Here is a write up I put on another forum:
I do have gopro footage but it is very embarrassingly slow...
Well,
Back home safe in SA and what an experience......
I knew this race would be hard and sort of expected high country like riding with a few hill climbs. I was just a little out?
Liam and I headed over Friday and caught up with Keg and went for a meal Friday night before heading out to the track sat morning. We got there , got organised and then Liam gave the hillclimb a go,( I'll let him tell the story for that).
Later on Walks and Sandra rocked up and we set up camp. Made a little Jayco windbreak to protect us from the wind and then talked about and fiddled with bikes.
Next day the nightmare begins....
I had not trained for this and stupidly left the Finke gearing in the bike thinking I would be fine chugging up in first,( little did I realise that first would still be too tall).To top that off I also realised that I had stuffed way too much extra mousse tube in the rear tyre, which made it far too hard.
Went out and around the prologue track trying to do everything slowly and smoothly but lacked confidence riding the endurox stuff as it has been a long time since march this year.
Completely stuffed that up and then lined up for the timed prologue. Took off ok and managed to get through most things a lot better with a bit more speed. Took the large tyre option over the wooden box option and although I did it cleanly on the practice lap I must have hit it a little hard this time and the front tyre landed over the edge of the box sending me over the bars and onto the ground. Should be a good pic of it somewhere?
Got up and pushed on getting a bit stuck on the matrix but did everything else ok.
I did manage to smash the rear brake lever on a rock which meant I had to ride the rest of the day with the lever 2 inches higher than normal,( hard to dab for obstacles and drag whilst riding).
That done I did feel a little better and had got the inevitable crash out the way.
The race started and I took off last I my group but made up 2 or 3 spots as we did the prologue track again. I was feeling quite good and went through the lake and down the first hill.
First impression was how many rock there were???
Made it to the bottom and just trail rode it around to the first hill, ( Rooster/ chicken).
Lined up the hill and was unsure which way to go . The lads on the hill helped though by saying straight up mate, THANKS...
Had a couple of stops on the way up and managed to burn my clutch out, but with a few pushes from a couple of lads I got up and continued on.
Round the track I went and then hit horsepower hill.
I knew this hill and gave it the berries in second with my tall gearing till it started to die then dropped to first and pinned it covering the clutch.
To my surprise I made it up with no issues and I was stoked.
Went on along the ridge and hit the rock obstacle with bad timing and ended up pushing the pipe up into the radiator guards so that the front fender rubbed on the header pipe and melted it.
By now I was starting to feel the heat and was very tired .
I managed to get round a bit more of the track and then had a bit of a break in a gully. Amber come down the hill , we had a quick chat and she was off.
I took off a bit later and followed up a creek bed type rock garden and got stuck . I was there for about 10 minutes or more and needed help getting up as I was spent.
Got through that and then meandered round to step up hill.
Took the helmet off and poured water over my head and neck to cool down.
Melissa and a bloke named Rick were there with me and we stopped for quite a while watching riders different lines.
I gave it a go eventually and nearly got to the second step up but lost drive. Meandered around the hill a bit and got back on the track.
The next stuff was fine until the rock garden at the end.
My clutch was stuffed, So was I ,and the bike was starting lean up and do weird stuff after trying to get through the rock garden.
I kept trying but in the sweet steam of coolant I decided that one lap was enough. I figured it was better to keep the bike and myself in one piece .
Got back to the prologue track and struggled over the obstacles yet again.
I nearly had a repeat of the over the bars when I pulled the clutch at the top of the big tyres again and the bike still kept chugging forward till the front dropped off the end...
Rode around the rest of the track getting stuck just about everywhere, had a Chat(cry) to Gav and then over the finish and back to the pits.
Mentally I wanted nothing more than to keep going but physically I was spent and the bike was not in good shape.
All in all a great weekend and I reckon I will be back next year if I can find a similar ride place over here to train in .
I will definitely train for it and prep the bike better for the next one though.
This was meant to be a come and have a look type of event this year so next year I will have to take it seriously and do all the right things.
Many thanks must go to :
Dan and Sandra for taking us under their wings, feeding and looking after us and tending to every need.
Also to Keg and family for their generous hospitality.
Nearly forgot, must thank Angus for getting us fuel also.
Cheers MArk
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