Forest 6Hour MTB XC.

Forest MTB 6hour Championships.
5th July 2009
XC race. Entered Solo mens 40+.
Drove up with Paulie from Melb, that Geelong by-pass save at least 30mins to Forrest I reckon.
Cold day, rain prior to the day & a few showers during the event kept mud as a big factor in some parts of the course.
This was the first big event that I have attended staged by the Forest MTB club. The pit area had the course run the bikes straight through the middle of it before you rode through start/finish. I thought that was a good setup. The start had the solos (like myself) roll off first, with not much of a prologue there was the usually bottleneck in the first section of singletrack. I took this lap real easy & let all the anxious riders out ahead. I found the 10kms (approx) course pretty straight forward, the singletrack wasn’t too tech & it did include the famous or infamous Yaungher berms which I dig. There wasn’t any real hard climbs & the fact that there were a few single speeds around made me think that the S/S brigade had a say in the layout.
It wasn’t until the end of the 2nd lap that the course was clearing out and I had the opportunity to really ‘ride’ the course.

Me running Specialized Roll-X ‘dry’ tyres on the Epic made some of the muddier sections kinda awkward, with me just pedaling & following where ever my bike was slipping & sliding to, but it seemed to work. By the rd lap I was into a rhythm & found I was running less on my brakes & carrying more momentum through the tighter sections. I wasn’t gaining speed, but it felt easier to keep the pace I had without too much more input into the pedals. It was good.
I good an extended break after my 5th lap, but this proved to be a bad idea, as I rolled out for my 6th lap I got a barrage of leg cramps. I reckon this was brought on by the lengthy stop off my bike ( about 25mins) & the cold of the day dropped my body temp to the extent that I was shivering pretty bad before I mounted up again. Alias it was difficult to dodge these cramps which hit me throughout that 6th lap, this was just enough to dilute any enthusiasm for a 7th lap & I pulled in to sit out the dieing stages of the event.
In the end I was glad that I was able to find a rhythm at a point where I would normally stop for a break, which is a good thing for the next few endurance events coming up this year.