A week after the Cape to Cape ended and I am still a little weary, just can’t seem to shake the tired when I wake up in the morning.
It was a busy 4 days with over 220km of off-road riding through the southwest of WA.
Day 1 – Lots of big hills, in fact the first major climb started around 2km after the start. For the rest of the 40km there were plenty more climbs. If I am honest I should have pushed a little harder going up the first climb to get further up the field. Many of the riders wouldn’t try riding up the hills, immediately getting off to push which prevents you from riding yourself as it bunches everyone up and everyone gets off to push. Beach section was a push fest, very dirty at the end.
The race seeds you on the result of the first day, there after you start in that group you have finished.
Day 2 – Hills, nice views. One section just after a quarry there were 3 very steep but short rises to climb; I got up them all riding, the rest of the mob around me were walking. By half way at the water point I had not drunk much so I topped bottles and rode on.
The last 25% was through vineyards including Leeuwin Estate (right in front of the concert bowl – home of the famous Leeuwin Estate Concert and then onward through a bunch of other vineyards after finally finishing at Xanadu Vineyard.
Day3 – Up and down again. Started with an 8km roll through Margaret River on the roads then into the bush for some medium climbs. I had someone crash in front of me going down a hill and I landed on top of their bike hurting my knee and loosing my GPS. After that we went into the pines single track near Margaret River, through several creeks that by the time I came to them were black muddy messes. The final hill was a ripper but I got up it without walking, the finish was at Colonial Brewery – absolutely filthy.
Day 4 – The longest day (65km) but a mix of single trail, gravel tracks and a bit of tarmac. A few big hills today but I was feeling OK. Overtook many on the final 20km. The last 5 km was single trail at the Dunsborough Golf Club. By then I was getting tired and could have done without this part but no accidents and a sprint finish with some bloke pushing it down the finish straight.
What I learned
- You can never eat to much. In fact we ate like pigs and were still worried we didn’t have enough calories coming in.
- Water is fine but on long events make sure there are electrolytes in there as well (I had a twinge of a cramp on the finish line on day one, there after with electrolytes I was fine)
- Camping and racing isn’t as bad as I thought – as long as you have a good camp cot and the other guy you camp with has a fully kitted out camp trailer its not bad at all. Thanks Chris!
