Saturday, April 21, 2012

Mt Somers MTB Race 2012

The Mt Somers Mountain Bike Race was one of my first big events that I competed in back in the day.  I missed out on the event in 2011 so this year it was timed nicely after I had been back into training for the last couple of weeks following a break after the Oceania MTB Champs.

The day was a scorcher and after a good warm up I was feeling relaxed and ready to hit the course and see what I could remember from a couple of years ago!

A good roadie start was embraced along the tarmac for a couple of clicks which then headed right and onto the off-road and left up the first major paddock climb.  I sat in for a couple of minutes at the front of the bunch then I flicked it up a gear and made a bit of an attack to see who had the legs to jump on.  Much to my surprise by by the time I reached the top I already had around a 100 metre gap on the others.  I wanted to make the most of this situation I was in so I kept the pressure down to increase my lead throughout the race as we soon entered the hills and rougher terrain.

The middle part of the race went smoothly and I kept a good rhythm going on my Trek 29er as it ate up the gnarly parts of the terrain.

Finally once back onto the gravel road after having made my way through the Challenge course's larger loop the course followed back down the original paddock and tarmac that we had started on back to the venue.  I finished the final few clicks strong tapping out in my 36 tooth front single ring and came across the line with a solid winning time of 1 hour 28 and 52 seconds.

Fantastic day out!!!