November 2010
Dirtworks 100k, Woodend VIC
by Andrew Barcroft
We’d done plenty of quality training. The Saturday Morning group rides on our Mountain Bikes followed by 80-100km on Sunday were particularly beneficial. So with a course that boasts 100km Off Road and a minimum of 40% Single Track (which I interpreted as 60% fast Fire Trail), how hard could it be??
On the start line right behind the Elites 10ºC freezing cold but perfect positioning.
Just before the gun went off I needed a nervous natural break, too late now I’ll have to wait 100km.
As the Elites had started 5 minutes before us I was able to tuck in third wheel, pace not too fast, should I put in an attack? ... As if! Well the first steep hill came and a few went past me including Bill ‘Hard Man’ Murphy, time to settle into my own pace.
Bill Murphy passes me on the first steep hill.
The first 50km was through the Pine Forrest with Virgin Tracks, lumpy, bumpy, slippy off camber and very slow. To make matters worse the so called fast flowing fire trails I envisaged were covered with large loose stones like those used on railway tracks, 10km/h was an achievement, my god we’ll be out all day at this rate.
On the upside when passed on Single Track I had no problem keeping up, Aaron was right if you can ride Charles Darwin you can ride anything. What this meant was that when faced with the very strong winds on the Fire Trails I was always in a group of between 2 and 4 riders so could use my Road Racing experience and hide as much as possible.
The singletrack was awesome.
Well over three hours and I finally arrived at the half way point feed station, this race is brutal, my back had started to hurt at 30km and I was now almost cramping, how am I going to make the next 50?
Out I went having scoffed 3 slices of Soreen Malt Loaf, a Banana, lollies and chocolate.
The second 50 had great single track but the Hills, Oh the Hills!
It got to the stage where my heart sank on every downhill. You see when you fly blind down a 4 wheel drive track at 55+km/h you get to the bottom real quick. You then have to struggle back to the top only to fly back down to the bottom again. Yes I finally succumbed and the granny gear got a good workout from around the 60km mark. The upside was that I was not losing any ground to the riders around me for most of the time.
Where's the finish.
I had one stack at around 80km down a rut and a guy I was riding with then had a spectacular slow motion over the handle bars a few minutes later.
We then rode together, I was calling out the Km countdown from my Garmin, 90, 95, 3 to go, 2 to go, we should be there ......! At 101km I lost heart and started to ride on my own, 102, 103, 104, 105 you have got to be kidding me this is soul destroying.
Finally over the brow of a hill I could see the finish, 6 hours and 41 minutes of hell and as you cross the line they give you a beer and a Red Bull, they don’t do that at Road Races.
Yesss, it's over , finished!!!
I was very happy to find out I had come 11th out of 140+ entries in the Masters Category and Top 50 out of the 700+ entries including the Elites. Just under half the field did not finish the race which I think says a lot about just how hard the event was.
I was so smashed that I offered Aaron and Bill $500 to box my bike up and a further $300 to wash the mud off my legs from the nicks down, unfortunately they declined.
Still they say Pain is Temporary and we must now kick back in for the Otway in February.
