Forest Festival

It looks like I chose the right race to do with the weather conditions not being the best on Saturday.
Stage 1 was meant to be a 15km loop with about 11km of single track. Thought they would send us up the road & then onto the fire Rd before we hit the single track, to spread the field out on the Rd climb. This didn't happen, 200 riders after about 300m when into this narrow path with room for one rider. Didn't get the best of starts & got stuck in heavy traffic which ended up taking me the next 20min to get a clear trail with very little points to pass. The next problem was that I didn't know the course & so was holding back a little towards the end when I came insight of the finish tent & crosses the line with 11.6km showing on the speedo with 260m of climbing. This put me in second. Just before the end of the stage it started raining lightly. So headed back to the car to get dry & warm. Then the rain set-in.

Stage 2 was the 5km hill climb which was again short at 4.2km. Sitting around for 2:15hr watching the rain come down didn't help the legs at all, just couldn't get going all stage. Just felt like there was nothing in the legs at all. Came 6th on a stage that should have suited me.

Stage 3 was the timed descent back to the start of the climb. With dead legs just couldn't get going & had no flow and only managed 5th on the stage. Was a little cautious due the the crash a couple of months ago, because that's still rattling around in my head.

So I was 4:50min off 1st & 1:50 off second.

It to the car we headed back home & it to the flooding all around Geelong. Water was everywhere & it was nice to know my day was over unlike those doing the Garmin 24hr.

Stage 4 was a 50km loop with around 35kmor more of single track. The decision was do I ride for 3rd with 4th only about 30sec behind, or do I go for the win. Well no question I went for it. I kept within striking distance of Tim who was leading for 30km and then lack of training & racing started to take it's toll. At the 2hr mark I was done & struggled on to the finish, dropping 6min on the riders I was riding with, for a time of 2:45:37hrs. Just couldn't get the HR up with it dropping 15 - 20bpm.

So in the end I ended up in 4th, which considering the amount of training & racing I've done is a good result. Next year the results will be different.
It was a great race, well done to Norm & the crew for putting it on. We did get rain, but it just made things more interesting & the trails held up well.

26/11 1:11:57hrs 448m climbing, 3 deck squats

27/11 2:45:37hrs 831m Climbing, 4 deck Squats