N-duro 2 - 17 June 2007
Lesson 1: Get to the start line early! Yep, when there’s hundreds of people in a mass start it pays to line up early. I felt pretty good warming up, which was surprising after over 2 hours on the bike on Saturday with my heart rate well above where it was supposed to be - the dirt just does that to me. And I thought coming back with 8 minutes to spare I would be alright to get a decent starting position. But it was a struggle to get as far up the grid as I did - about 5 rows back with about 20 riders in each row and people still trying to push to get past. I wouldn’t have been so frustrated if I couldn’t see Kaytee, Nina, Michelle and Monique up on the front line. Lesson learned, I’ll know better next time.
On Saturday I went out and rode most of the course. There were a couple of sections out the back that I wasn’t too familiar with so wanted to check out the conditions and see how they were flowing. I’m the type of rider who likes to know what to expect, how long the hills last and where the course goes in case others get it wrong in front of me - it’s not guaranteed to help in the heat of the moment but it pays off sometimes. There were 2 trails I hadn’t ridden before - the aptly named Frontal Lobotomy (it’s only 1500m long but it kind of makes you want one) and Old Chevy, a new track that is similar to the Chinese menu trails - rolling and winding it’s way through the trees.
I was left feeling a bit flat after my ride. I might have been better off just playing in the singletrack rather than checking out a course with so much 4wd track in it, but it was beneficial on race day to know when the hills would end.
So, race day. It’s definitely winter and we’re not in Kansas anymore. I didn’t have a great start thanks to the numbers and a lack of racing lately so decided to focus on riding the hills well but my legs just never felt like they were in the race. It felt like a bit of a no-mans-land - clearly riding better than I was a year ago, but nothing like 5 months ago. It’s exactly as it should be, but not something I’m finding easy to come to terms with.
By the time I got to Frontal Lobotomy, about 2kms from the highest point of the course, I finally started to feel some rhythm. The track reminded me a lot of the Bethunes Gully course in Dunedin and I let myself drift back to that. I started to pick riders off consistenty until I went for one pass too many and got squeezed off the trail and over the bank. One very nice man stopped to help me get my bike back up while I watched all the riders I just worked my way through head on up - gutted! I picked off a few again on the final part of the climb up to Billy T.
Once in to Billy T I knew the long climbs were all over and had a pretty good run for a few hundred metres before finding myself caught behind 3 riders. I called consistently to pass and was sitting right on the wheel of the back rider but they wouldn’t let me through. I was so frustrated - not only was I not able to chew up some track at race pace, I was forced to go slower than I would at a nice cruisey pace. I knew Monique wasn’t all that far ahead and that I can always make up time on her on the downhills and wanted to close the gap as much as possible. As soon as the singletrack ended I was outta there and off down the Chestnut trails with a clear run in to Rollercoaster where I was able to get past a few more people. Heading in to Old Chevy I caught sight of Monique - she was having traffic problems as well but I was pleased to have caught up again. I was able to keep her in my sights up until Sweet n Sour where the long and short courses merged and stayed together to the finish. Traffic, traffic, traffic about sums up the rest of my race. There was just an endless train of riders to work past, some of whom were kind enough to move aside, plenty of whom were most certainly not! If I’d thought I was in contention for top 3 I’m sure I would have been a lot more aggressive at this point but I didn’t think I was although it’s hard to say how much difference there was in being held up versus the clearer runs those further up were having.
Within the last 10kms I was pleased to finally feel my legs engage and come to the party. Heading in to Be Rude Not To I simply had to resign myself to the fact that I would be stuck behind people. Coming across one person at a time isn’t a problem, but trying to get 10 people to let 4 or 5 others ride through is near impossible!
I finally got a clean run after getting out of Lion Trail and hammering it down the 4wd in to Exit - one of my favourite trails in the forest. Things didn’t really go as well as I’d hoped, I hadn’t felt like I’d ridden anywhere near my ability on the climbs and I was frustrated at being held up in the singletrack, but I got to finish on a bit of a high with the clean run. I finished 4th in Womens open grade behind Kaytee, Nina and Michelle (Monique was racing junior and finished a couple of minutes ahead of me).
Overall the result is good. Far better than where I was at this time last year so I’ve hung on to a lot of the gains I made over last season. I do need to accept that I am at a point in the calendar where I’m not racing for results. I won’t be coming in to races fresh, I haven’t been doing speed, intensity or hills. It’s winter - time to tap out the base miles with the odd race thrown in for fun and variety. Something I really need to sort out though, is ice-block feet! Even my new merino socks didn’t prevent my feet from feeling like cold lead blocks on the end of my legs - that certainly didn’t help anything!
I’ve got the latest block of my programme today and I certainly like the look of it :o) And let’s not forget it’s only 3 (because it’s just gone past midnight) days til the shortest day and then they’ll start to get longer again!!! I’m looking forward to that!
