Lap 2 Great Run, Lap 3 snapped chain, Lap 4 Good, Lap 5 Traffic,
Lap 6 massive off in one of the many collapsing berms. Hit the bottom for a sit down at this point breathing was tough so was moving but I was on target for 7 laps, in the end I sat it out and settled for 6 got some pain killers and did the super D which after the climb was a massive long trail with a bit of everything to get to the valley and a short roll back to the house.
Eventual winner got 9 laps in [url= http://www.giantrealriders.com.au/our-blog/josh-carlson-signs-with-the-global-giant-off-road-team ]Josh Carlson - Giant Factory Rider[/url]

Stage 3 (with pain killers) A short 20km sprint (up and down and up and down etc) - No Chairlift today [url= http://app.strava.com/activities/43963134 ]Strava Link[/url]
Well after the crashes and efforts on day 1&2 there was nothing left, departed in the second group and endured the 20km, tried to enjoy the downs but it was hard. I kept going with everything I could to get home in 2hr17

Total Time: 9:00:58 (143rd overall)
Category Placing: 80th (Premier - male)
Gender Placing: 132nd (male)
Average Pace: 10.43 km/hr (94.00 km)

The hardest 2 days of riding I have ever done (tougher than the mega 🙂 ) will I go back? Yes but fighting fit with a lighter bike, would I suggest it to anyone? Yes go for it 🙂