juggernaut
Active Member
- Region
- Australia
Following on from my recent first gravel bike race post, my same friend mentioned he was participating a mountain bike race for the second year in a row. This time on his Amflow Pro whereas previously he rode an analogue Specialized. Again the courses which varied in distance - 100km, 70km, 40km and 20km. For some reason e-bikes were restricted to only entering the 40km and 20km distances.
My friend and I entered in the 40km race (which was technically 42.7km) with 618 metres of elevation.
It was a last minute decision and so all I did was check my brake pads, clean my rotors and swapped my Schwalbe Albert Gravity Pro's (soft) back on. I left everything else as is.
I don't know how many competitors in total were there over all the races, but there were 297 in the 40km race with 27 in the e-bike category over this distance. The e-bike category was given a 5 minute start over the main 40km riders. The 100km and 70km started together and were the first to leave - we started after them. The 100 km and 70 km races had a Northern and Southern section. They did the Southern section first. The 40 km race used the vast majority of the 100km Northern section course. The courses comprised of a series of technical single track trails joined by fire trail gravel roads and our race had 4 timing sectors.
Given I have very limited single track trail riding experience, coupled with the fact I had never ridden the Beast on a mountain trail in anger before, I had serious my doubts about my capabilities. Sure enough I went over the bars once and laid the bike down on it's side through a fast corner after losing the front end! My competitive nature come the the fore and I jumped back on and continue the race after both mishaps. I also missed a turn marker from the fire trail gravel road into a technical trail and had to double back. I also had numerous pedal strikes and bent the shaft in one of the pedals which meant I was riding with an eccentric pedal for the remainder of the race. I also caught the tail end of the 20km riders so that also slowed down progress trying to overtake on a single track trail.
All in all it was another great personal challenge. Very different from my previous gravel race which required battery and body management. The gravel race was very physically harder on my body from a fitness point of view whereas the mountain bike race required your utmost skill, focus and attention, especially at speed.......as I discovered during the race.
My only goals for this race was to not come off and finish, only achieving the latter.
The results..........I finished 14th outright out of the 297 competitors, and 10th in the e-bike category!!
Looking at the sector times I was outright 10th (10th in e-bikes) after the 1st sector, outright 8th (8th in e-bikes) after the second sector, outright 24th (15th in e-bikes) after the third and outright 14th (10th in e-bikes) after the fourth sector. Pace was 20.5 km/h over the entire course.
Amazingly, I was also 15 minutes behind the fastest competitor.
My friend with his Amflow finished just over 5 minutes behind me.
My friend and I entered in the 40km race (which was technically 42.7km) with 618 metres of elevation.
It was a last minute decision and so all I did was check my brake pads, clean my rotors and swapped my Schwalbe Albert Gravity Pro's (soft) back on. I left everything else as is.
I don't know how many competitors in total were there over all the races, but there were 297 in the 40km race with 27 in the e-bike category over this distance. The e-bike category was given a 5 minute start over the main 40km riders. The 100km and 70km started together and were the first to leave - we started after them. The 100 km and 70 km races had a Northern and Southern section. They did the Southern section first. The 40 km race used the vast majority of the 100km Northern section course. The courses comprised of a series of technical single track trails joined by fire trail gravel roads and our race had 4 timing sectors.
Given I have very limited single track trail riding experience, coupled with the fact I had never ridden the Beast on a mountain trail in anger before, I had serious my doubts about my capabilities. Sure enough I went over the bars once and laid the bike down on it's side through a fast corner after losing the front end! My competitive nature come the the fore and I jumped back on and continue the race after both mishaps. I also missed a turn marker from the fire trail gravel road into a technical trail and had to double back. I also had numerous pedal strikes and bent the shaft in one of the pedals which meant I was riding with an eccentric pedal for the remainder of the race. I also caught the tail end of the 20km riders so that also slowed down progress trying to overtake on a single track trail.
All in all it was another great personal challenge. Very different from my previous gravel race which required battery and body management. The gravel race was very physically harder on my body from a fitness point of view whereas the mountain bike race required your utmost skill, focus and attention, especially at speed.......as I discovered during the race.
My only goals for this race was to not come off and finish, only achieving the latter.
The results..........I finished 14th outright out of the 297 competitors, and 10th in the e-bike category!!
Looking at the sector times I was outright 10th (10th in e-bikes) after the 1st sector, outright 8th (8th in e-bikes) after the second sector, outright 24th (15th in e-bikes) after the third and outright 14th (10th in e-bikes) after the fourth sector. Pace was 20.5 km/h over the entire course.
Amazingly, I was also 15 minutes behind the fastest competitor.
My friend with his Amflow finished just over 5 minutes behind me.
