Race day always comes up quicker than you expect and before you know it you’re scrambling to get everything in order for race day. Or you realise all too late, that your weekends are very busy and it is a real struggle to fit this new cycling thing into your life. Even as an amateur for a race that is likely to only last 1 hour! The 11am race start helped a lot and we lazily headed to Anstey hill via some take-away coffee at Plant 4 Bowden which once again disappointed the heck outa me. One outlet sells a multitude of milks including plant milks but no soy milk!!!! They sell cows milk but not soy…..what?? Anyway, we found some nice coffee with Bonsoy (Happy Happy Soy Boy is the favourite) at the supermarket and carried on our way to Anstey Hill which is about an hours drive from home.
I had managed a reconnaissance ride the day before so I was feeling more relaxed than if I was racing blind. However, my main concern was that not having ridden in an event in a few years that my rusty bike handling skills may not keep me upright throughout the race. There was a large parking section allocated for the race event and getting to the start line was pain free. Whilst all new to me, Anstey Hill is very popular for walkers and the general public and understandably so as its extremely green and lush in winter and very hilly. There seemed to be quite a good turn out of race participants and as is always the case with mountain bike events, everyone is relaxed and friendly. I think if you’re going to turn up to any sporting event as a total newby, have a go at a mountain bike event and you won’t feel too out of place. There will be others there in the same boat. There were participants older than me who were both faster and slower. Possibly thanks to the hugely successful Tour Down Under, road cycling is extremely popular in Adelaide but I’ve often considered mountain biking to be the poor cousin in terms of popularity. Hopefully this is changing and this event was a good sign.
As I take off from the start line without enough of a warm up I’m reminded of the adrenaline fueled high heart rate which can really impact on ones ability to ride hard for the full duration of the race. My average heart rate for the race was 172bpm peaking at 190bpm. There is a reason the pros are spinning on a trainer before the race kicks off. A younger first timer told me at the start line that he had squeezed in a full lap a shortly before race start which made sense as he sped off ahead of me subsequently passing the finish line first in Mens D grade. As I alluded to in my previous post, I haven’t had a positive experience with the XCO race format in the past but a few minutes into this race and I was pleasantly surprised that the rest of my grade weren’t hounding me impatiently close behind through the single track. I think I was placed somewhere in the middle of D grade from the start and for the most part I held my position. It wasn’t long before I was being lapped by A Grade riders but it wasn’t too stressful and everyone was courteous. I took the first lap fairly steady and didn’t try to push too hard and I was relieved that, as the race organisers said, there was nothing too gnarly. My trusty 26″ hardtail even coped ok with the rocky section.
Each lap was about 5 and a half km and took me somewhere between 20-25 minutes per lap. Whilst I think I was riding fairly hard at my level of fitness I wasn’t pushing to the limit. I do want to see how far I can go with my fitness and racing performance but I don’t want to lose my mind and crash out or suffer a heart attack. The experience was overwhelmingly positive, all the competitors on the track were courteous, it was a well-organised event and I definitely now have something to work towards. My goal for the three scheduled XCO races is to finish 3rd or better in D Grade so I’ll be back for round 2.