Well it was finally upon us. The final 100 mile race of the King of the Mountain Series. After completing the previous two: Mulholland and Breathless Agony and having a very good race in the Breathless Agony event I was not looking forward to this one other than wanting to finish it. I knew that after my small ride on Tuesday night after I got back from down-under that no riding and a bad diet of pies, beers and ice cream would have diminished me somewhat from the form I was in for the Breathless Agony race. I am quite sure before I headed down-under I was the fittest I have ever been on a bike and the result at Breathless somewhat confirmed that. Top 10 was probably quite feasible had we not had crashes and some bike issues to deal with.
Anyway we headed off into on paper what was to be the easiest of the races at about 8.30am. 101 miles (162km) with a bit over 8000ft of climbing. Just 2500m or about 1000 less than the other 2 races. Derek and I rode together for most of the first half of the race. We were holding a good pace and enjoying the scenery and lack of traffic on the roads. Some real cool roads too. Swooping, not too steep and the surfaces were decent in most places. However after the 53 mile checkpoint I could only stay with Derek for 15 mins. I was starting to suffer and that was to get progressively worse. I was starting to go backwards and many many people past me including many of the people that I had passed earlier on in the day. I had no gas in the tank. I was dehydrated, tired, hot, feeling sick and my legs were toast. The worst aspect was the mental side. It took lots of will-power to complete it. My mind was still thinking I could do what I did at Breathless Agony where I felt good on a much harder course but the legs and body had other ideas. I had gone backwards a couple of months. Derek recorded temps of 93 degrees (34 degrees C). It was quiet demoralizing having too totally different races that were just 3 weeks apart.
I knew that I would have gone backwards a little but to have fallen off my form so much after it takes months of hard-work to achieve was a real eye-opener to me and certainly a lesson learnt. Diet and maintenance of you fitness are vital and this can be changed very very fast indeed. The last 30 miles were some of the hardest times I have ever had on 2 wheels. Overtime one always forgets about the suffering until you put yourself through it again but being on the verge of cramping big-time for 2hrs is not my idea of a nice day out. I was very happy to finish and still did a respectable time of around 6hr 40mins, however that was almost 1hr slower than Derek who had real strong race and must have finished really well in the standings.
Still the goal was completed. Roughly 320 miles (515km) and 32000+ Elev gain (10km) in 6 weeks. It is very satisfying and was overall a great series. I had some wicked moments and some very low moments but overall it all builds character. I still look at it all and think how I have changed. Hell there was a time when I would not buy a road bike let alone dedicate myself to a series of road events.
Mmm. 6hrs of Salty Crustiness
Next up is trying to get the edge back and other than 1 last century called 'Ride Around the Bear' in a month I will be getting dirty again and concentrating on Mountain Biking, both racing and just having a good time on the trails. I miss just playing on trails and want to explore some new ones too.
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