CROMER 6 HOUR
Sunday saw the 1st round of the Adelaide MTB Club’s winter Enduro Series held up at Cromer, a pine forrest course nestled away in singletrack heaven. Having had a pretty full-on week of racing I knew I didn’t have it in me for a result on the day and went out to have super solid workout, burn some fat, and get some kilometres in on my dually, the SCOTT Spark 10, before the Ingerreke MTB Enduro in Alice Springs next month.
Setting out in what felt like sub-zero temperatures (but was actually only around 8C. Still, not warm), I rode fairly hard, around 80-85%MHR, for the first lap to keep with the front group of Solo’s. The course a Cromer is awesome; very fast and flowing singletrack weaving amongst the tall pine tree’s with enough technical jumps, drops and rock gardens to keep you on your toes, but not too many to exhaust you over the whole 6 hours. Starting out the second lap in 2nd position, I got into my rhythm and was feeling pretty strong and smooth around the course. I noticed, however, I was slowing on the climbs and my HR was going up more than it normally would. I knew it wasn’t a physiological issue, so I quickly jumped off and checked my bike and it turned out my rear brake was rubbing pretty badly. I completed the lap, losing about 30 seconds, and pulled into the pit area to fix it up. Back up and running in under a minute, I went out onto the third lap settling quickly back into a rhythm.
At this point in the race, the lead had swapped over from Phil Houghton to Dean Jones and DJ looked pretty much unstoppable, lapping only slightly slower than the fastest Pair of Chris Jongewaard of Craig Felix. By now I had started to tire and was definitely feeling the effects of the big week, so I backed off a little bit. Pulling into the pits at the end of lap 5, I had a quick break and took the chance to have some solid food; a couple of rice cakes, a banana and yes, some JC Cookies. I felt somewhat refreshed, or as refreshed as you can 4 hours into mountain bike race, and set off again for the last few laps at a pace that would have made my mother look fast.
UPCOMING TRAVELS
It seemed only yesterday that the Australian U19 Long Team was announced and I found out I would be jetting off to New Zealand for some racing and training on some of the sweet trails in the world (that’s not a lie). Well, I leave in only 8 days time. It’s gone pretty quickly, but I’ve been knuckling down and doing the k’s, the core and not doing the calories. I’m super excited about the trip and really privileged to be part of the program.
After that, I’m back in Rad-town getting some serious time in on the dirt ahead of the Ingkerreke Commerical MTB Enduro in Alice Springs starting on the 16th of May.
Well, I better finish up and get off to the gym.
Happy pedalling!! Make the most of this perfect weather!!
Shorty
I am James Hanus 