Marathon Worlds countdown continues - Chamonix

My trip to France started with a short stopover in Sydney for the King of Kincumber. The King of Kincumber is a charity bike ride/race run by Rocky Trail Entertainment over a 28km fire road course on the central coast near Gosford. This community event is in its second year and is a really fun way to support a worthwhile charity, the Westpac rescue helicopter.  Although short, the course was pretty tough with some sections up to a gradient of 29%!  It was worth it though, with everyone going down to the Kincumber Pub for relaxing lunch and some rehydration in the spring sunshine.  Well done to Martin and Juliane from Rocky Trail, hopefully this event continues to grow.

 Le Tour and col du Balme in background

My sojourn in Sydney felt a little like procrastination and sooner or later I need to get the big plane trip out of the way.  Thankfully it all went smoothly and I eventually arrived in Geneva in one piece ..…and my bike even arrived on the same plane!  My next challenge, and one that nearly got the better of me, was trying to fit a big bike box into a Ford Fiesta hire car. I got there eventually but it was at the expense of my leg room. It was far from ideal but I could still perform most of the important functions of driving a car, and at least it made me appreciate the ample leg room I had just had the privilege of enjoying for the past day in Qantas economy class.  I was very happy to arrive at my final destination for the day of Chamonix and be warmly welcomed by my friend Seth who has been living here for the past year with his partner Jaymie.  After a nice lunch I built my bike and headed out for a roll on the road to spin some of the flight out of my legs. It had been raining all day but I was lucky enough to catch a break in the weather by the time I was ready to go.  As I rolled up the valley towards Argentiere the enormity of the Chamonix Valley hit me.  Huge glaciers hang a couple of thousand metres above the valley floor and jagged mountains dominate the skyline, all of which are dwarfed by le Mont Blanc which for the time being was veiled in clouds.  I’ve been here several times before but I had somehow forgotten just how amazing it is. Despite feeling the fatigue setting in from the trip, I was now super excited about waking up tomorrow for a proper ride.

 Aiguille du midi and Mont Blanc in the clouds

If you have ever travelled much to race, you will have probably found that training while abroad can be quite tricky. At the race venue is usually fine because you have arrows and bunting to follow, but when you rock up to a town and have no idea where to ride, it can be hard to get that specific session that is on your program which you normally do on your local trails. I wanted to do a steady 3 hours today, and I spent half an hour trying to research trails on the internet before I gave up and decided to just wing it. 3 hours was long enough that it would matter if I took a few dead ends and I was excited about the prospect of exploring and hopefully finding something cool, plus even if I found a good route on a map, I knew that stopping continuously to check it would become very tiresome.  I headed up the valley and started to follow a few arrows for walking tracks and the odd MTB trail arrow.  Before long I was riding some spectacularly rooty and slippery trails (amaed particularly exciting by the previous day’s rain) and then stumbled across the Petit Balcon Nord which was a terrific swooping trail benched into the side of the valley. This spat me out at Le Tour where I began to climb a beautiful switchback climb up into the alpine meadows before topping out at a mountain refuge at the Col de Balme. It was a long and tough climb, made tougher by a growing impatience after having caught glimpses of a downhill track that would take me back down. On the way down it became clear that the MTB season was now over as the trail had some signs of erosion and evidence of goats grazing on it. Eventually I actually came across the said goats; there must have been hundreds of them parked right on the trail and nearby the farmer had even erected a yurt complete with a chimney. Imagine if farmers grazed livestock on the ski runs at Thredbo in the summer, it just would happen. On the way back to Chamonix I continued to follow my nose and I managed to stumble across more awesome trails. Steep, rooty and rocky in parts and then fast & flowing in others. When I got back I was grinning from ear to ear, 3hrs in the bank & sweet trails, I could not have asked for more and I can’t wait to get out again tomorrow.

Goats on the DH track at Le Tour

 

20 days to go – the countdown to Marathon Worlds continues

At three weeks out from the big race it was time for my last big test, and what better way to gauge the form than one of the most fun marathons in the country; the Act Belong Commit Dwellingup 100 in Western Australia. I first rode the D100 last year and was very impressed by the course, as well as the super friendly atmosphere. Although being the biggest state in Australia, WA has what is probably one of the closest MTB communities in the country.  Perhaps it is the relatively small population and its isolation, or maybe Western Australians are just friendly? Either way, every time I have been over there I have been warmly welcomed and had a great time; there’s never any shortage of riders keen to take you on a loop of their local trails and they definitely have a way of making you feel like one of the family. Being hosted by the Tucknott family from start to finish, this latest trip was no exception.

Reece & I at the start

  

Arriving in Dwellingup the day before the race, I meet up with local gun Reece Tucknott for a reconnaissance ride on the Turner Hill section of the course. If there is a trail that epitomises WA mountain biking, it is Turner Hill. It is pretty rocky and covered with the infamous pea gravel, which makes it super slippery. It was a bit scary at first trying to follow Reece’s pace around the first part loop, but after a while I started to feel a bit my comfortable and relaxed as we drifted around the corners on the loose surface.  It was a fun ride and I started to get very excited about the following day’s race.

Race day dawned and the 900 riders assembled at the Dwellingup Oval for the civilised 8:30 start.  I knew my main competition would be Peter Hatton, Craig Cooke and John Gregg but it was James Kennedy that lead the race out of town. When we hit the single track a lead group of five formed which included John, Hatto, Craig, David Hind and myself. I wanted to make the race as hard as possible so I tried to push the pace on all of the single track sections.  At about the 25km mark we hit the Marrinup section and I tried to put the group under pressure. I had bad memories of Marinup from last year because it came at the end of the race and I was in pieces but the time we got there, but this year the course was a bit different and it came much earlier on when I was still fresh and it was really fun! So much better than I had remembered. When we exited the single track the group was down to just myself and John Gregg so we pushed on together (I found out later that Craig and Hatto had suffered mechanicals). When we got to Turner Hill I thought I could attack John with the knowledge I had gained from my recon ride with Reece, who was I kidding?!  John, who has probably ridden pea gravel his whole life, was all over me and I was just wasting energy. I then made a mistake and he came past....suddenly the hunter became the prey! I was relieved to be still in touch when we left Turner Hill and then in the next single track section I was finally able to get away.  It was still probably 25km to the finish but I hoped that I had the legs to go on with it. It wasn’t long before I knew I was in trouble, I noticed my heart rate dropping and my pace was slowing. I was starting to blow. Soon I felt like I could barely point my bike on the trail and I knew it was a matter of time before John would catch me.  He joined me at 5km to go and luckily for me he was suffering a fair bit too.  He hit me with one attack and I knew I had to stay on his wheel which I did, JUST. After that he just sat on the front all the way into town and I was happy to follow. I knew the finish and I wanted to lead into the final corner, I opened my sprint just before that and managed to get to the corner first to take a narrow win. 

 Super close finish with John Gregg

I am very happy to have taken the win in WA’s premier mountain bike marathon, and pleased with my form 3 weeks out from the World Championships. The course was so much fun with a great mix of fast & loose single track and fire road. Tony Tucknott and his team did an awesome job of setting the 400-odd arrows out on the course and everyone seemed to be finishing with a smile.

The after the race Reece snuck in a bit of cross-training by taking the motorbikes out on a section of trail that we had used the day before. It was really fun to blast around with an engine on my bike for a while but it did take me awhile to get the hang of braking with my foot. We were back in Perth in time for a quick trip over to the Camel Farm MTB park for a blast on the Perth trails with Jim Lobegeiger (the man behind to course for last year’s AMC in Perth) plus Reece and Tony Tucknott....what a way to finish the weekend.

Thanks a lot to everyone that made the Dwellingup 100 happen, and the Tucknott family for looking after me so well and making me feel at home. Hopefully I’ll be back next year.

Marathon World Championships – Blog: T minus 32 days

The world marathon championships are 32 days away and I thought it might be a good time write a blog.  I plan to post regular entries here, so if you are interested in keeping track of my progress feel free to drop by again over the next month.

After the Husky100 I had a bit of a break off the bike; it was a little shorter than I would have liked after having a pretty busy season, but big objectives require some sacrifices so I had to hang up the skis and get back on the bike. I have been focusing a lot on volume rather than intensity over the past month in and effort to build slowly and resist the temptation to go too hard and peak too early. In theory, it sounded good but the reality of working as much as I do meant that I spent a lot of cold, solo hours in the dark in the hills and back roads West of Canberra. My only solace was that I convinced myself that it would make me tougher.

The first big test of my progress was last weekend in Wollombi NSW, Round #5 of the Real Insurance XCM Series.  In the bigger picture of my preparation for the World Champs this race wasn’t much more than in indication of my level, but sitting 2^nd in the series behind Shaun Lewis who has dominated the series so far, I couldn’t consider it as just another training ride.  It was a must-win for me in order to keep the increasingly prestigious series alive as well as my first opportunity to race in my national champion jersey. Trenton Day and I broke away from the field on the first climb at 10km and worked really well together to build a comfortable lead.  At the turn around we had over 2 minutes from what looked like a fragmented and disorganised chase and I was confident that we would stay away. With very few climbs in the second half of the course I was resigned to a 2-up sprint at the finish, however at the bottom of the last big descent I noticed that I had a small gap of around 30m. Without thinking too much, I attacked and to my surprise I had managed to catch Trenton off guard and soon built a small lead.  It was then a 15km individual pursuit to the finish which was very reminiscent of the Convict 100 and I managed to hold on for the win.  I was happy with my sensations and stoked to keep the series alive with only the Highland Fling remaining.  Unfortunately for Trenton it was another 2^nd place (he has 3 now for the year), but as a very young guy I know his time will come....very soon!

Now I will start to increase the training intensity through to my next big test which will be the Dwellingup 100 in Western Australia.  I am really looking forward to this event that I did last year for the first time; it is really well organised and has a great atmosphere, there are also some super strong lads over there like Peter Hatton and Craig Cooke that are always motivated to stop guys from the East coast coming over and burgling their races.

Enjoy the Spring weather!